newbie modding from scratch

[Artiez]

Hello there, totally new to NexusMods.
I have been re-downloading FV : NV, and i wanted to install mods for the first time (what have i been doing with my life up until now, right ?)

 

So I was wondering about many thing of course :

 

- How to proceed beforehand ? (what are the requirements, etc...)

 

- Which mods do you considere best to download ?

(i'm looking initially for mods that remove trouble with the game - TY Bethesda -, mods improving textures, and secondly, mods adding contents - weapons, armor, skins quest, etc...)

 

- What primordials mods are incompatible together ? (for example, if improving textures mods are incompatible with adding contents mod, i favor the lastest ones)

 

I thank you for your time.

[Deleted38846565User]

I can't give advice specifically for New Vegas(Skyrim modder here), but as far as modding in general, you'll want to start with a mod manager, Nexus Mod manager is my recommendation. I'd highly suggest looking into unofficial patches, which of course fix TONS of bugs, I believe New Vegas has one. Also some tips, I'd suggest using programs such as Wrye Bash, and LOOT to keep your game as stable as possible, you'll want to look videos up of them to learn how to use them, I'd suggest looking to Gopher for videos on modding, he has quite a bit of videos on these.

 

And welcome to modding! :D

[Artiez]

Thank you for this first reply to my probably too many questions, i will look up for what you have advised !

[dubiousintent]

Well, I would say you are off to a good start, planning to do your homework up front. One of the big advantages with an "old" game is that we know a lot about how to get started with it correctly.

 

Did you install Steam to it's default location? If so, please see the wiki "Installing Games on Windows Vista+" article for why the original default Steam behavior of installing games to the "C:\Program Files" folder tree was bad (they learned better, and don't do that any more); and why "disabling UAC and running as Administrator" is NOT sufficient, with instructions how to move it. This is the single most important thing you can do to fix and protect yourself against problems in the future. As much of a PITA as that is, it's never going to be any easier than now.

Please see the wiki "FNV General Mod Use Advice" article for the things you need to know beforehand, including the essential patches and mods for a stable game. It has links to many other articles on specific elements; much more information than you will get in forum posts. Take your time. The effort you spend up front will reduce or even eliminate the time you spend chasing problems later. Patience is the key.

 

-Dubious-

[madmongo]

One thing about textures - FNV is an old 32 bit game, which means it is limited to how much memory it can access. There's a 4 GB patch which helps some, but it's still a 32 bit game underneath and things like the texture caching system tend to barf when they have to handle too much data. Fancy high resolution texture mods look cool, but they tax the game's texture caching system and you can end up with more frequent crashes, especially in "busy" areas. The Atomic Wrangler tends to be one of those areas, especially if you have mods that add more casino patrons. Remember, even if your PC has 32 GB of RAM, the game by default will only use 2 GB, and with the 4 GB patch it will only use 4 GB. Your fancy shmancy PC with 32 GB of RAM doesn't help. The game can't use 32 GB of memory. At best, it uses 4 GB, and you can run it out of memory.

 

So be careful with texture mods.

 

As for what mods are best, that's completely a matter of opinion. Some folks like realism mods. Others like anime children, or my little pony. Some folks like combat. Some like role playing and don't care much for combat. Whatever your thing, someone probably has a mod for it. If you like weapons, there's a gizillion weapons mods out there. If you like armor, same thing. Some of these mods have very specific requirements or don't necessarily play well with other mods.

 

Whatever your tastes, there are categories of top mods on the Nexus. Go to Files on the main FNV nexus page, then click on top files. There are several different lists (most endorsed, top adult mods, top non-adult mods, etc). Look down through the lists and see what you like.

 

I recommend playing around with different mods until you find a bunch that you like and that all work together reasonably well. Read through the comments to see what problems each mod might have. Then, once you have a set of mods that suits you, start a new game with those mods and try to keep them constant throughout your game. If you add a mod then remove it later, sometimes things break. It depends on the mod. If it's a simple mod that just adds a new weapon somewhere and doesn't touch anything else, chances are the only thing that will happen if you remove that mod is that the new weapon will no longer be in the game anywhere. On the other hand, if the mod uses a script to delete a bunch of things, the game won't know that they were deleted by the mod, and when you remove that mod, the objects will still be gone. So depending on the mod, removing the mod in the middle of the game will either not do anything bad at all or will completely break your game, or anywhere in between. Depends on the mod. That's why the safe way is to play around with the game until you get a mod configuration you like and then stick with it.

 

There are also mod categories that can help you out. Again, click on Files on the FNV nexus main page, but this time select Categories instead of Top Files. If you want weapons, click on weapons. If you want armor, click on armor. And so forth. Lots of categories. You can sort the various categories by the most endorsed to see what other folks thought were the best mods, and there are other sorting options that can help you as well.

 

There's a category for bug fixes that you'll probably be interested in. NVAC (New Vegas Anti-Crash) and YUP (Yuki-whatever-his-name-is's Unofficial Patch) are two you'll almost definitely want. FNV is buggy. Save often, and definitely get NVAC.

 

If you go hog-wild, the game gets a little wonky if you install too many mods. How many is too many? There's no hard limit. You'd think that it would break on an even power of 2, which would be 128 mods, but for most folks its somewhere around 135 to 150 mods. And it's not the game running out of resources. If you have 150 mods and things break, combining those mods so that you have the exact same total amount of stuff, but condensed down to only 120 mods, will fix it.

 

Have fun, and don't be afraid to ask questions!

[Artiez]

Wow, many thanks for all those advices, i will look up to for all these things - and take my sweet time at it !

 

Dubiousintent, i have indeed installed Steam on "C:\Program Files". However, my SteamLibrary isn't on this file. So if i read correctly what was in this first link your dropped, i will have no problem on this matter, am i right ?

Edited October 11, 2017 by Artiez

[dubiousintent]

If the game itself is installed under "SteamLibrary" and that is not under the "C:\Program Files" tree, then you should be fine. But check the "permissions" given to that folder so the group your player account is part of (usually "Users") has at least "Write" (though "Full Control" is more encompassing) privileges.

 

-Dubious-

[Artiez]

I have now downloaded a few mods, and they are even working !

So i wanted to thank you, especially for the Gopher dude video, the wiki "mod use advice", and for the advice about NVAC (truly great).

 

So, thanks a lot guys.