[Fallout 3 Newbie] Mod guidance

[liquidlight88]

Well i'm no expert on meshes and textures at all but i've tried a few. It's a bit of a headache at first sussing out female body replacers because there's just LOADS of them on the nexus, ... skins/textures too. Far too many to choose from! Many people choose one of dimon99's body types ( which is what i went with) or 'Beware of the girl' ones. The different types are just variants on slimness, curves, breasts.

 

dimonised: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4280

 

Beware of the girl: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13241

 

These packs come with meshes AND skins/textures, so it's a matter of finding a mesh (body shape) you like and if you don't like the skin/textures the pack comes with, plenty of people have made skins to match those existing body types. Type 3 is by far the most popular body type and many many armors and clothing have been made for type 3 bodys.

 

The type 3 body/mesh will replace every single female adult in the game (player, npcs AND raiders) ... i don't think they replace elderly females though. But raider females have different textures from the player and adult female npcs. So you can choose textures for your player/npcs and other textures for raider females. But whatever skins/textures you choose will have to be compatible with the body type/mesh you've chosen. So a type 3 body, whether it's a cali, berry, alice or whatever needs a type 3 skin/texture and that texture will fit any of those bodys because all those bodys are essentially all type 3 (just different variants/styles).

 

- Confused yet? :)

 

So in my game i think i used dimonised body/mesh and skins/textures from that pack for normal females, and the raider skins i already mentioned: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11711 (don't forget raiders use same mesh but different textures).

 

Ok onto faces and hands. I kept it simple and used dimonised faces and hands textures to go with dimonised body. The raider females i left with their original face textures and found the raider skin pack i mentioned went very well with the original raider faces, for matching up with the skin tones.

 

Yeah, most skin/textures for type 3 bodys are nude, whereas the default FO3 ones have underwear as part of the body texture. So the default underwear is not separate clothing ... it's literally painted on to the body.

 

But what's the point of shapely female bodys without shapely female clothing?

 

Great replacement pack for female FO3 armors: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12653

 

Raider female armors from the same author: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7848

 

 

.... Well i hope it wasn't too long winded, like i said i'm no expert and i do rattle on a bit :)

Edited August 3, 2011 by liquidlight88

[Nintynuts]

kill a raider, then take his or her clothing / armor, they'll be naked instead of having the vanilla "underwear"

That's what I would have expected, the males seem to wear underwear by default, so thats fine

 

If you're planning on using the Fellout mod (which I'd highly recommend)...

You managed to answer my next question before I asked, I came across the the interior one myself. Will definitely add to the list.

 

Another very lore-friendly mod...

This does sound good, it bugs me there are boarded up buildings, though this isn't clear if it just makes the existing ones enter-able, or if it adds any, hopefully the former.

 

Good to hear positive things about those mods' compatibility. I don't think the mutant mod is for me though.

 

I think I'll take my padlock stuff to the requests forum, see if other people are interested in it

 

Thanks!

 

Some more thoughts:

Owned (So I can steal all those lovely new enter-able buildings hopefully, though not sure how this really effects the game - realistic/broken)

Sprint (Just makes sense, don't see why it's not standard)

MTUI (Is this better/worse than Darnified?)

Colour Map (so the damn thing is actually useful - can never make sense of it outdoors)

More Map Markers (Obviously Useful, but sounds like it might be cheating)

Caravan Tracking (As above, would be nice to know how close they are without searching)

Vault-Tec Experimental Dimensional Safe (SO broken, but awesome nonetheless)

 

Having not played the game all through yet, I'm not sure if any of these may break it, by making it too easy or whatever.

 

@liquidlight88 - I'd like to keep it simple, I'm not too bothered about a specific shape mesh as long as it's better than vanilla. I'd rather not have to mix up lots of mods for one thing, as long as the textures aren't ugly I'll be happy with the supplied ones. Also I don't really want to have to install an armour mod just for bigger boobs or whatever, a well made mesh the same rough proportions as vanilla will do me fine. BlackRampage's suggestions are well rated for their types (may be a better female one) and he didn't mention armour mods so it that should be fine (unless I'm missing something, will look at their readmes in more depth before I install any).

[BlackRampage]

and he didn't mention armour mods so it that should be fine (unless I'm missing something, will look at their readmes in more depth before I install any).

You mean whether the vanilla armors and clothing is compatible with those body meshes? Yes, they are.

 

MTUI (Is this better/worse than Darnified?)

