Should I mod my 2nd playthrough like this?

[luddifier]

I played through Vanilla FNV some time ago and must say I loved it, loved the environments, the plot and the level of interaction. However, I didn't play any of the DLC and only used 1-2 fixes for things that stood out in the game. Now I want to play a complete experience that is the "ultimate playthrough" of New Vegas but I'm wondering if I should install any mods at all if I have all the DLC to look forward to? What I'm a bit wary of is the eventual bugs and glitches that can result by conflicts, but some of the mods sound so essential for the experience that I just feel they should be in the experience.

 

Modlist:

 

ALL released DLC

 

Kind of what triggered my want to replay, and main concern that it will conflict with mods.

 

Fallout Mod Manager

 

Extended Scripts

 

These mods seem essential for getting other mods to work

 

Project Nevada

 

Seems really cool as I want a bit of a challenge and adds some gameplay tweaks that I think will improve the game tremendously. Like many other mods though, I wonder if it is ill advised to install the mods now and perhaps rather wait until mods have balanced with the "lonesome road" DLC. Will install compatibility Patches for the DLC as well.

 

FOOK

 

Might be too much seeing as I already install Project Nevada, but I just really liked the idea of some of the fixes described in this mod.

 

New Vegas Bounties I & II

 

Seems like a no-brainer, and I want new and high quality content. Haven't heard much bad about this mod.

 

World of Pain

 

I want new content and this seems fun but I do not want to unbalance things too much. Still, there are patches for this but would like some comments just the same.

 

MTUI

 

I wanted Darnified but can't seem to find it so I guess this will have to do.

 

Grimy Business Wear texture fix

Better Binocular Zoom

Lightstep ED-E

Centred 3rd person camera

Bottled water

Intimidating presence is now a challenge perk

 

Fixes that I feel makes sense.

 

Gunslinger outfit

NCR discontinued armor

Ranger Combat Armor Factionless

 

I really want the cool NCR-armors to be factionless, because they are so fitting but don't want to accidently alienate powder gangers or the legion

 

Nevada skies

Depth of field

Extended Nevada Radio

Civil Defense Radio

Nudity-textures and Sexual innuendo

 

I feel that these mods increase immersion, and should be there.

 

Companion sandbox mode

 

I might be pushing it with this, but I really liked the description.

 

Extended weapon mod

 

Think it was recommended by project nevada

 

So this is my recipe for the ultimate New Vegas playthrough. I'm mainly wondering if it is advisable since I haven't played any of the DLC yet, but there seem to be patches availible to increase compatibility. I want a general sense of wether this is doable without expecting a lot of conflicts and glitches, but would not say no to specific mod-advice.

[pablosplinter]

I've got most of them at the moment on my current playththrough.

 

Here is a link for Darnified UI- http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1131897-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-nv/

 

A core game of AWOP/Project Nevada/FOOK/ Weapon mods Extended will be exellent, but FOOK is incompatible with the eqiptment module of Project Nevada so it probably is best not to run both of them.

 

Also, Electro-City is a great mod which adds lights to the wasteland. Will be very useful with darker nights.

 

Nevada Skies is great but there is also Project Reality, which adds some great visual effects to the game as well as overhauling the weather system.

[luddifier]

Ah thank you! Just the kind of answer I was looking for. I've thought about having darker nights and then include electro city, but I sort of like the not so dark nights. Hmmm on the other hand I really like how the night sky seem to look with darker nights, and electro city seems like a charming mod as well. I kind of thought that I pushed what was possible on the mod side so I wanted to avoid one more by just allowing regular nights, but I might do the dark+electric light combo now instead. It might also be fun to actually have a real use for all the night vision opportunities project nevada introduces.

 

I haven't really heard mention of Project Reality in my search for mods, but everywhere I look Nevada Skies is mentioned. This requires investigation...

 

Thanks for the link to darnified and the tip about FOOK compatibility as well, it seems my personal ultimate tale of the courier nears it's beginning... However, if there are any more opinions out there please do tell, it is a veritable djungle of mods out there and I do not want to enter the Mojave Desert blind!

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that I probably want to update the textures since my computer can handle it. I want a texture mod and right now it leans towards NMCs texture pack. I would really like to hear if this conflicts with anything or if there is even better mods to update the textures in NV.

