Mod Recommendations for Fallout 4?

[damanding]

Are mods reversible once installed, in terms of being able to uninstall them without breaking things?

It depends on the mod in question. Personally I willy nilly uninstall mods mid game all the time and I've only semi-broken one save game (that was actually from installing a bad mod, not uninstalling one). But I'm also not attached to any particular save game and if I break a game and have to start over it isn't the end of the world. Scripts don't seem to have as bad an impact on save game bloat and other issues in Fallout 4 as they did in original Skyrim, but poor scripting can definitely still break a game if the mod it came from was uninstalled mid game. But scripts are not the only things to worry about, any persistent reference changes can be baked into the save game and potentially break things.

 

Short answer: don't uninstall mods mid-game if you are attached to a particular save game. If you don't mind the fairly rare need to start over, go for it.

[AGreatWeight]

Using mods is inherently risky, but you can limit the risk of corrupt save games and mod conflicts by installing mods one at a time, then testing them in game to make sure they work, as well as using L.O.O.T. to sort your load order.

Also read the mod description page thoroughly, as well as the comments pages and the bugs tab to minimize the possibility of using mods that will cause issues.

As damanding said above, it's generally a good idea not to get attached to a save game if your going to install lots of mods, I'd advise you to make a back-up copy of your vanilla game saves before you use mods.

Build your own list of mods you use slowly, rather than installing a load at once.

Generally speaking, there is no definitive list of 'essential' mods as it all comes down to taste. Best advice I can give is to identify the areas of the game that you'd like to see improvements or alterations etc and then check out the mods available in that particular category to see if one (or several) grab your attention. I'd also advise you to not focus solely on the most popular/highly rated mods on Nexus, as there is lots of amazing content to discover if you just do a little digging.

Edited November 21, 2016 by AGreatWeight