Well, I wouldn't want to say worse, but in my opinion it's not as good as Darnified.

 

More Map Markers (Obviously Useful, but sounds like it might be cheating)

Yes, I am inclined to agree about the cheating aspect.

 

Caravan Tracking (As above, would be nice to know how close they are without searching)

Hmmm, that indeed is handy. Didn't know about that one. Thanks.

 

Overall, I wouldn't say those mods "cheapen" the game too much.

[liquidlight88]

@liquidlight88 - I'd like to keep it simple, I'm not too bothered about a specific shape mesh as long as it's better than vanilla. I'd rather not have to mix up lots of mods for one thing, as long as the textures aren't ugly I'll be happy with the supplied ones. Also I don't really want to have to install an armour mod just for bigger boobs or whatever, a well made mesh the same rough proportions as vanilla will do me fine. BlackRampage's suggestions are well rated for their types (may be a better female one) and he didn't mention armour mods so it that should be fine (unless I'm missing something, will look at their readmes in more depth before I install any).

 

I think you misunderstand me, this isn't about big boobs. Just about better looking characters than the vanilla game came with. (the vanilla game sure did come with some poor textures due to being a cross platform game and due to being a little rushed or lazy too) Both Blackrampage and i have both suggested the same body replacer ... probably because it's a good body, and none of the dimonised bodys even have particularly big boobs and the armours i suggested are just vanilla armours with subtle mesh adjustments- nothing outlandish. ... the raider ones reveal a little more midriff but again it's subtle, and no big boobs there either.

- Just trying to help guide you through the myriad of body/texture mods and some lore friendly outfits to go with them.

 

I'm enjoying your selection of mods however and i do appreciate your concerns.

[Nintynuts]

@BlackRampage - Thanks for the feedback, still a tad on the fence about markers, but I'll stick to Darnified UI.

 

@liquidlight88 - Sorry, my mistake; but still I'm not sure it's worth loading up a whole mod just to tweak something slightly. if there was a complete replacement mesh for each piece of apparel that significantly improved the look of the game i might go for it, but the existing ones seem fairly well designed, and i spend more time examining the enemies when they're dead (and usually stripped, in a weird death poses) than when I'm shooting them, so minor flaws in their shapes probably wont bug me much. If there's a mod which improves the detail, textures or design of the existing armour, I'd love to see it as it would improve my playing experience, but slight tweaks seem a waste of time/space to include.

 

Also, I found these texture replacements, which I'm not sure are covered by mods in my list so far:

Enhanced Blood Textures (Looks nice and fresh)

Improved Glass Bullet Impact (Best result short of procedural cracking)

Raider Grafitti Re-done (Raiders now have some street cred, possibly too modern for a 50s themed setting)

Coloured Pip-boy Screen Glow (would have thought this would be automatic)

Burnification (It bothered me that burned people looked unscathed, but not sure about textures, or the suggested alternatives, not a lot of screenshots)

American Prewar Money (IMO, Dirty and burnt is the best)

Pre-war and Burnt Books (Maybe not colourful enough)

Street Litter (Massive improvement, that yellow blob always annoyed me)

What's Your Brand (I don't approve of smoking, but one of these should be better than dirty reddish brown brand, probably Marlboro as it's recognisable)

50s Pin-up Posters (Great, apart from the references to previous posters as i haven't seen them all yet, also misspelled 'troops' as 'troups')

Better Booze (Big improvement, nice addition of wine. Has to be the mainstream textures though)

Hi-Res Skill Books (...they're great, that is all)

Hi-Res Lunchbox Re-Texture (You can actually read it now!)

Hi-Res Weapons (That's one ossum sharpen filter :P)

Better clutter and furniture pack (Includes some of those listed above)

 

I just hope my PC can handle all this. In a lot of cases it seems the models are using their 1st person textures for 3rd person. I'm not 100% sure of the resolutions, but it would be nice to see a bi-cubically scaled down version of the 1st person texture somewhere between 1st and 3rd person resolution (for example if 3rd is 256 and 1st is 1024, replacement 3rd is 1st at 512).

 

I wonder if someone could explain to me how significantly 'owned' from my last post changes the game play, for the better or worse? It sounds sensible to me.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Nintynuts

[Armykid]

Does anyone know if any of the mods on nexus will work on fallout 3 bought from steam? Or do i have to go buy the disk version? Edited August 6, 2011 by Armykid

[BlackRampage]

Does anyone know if any of the mods on nexus will work on fallout 3 bought from steam? Or do i have to go buy the disk version?