Edited September 21, 2011 by luddifier

[PaladinRider]

Shameless self-promotion, use Run the Lucky 38 if you've got an entrepreneurial character (or if you want to be the boss!) :thumbsup:

[michel92]

I highly recommend PaladinRider's mod above =D

 

Also, I have some tiny small mods, that are likely to not cause conflicts at all, but to me, are essential to the experience.

 

 

No Main Storyline ultimatus: http://www.newvegasn...le.php?id=40478

 

Description (taken from mod page):

 

 

Prevents the quests "Don't Tread on the Bear!" and "Beware the Wrath of Caesar!" from closing off faction storylines and ruining the player's reputation.

This allows for more content to be played on the Mr House, Yes Man, Legion and NCR storylines without receiving threatening messages from opposing factions, giving you more time to make decisions about who to ally with.

 

It makes sense to remove these from an immersion perspective, as it's merely suggested that unknown spies see all, regardless of what you do in secrecy to play all the sides.

 

If you use this mod after one of these quests is received, the quests will remain active, although they will not actually do anything. If you use it before the quests are received, they will never be activated.

 

Note that this will not reverse anything if you have already gone past the point of no return and finished one of these quests. Also note killing prominent faction figures, such as Ambassador Crocker, or threatening Caesar could trigger these quests to fail.

 

This will not adversely affect save games, so it can be installed and uninstalled as needed.

 

Killing Karma Rewards Removed: http://www.newvegasn...le.php?id=37546

 

Description (taken from mod page)

 

 

To test out whether the Karma system was truly FUBAR, I tried starting a new game and simply murdering every single person I met without discrimination or compunction. Everybody in Goodsprings, the NCRCF, Primm, Mojave Outpost... by the time I made it to the Mojave Outpost I was a "Martyr". If a bloodstained psychopath who kills literally every single thing he comes across is seen as "Very Good", there's obviously something very very wrong with the karma system.

Now, I understand that going out and hunting dangerous murderous bandits is basically a "good" thing to do. But since the game can't tell the difference between defending yourself and risking your own life to hunt down bandits, it seems stupidly hard to end up with bad karma, no matter how ridiculously moustache-twirlingly black-hattedly Grand Guignol-ishly evil you happen to be.

 

I noticed a lot of mods removing the karma hit for stealing, but none removing the karma gain for simply defending yourself against people who are trying to shoot you. Seems like most folks want that "good karma" title, no matter how horribly awful they behave.

 

All this does is remove the karma rewards you get for killing bad people. No longer will the universe forgive you for murdering an old woman for her pair of spectacles just because you happen to get attacked by Powder Gangers later on.

 

Signature Weapons: http://www.newvegasn...le.php?id=43557

 

Description (taken from mod page).

 

 

Half the fun of an RPG is constantly trading up for bigger and better weapons. But sometimes, there's a gimmick, a style that just appeals. Sometimes you want to keep using brass knuckles, not some big, ungainly power fist. Sometimes, you want to be the master of dynamite. For times like those, there's...Signature Weapons.

NOTE: The mod requires New Vegas Script Extender! Please get it! And use it! It is necessary, and also desirable!

 

What this mod provides is an option to focus your character on one specific weapon, and in doing so, increase its effectiveness - increasing the practicality of thematic and/or 'gimmick' playthroughs. By giving up 20% of your earned experience, you can make a weapon your Signature, permitting you to level it up as you make kills with it. You can, of course, use other weapons at any time, without penalty - but also without any of your Signature bonuses, and kills made with other weapons obviously won't count for progress in your Signature, either.

 

Your signature weapon receives its first 'level up' at 10 kills; each level thereafter requires ten more. That is, two levels requires a total of 30 kills, three levels a total of 60, four a total of 100, and so forth. Each time it levels, you are offered a choice as to what weapon trait you want to improve, as listed below. You get only the listed benefit at each level, not the sum of the benefits - i.e., level 3 Big Boomer is just +100%, not +170%.

