So I want to start playing Survival difficulty...

[lordbevan1]

...but I hate that it's not like Hardcore mode from New Vegas. Has anyone made a mod which reverts Survival to the original version, and adds a sort of hardcore mode-type toggle? and if not, could someone try to make one?

[beastman905]

Do yourself a favour and download survival options (let's you change all survival settings to suit your playstyle), agony, B.I.S. (better immersive survival: food) and a camping/backpack mod of your choice. Lots of fun, trust me.

[SirDanest]

I personally use Horizon, although if you can't handle that it's incompatible with many, many other mods (without an additional patch) then I get it. But as for the ultimate difficult (resource-scarce) survival experience, that's the one, in my opinion. There's also a mod that makes cigarettes and cigars smokable (and they save the game when you use them.) I use that in conjunction with Horizon as an additional means of saving.

I also use Conquest, which lets you build settlements in unconventional places. Sometimes I put one down simply because I want my own house/base there to sleep and stay. I built a settlement with conquest once just for the bed and to build a bridge across an inconvenient river.

Food, clean water, and ammo become pretty rare. Starvation is actually a concern. Having a melee weapon is almost a must, to save ammo.

[beastman905]

How did I forget the cigarettes? Lol though I'd recommend simple smokes as it adds them to level lists (I find making lots of stuff at the chemstation/workbenches a bit lore breaking, but that's just me)

[Undeadbob666]

Two good mods were already mention so I'll throw in a few I'm using. Gas Masks of the Wasteland (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/17491) is a good one if you want a more hardcore radiation storms, and dust storms (it has a holotape so you change it all around).

If you use allot of mods (like I do) and don't want to use horizon (I do recommend it though), then try out these mods:

Survival Re-balance (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/13680) it re-balances the health model for everything including the player. It also rebalances armor & weapon weights to more realistic numbers.

Survival Overhaul GenMersion (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15807) is cool it has four mods bundled together: McDonough Must Die which allows you to enable death for all npcs and/or companions, Martial Stance gives diferent fighting stances (don't really use it though), Far Barber gives hair loss chances, and Scavenged Wastes gives 90% of the loot to 10% of the wastelanders (mostly brotherhood, gunners and institute) so there is less stuff on the ground (try playing with Luck 1 for a while lol).

Advanced AI Tweaks (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/27763) just gives more realistic behavior to NPCs, they have a wider search range (vannilla NPCs will only search 1 floor above or bellow them or something like that, this changes it to 3 floors I think) and also tweaks the stealth system so NPCs are less aware in certain states (resting, sleeping etc) and realistic lighting effects (works well with darker nigh mods). And Some Assembly Required (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12050) is a power armor overhaul, making T-45 more common but also not giving you full complete suits of armor (most places that had a full suit just have 2-3 armor pieces) and there is only one X-01 Suit in the commonwealth.

 

Also forgot about backpacks, I like to use Backpacks of the Commonwealth (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/29447) it adds to bags to the level list, and I can give them to my companions (I use Amazing Following Tweaks, https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/26976, so I can have five companions) so they can carry all my loot.

 

Anyway those are only some of the mods I use, but there are plenty. Check the Overhaul, Gameplay and Immersion categories those are gold minds for hardcore survival playthroughs.

Edited July 26, 2018 by Undeadbob666

[SirDanest]

It doesn't have much to do with survival, but sim settlements is interesting, especially with all of the addons and expansions. If you don't want to be bothered with settlements, you can just assign mayors to the settlements and have them take care of it for you. Then you can go off and concentrate on actual survival rather than collecting junk for building.

[lazloarcadia]

Personally I use most / all of the mods already mentioned depending on my play through at the time. Of them my favorites are Survival Options, Amazing Follower Tweaks, and the Militarized Minutemen. The Mil MM adds excellent tactical chest rig and backpacks which not only allow for additional carry weight but can be swapped out for other benefits like faster reloads, better explosives damage, more AP, etc.

 

I love the way that Survival Options can be used to tweak all sorts of things like lowering the damage you take / increasing the damage you deal. Turn on / off the hunger / thirst / disease system. Toggle things like the reduced carry weight in Survival mode, etc. It really allows you nearly full control over the difficulty of the game, while keeping the parts you like. I also combined this with Unlimited Survival Mode which allows you to do a few other things like activate TGM and similar options not available in Survival Options.