No, you don't have to buy the "disk version". All mods here on the nexus will work with steam versions as well.

[Nintynuts]

I've started using the mods, but I don't think i fully understand how to integrate them properly.

 

I've loaded up all that I could in FOMM, some had options to their installation, but for some reason the authors haven't made an install script for some.

 

Problems I'm noticing so far include:

 

Protagonist nude has messed up texture, unwrap looks messy with jagged panties which shouldn't be there. seems like it's using the wrong texture/mesh somehow, even though i installed them by their instructions in the characters\female folder (i had to create it, as with raiderfemale), Don't really understand why the mesh folder is '_male' if it counts for all sexes/ages/ethnicities but thats where i was told to put 'upperbody.nif' and 'femaleupperbody.nif;

 

Using some weapons gives a giant red explanation mark as if it cant find the mesh file for new weapons. also they have no icon in the pip-boy. I also get this graphic when i fire any gun, suggesting it cant find something else.

Fixed this by reinstalling AA. now it's fixed however i have changed my mind about it being an appropriate mod. all the new weapons i've found so far are modern (and therefore inappropriate, as all other weapons are alien or pre-50s)

 

Head textures look better, but don't match the body texture colours. either a texture set isn't working or the ones I've picked aren't compatible

 

Eyes still look dead with the hair/eyes/eyelashes mod, though i think it is working as there are more options in the character customisation, as with hair.

Also, some women are inexplicably bald. might this be because i was turning mods on and off?

 

Why are there mods which use esm and esp files and some that require placing files in the data folder? does the engine not have an override system like torchlight (the only other game I've modded)?

Edited August 11, 2011 by Nintynuts

[BlackRampage]

I've started using the mods, but I don't think i fully understand how to integrate them properly.

 

I've loaded up all that I could in FOMM, some had options to their installation, but for some reason the authors haven't made an install script for some.

To be perfectly honest I actually prefer manual install. At least then I know what I'm adding to the data folder. Of course there are some mods that can only be installed via the package manager, so those are the only ones I've installed via that.

As for why some mod authors don't do it: Eh, I really wouldn't know. Though some mods are either so small or so easy to install that it's simply not worth the effort.

 

Protagonist nude has messed up texture, unwrap looks messy with jagged panties which shouldn't be there. seems like it's using the wrong texture/mesh somehow, even though i installed them by their instructions in the characters\female folder (i had to create it, as with raiderfemale), Don't really understand why the mesh folder is '_male' if it counts for all sexes/ages/ethnicities but thats where i was told to put 'upperbody.nif' and 'femaleupperbody.nif;

Protagonist you say? It's all in the eye of the beholder, but I won't bore you with my philosophical nonsense.

Why is the mesh folder named that way? No idea. It is the correct one though. Anyway, if your player char does indeed have a messed up texture: Are you using a custom race for your PC? And how do the textures look on others?

 

Using some weapons gives a giant red explanation mark as if it cant find the mesh file for new weapons. also they have no icon in the pip-boy. I also get this graphic when i fire any gun, suggesting it cant find something else.

Fixed this by reinstalling AA. now it's fixed however i have changed my mind about it being an appropriate mod. all the new weapons i've found so far are modern (and therefore inappropriate, as all other weapons are alien or pre-50s)

Enabled Archive invalidation? Otherwise it's files might not have been installed right. Did you use the package manager to install it? Some mods simply cannot be installed this way.

 

Head textures look better, but don't match the body texture colours. either a texture set isn't working or the ones I've picked aren't compatible

How much off is it? Cause if it's only a little bit off then I'm afraid not much can be done about that. Using Fo3Edit's Masterupdate mode on your load order can minimize the problem though.

 

Eyes still look dead with the hair/eyes/eyelashes mod, though i think it is working as there are more options in the character customisation, as with hair.

Also, some women are inexplicably bald. might this be because i was turning mods on and off?

Unsure. If they should have hair by default but do not display it for some reason, you usually get a big red exclamation mark in it's stead. Please note that there do happen to be females walking around in Fo3 that have very little to no hair by default. Any named NPC's on which you've encountered this?

 

Why are there mods which use esm and esp files and some that require placing files in the data folder? does the engine not have an override system like torchlight (the only other game I've modded)?