 

Lucky: (3 levels available)

 

Level 1: +4% critical hit chance (applied after critical multiplier)

+20% critical hit damage

 

Level 2: +10% critical hit chance

+50% critical hit damage

 

Level 3: +20% critical hit chance

+100% critical hit damage

 

 

Big Boomer: (explosive weapons only)

 

Level 1: +20% explosion radius

 

Level 2: +50% explosion radius

 

Level 3: +100% explosion radius

 

 

Bottomless: (ammo-using weapons only, bonus only applies in combat)

 

Level 1: 25% less ammo usage (1 out of every 4 ammo is returned)

 

Level 2: 50% less ammo usage

 

Level 3: 75% less ammo usage

 

Level 4: 90% less ammo usage

 

 

Defensive: (melee/unarmed weapons only)

 

Level 1: +2 DT

 

Level 2: +5 DT

 

Level 3: +10 DT

 

 

Distant: (thrown weapons only)

 

Level 1: +50% range/velocity

 

Level 2: +100% range/velocity

 

Level 3: +200% range/velocity

 

 

Lethal:

 

Level 1: (Dmg * 1.1) + 1

 

Level 2: (Dmg * 1.2) + 3

 

Level 3: (Dmg * 1.3) + 6

 

Level 4: (Dmg * 1.4) + 10

 

Level 5: (Dmg * 1.5) + 15

 

 

Penetrating:

 

Level 1: Ignore 3 points of DT

 

Level 2: Ignore 7 points of DT

 

Level 3: Ignore 15 points of DT

 

 

Precise: (Ranged weapons only.)

 

Level 1: Spread reduced to 66% of original, hit chance +5%

 

Level 2: Spread reduced to 25% of original, hit chance +10%

 

Level 3: Spread reduced to 10% of original, hit chance +15%

 

Level 4: Spread reduced to 2% of original, hit chance +25%

 

 

Rapid:

 

Level 1: 15% less AP cost to attack, melee speed +25%

 

Level 2: 30% less AP cost to attack, melee speed +50%

 

Level 3: 50% less AP cost to attack, melee speed +100%

 

 

Reliable:

 

Level 1: 25% less Condition damage, +20% reload speed, +20% chance to recover hulls/drained cells.

 

Level 2: 50% less Condition damage, +50% reload speed, +50% chance to recover

 

Level 3: 75% less Condition damage, +100% reload speed, +100% chance to recover

 

 

 

Are these benefits broken/imbalanced? Quite possibly! Especially if you make your Signature Weapon an anti-materiel rifle or summat. It's intended more for making it viable to play through the game with only a straight razor. But hey, it's a single-player game - do what you like!

 

For the benefit of Mr. Kite, I've also arranged it so that a weapon and its unique counterpart (i.e., Maria/9mm, Chopper/Cleaver, Figaro/Straight Razor) count as the same weapon...so if you plan on happening to coincidentally find a certain unique weapon later, you can still practice with its more commonplace version.

 

Usage is fairly simple. A few seconds after you start up a game with the mod in place, you should receive a :Signature Settings: book under the Aid section of your inventory. Click it to access controls - when you have no signature weapon set, your only choice is to set your currently-equipped weapon as your signature. When you do have one, you'll be able to see statistics of weapon level, total kills, and kills to your next level, as well as your weapon's current abilities. Since standard Fallout message boxes don't support the %n placeholder for names, I can't actually display -which- weapon is your Signature there...but it is printed to the console when you access weapon statistics, just in case you forget. You also receive a message on equipping/unequipping your Signature weapon.

 

Logical Reputation Shifts: http://www.newvegasn...le.php?id=34944

 

Description (taken from mod page).

 

 

This is, hopefully, a temporary fix for the over-the-top negative reputation shifts currently in the stock game. From testing, it fixes the drastic negative jumps in reputation for very little effort on the player's part. You'll have to make an active attempt to get on a faction's very naughty list now. Hopefully, it'll make becoming Vilified far more rewarding and gratifying.

More Detail: In the game engine there's a good and bad point counter for each reputation that factions base their decisions on. You can commit crimes against factions in varying degrees. The issue I found is that the "Major Crime" point increase was set to 30. This is in stark contrast to the "Major Good" point increase of 7. And since assault and murder are major crimes individually, you can see how this could stack against your favor quite quickly. Based on the stock logic, saving a town from certain doom is over 4 times less in value than assaulting someone.... (that's not including killing them.)

 

Future Plans: Hopefully, Obsidian fixes this. To expand upon this mod to something more significant, I thought about seeing how different groups use sub-factions in the random spawns that roam around the desert. In theory, if spawned roaming members are strictly organized into one sub-faction then it is possible to prevent them from being able to report crimes. That way those random wasteland spawns you kill won't be reporting to anyone.

 

Unfortunately, the crime and faction system doesn't have any built in context sensitivity. This means you can't differential between assaulting someone and letting them to tell everyone, killing 'em, or leaving witnesses. It's very limited.

 

And here's the link for Project Reality: http://www.newvegasn...le.php?id=42180

[pablosplinter]

 

Edit: I forgot to mention that I probably want to update the textures since my computer can handle it. I want a texture mod and right now it leans towards NMCs texture pack. I would really like to hear if this conflicts with anything or if there is even better mods to update the textures in NV.

 

 

NMC's is the best imo. It doesn't conflict with anything at all.

I haven't had it for long, so can't really comment on performance but i am using the medium pack and it seems very resource hungry. Using an oc'd phenom x4 [email protected] with a 2gb 6950. I do get frame rate drops, but it i think it is something else causing it. I can't imagine my PC is really struggling.

 

To clear up what i meant about FOOK, it is compatible with Project Nevada, but not the equiptment module, so if you want them both, do not install the equiptment module of Project Nevada!

 

Also you will need Unified HUD project in order for Project Nevada and DUI to work together(it really is essential), and follow the instructions on the DUI page about changing the ini.

[luddifier]

OK it seems that raising this question on these forums definetly was the right thing to do! If I add on the later replies, I just love the description of "running the lucky 38" so that will definetly get into my install list. I liked many of the other suggestions regarding Karma and the ultimatus, but I will probably not install the signature-weapon mod. I really like to switch between different weapons and that kind of specialization is not part of my play-style.

 

I'm thinking about the ultimatus one, that will probably not see install along with too many of the reputation mods. I sort of want to get "caught" in what I'm comitting to in that part of the game without necessarily having to kill a bunch of people...

[MyGoodEye]

Well, since you asked, if you don't mind a little more shameless self promotion:

 

THE DIRECTOR'S CHAIR and the mods it integrates:

 

http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=43002

 

IMAGINATOR for tweaking colors, brightness, darkness, light "emittance", etc, etc, etc...

 

DYNAVISION2 for some lovely auto-focus depth of field.

 

CINEMATECH for some delightful grains. Try a low setting and you may find that it makes the game feel more "filmic" without being overbearing.

 

Nice thing about DIRECTOR'S CHAIR is that you can simply disable the mods you don't want to use IN-GAME and you can switch through all the settings in real-time... it's amazing... not sure why it didn't take off, to be honest with you.

 

ENHANCED SHADERS LITE is awesome for a little "new-gen" blurring/blooming

 

Of course, I also recommend WARZONES : MISANTHROPY PURE, but that's mostly 'cause I made it and I like killing things in-game ;)

 

I second most of the above.

 

- MGE/MyGoodEye/David

[MyGoodEye]

Oh jeez... where are my manners?

 

ALSO:

 

POCO BUENO textures (install NMC first if you like the overwrite as you will.) : http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=42028

 

VURT'S WASTELAND FLORA OVERHAUL : http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39856

 

NEW VEGAS CONFIGATOR (must have) : http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40442

 

- MGE/MyGoodEye/David

[ModelV]

Willow- Best companion mod in existence

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41779

 

Do not take her into DLCs she will break the immersion and flow(well she might be okay for HH). Just have her wait dont fire here.

 

I would recommend Weapon Retexture project

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41779

 

But this may have problems when GRA comes out. I also recommend waiting for those DLCs to come out which is what im doing.

 

Re-Elijad-fied

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=42195

 

Authentic burned man

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41974

 

Tales from the Burning Sands brought to you by the one the only Puce Moose!

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37172

Its an awesome quest mod Moose has done some amazing work for F3 but only this one(and other balance mod which i wont bother mentioning :P) for NV so far still its a 2 chapter mod.

 

Vendor bulk item bug fix thing:

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39632

 

Also if you plan on building your survival skill up i recommend my mod:

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=43473

 

Adding many many many cooking recipes and options for vending machines and cloning options. Ill be updating it soon after i buy LR.