Because mods which require you to add files to those folders rely on those same custom files in order to run properly. The .esp simply tells the game where to find them.

I suppose that just about every mod that adds custom textures and / or meshes to the game also requires you to add those custom textures and / or meshes to it's data folder.

 

Fo3's engine (the havoc engine) does have an override system (of sorts) though. You've already seen it. It's your load order. Every plugin that you add to the load order will overwrite the vanilla game. Same goes for Oblivion and Fallout NV.

[Nintynuts]

I've started using the mods, but I don't think i fully understand how to integrate them properly.

I've loaded up all that I could in FOMM, some had options to their installation, but for some reason the authors haven't made an install script for some.

To be perfectly honest I actually prefer manual install. At least then I know what I'm adding to the data folder. Of course there are some mods that can only be installed via the package manager, so those are the only ones I've installed via that.

As for why some mod authors don't do it: Eh, I really wouldn't know. Though some mods are either so small or so easy to install that it's simply not worth the effort.

It seems if someone's gone to the effort to make an application to manage mods, which makes it as simple as one click to install, everyone should use it for the benefit of people who don't like potentially irreversibly messing up the install. Also install scripts like the one for the male bodies seems to be much clearer than all the options in the backpack, where you have to pick a different file depending on your set of options.

Protagonist nude has messed up texture, unwrap looks messy with jagged panties which shouldn't be there. seems like it's using the wrong texture/mesh somehow, even though i installed them by their instructions in the characters\female folder (i had to create it, as with raiderfemale), Don't really understand why the mesh folder is '_male' if it counts for all sexes/ages/ethnicities but thats where i was told to put 'upperbody.nif' and 'femaleupperbody.nif;

Protagonist you say? It's all in the eye of the beholder, but I won't bore you with my philosophical nonsense.

Why is the mesh folder named that way? No idea. It is the correct one though. Anyway, if your player char does indeed have a messed up texture: Are you using a custom race for your PC? And how do the textures look on others?

The Protagonist and some female raiders are messed up. some female raiders are fine (ones with tattoos).

Using some weapons gives a giant red explanation mark as if it cant find the mesh file for new weapons. also they have no icon in the pip-boy. I also get this graphic when i fire any gun, suggesting it cant find something else.

Fixed this by reinstalling AA. now it's fixed however i have changed my mind about it being an appropriate mod. all the new weapons i've found so far are modern (and therefore inappropriate, as all other weapons are alien or pre-50s)

Enabled Archive invalidation? Otherwise it's files might not have been installed right. Did you use the package manager to install it? Some mods simply cannot be installed this way.

Like i said, fixed it but dont really like the modern weapons, so will probably remove it. any more appropriate suggestions?

Head textures look better, but don't match the body texture colours. either a texture set isn't working or the ones I've picked aren't compatible

How much off is it? Cause if it's only a little bit off then I'm afraid not much can be done about that. Using Fo3Edit's Masterupdate mode on your load order can minimize the problem though.

It's rather a lot, an obvious seam around the neck. is there not a texture set made to go with project beauty HD?

Eyes still look dead with the hair/eyes/eyelashes mod, though i think it is working as there are more options in the character customisation, as with hair.

Also, some women are inexplicably bald. might this be because i was turning mods on and off?

Unsure. If they should have hair by default but do not display it for some reason, you usually get a big red exclamation mark in it's stead. Please note that there do happen to be females walking around in Fo3 that have very little to no hair by default. Any named NPC's on which you've encountered this?

Yeah, the woman who gives you the poem for your 10th birthday (Butch's mum?).

Why are there mods which use esm and esp files and some that require placing files in the data folder? does the engine not have an override system like torchlight (the only other game I've modded)?

Because mods which require you to add files to those folders rely on those same custom files in order to run properly. The .esp simply tells the game where to find them.

I suppose that just about every mod that adds custom textures and / or meshes to the game also requires you to add those custom textures and / or meshes to it's data folder.

Fo3's engine (the havoc engine) does have an override system (of sorts) though. You've already seen it. It's your load order. Every plugin that you add to the load order will overwrite the vanilla game. Same goes for Oblivion and Fallout NV.

Torchlight has a mirror directory structure in appdata which is checked for overriding files. there's only 1 level of override but there aren't any conflicts (also the files can mostly be edited in a text editor, then converted) do the esm files contain some similar alternate resource, or is it just extras (not overriding anything)?

 

also, urgh. nested quotes... sorry