How to make your FO3 experience realistic

[scottym23]

Hey everyone. I am on another playthrough of FO3 and am loving it just like I do all of them, but about 1/10 done the main quest I started to want to scrap that playthrough and somehow make one that was as realistic as possible. I've already discussed this to a certain degree on a different topic I recently started, but this one is going to talk about how people can make their playthroughs more realistic with the mods that already exist and some tweaks to the game. Let's start with some realistic flaws at the start.

 

The main problem is in the beginning you are thrown into the wasteland with (at best) some padded vault armor, a pistol, and a bat. You have no idea where you're going and there's a good chance you can wander off into the abandoned school overrun by many raiders with better guns and armor than you. The fact that you can slaughter them all is outright ridiculous even compared to Fallout lore. How do we remedy this? One of my thoughts was to add certain items to the locker right next to the other locker that has the overseer's terminal password in his office. Why? Because in his computer terminal files it says that there had been exploration and reconnaissance into the wastes in the past. This leads us to believe there may be some higher grade weapons and armor hidden in the vault for this purpose. So what items should there be? I think there should be a sniper rifle, a hunting rifle, recon armor and helmet, and power armor with the appropriate training. This seems justifiable because the pre-war government designed and built the vaults, so why not have pre-war tec as well such as power armor? It seems to make sense at least to me. Also bullets to go along with the weapons of course. All in perfect condition too (since it's vault-tec issued). This could easily be added by using the G.E.C.K and just adding the items to the specific locker.

 

How the main character got his combat prowess is going to have to be just a leap of faith unfortunately. Maybe he was a security guard in the vault.

 

FWE is a must in my opinion because you can change the combat damage. Set that to the max for a lot of realism. Also using the bullet time instead of vats makes a lot of difference for obvious reasons. The player can also make a conscious effort to try and keep the realism by not searching in any containers, using the Pipboy, or searching any dead bodies while in combat. It's clearly not realistic for the enemy to wait for you to just finish doing whatever it is you're doing, and then resume battle when it's convenient for you.

 

I don't know if there are any mods that enhance the sneak ability's effectiveness, but if there is a mod like that and someone could tell me about it it'd be greatly appreciated. The fact that you need 100 sneak to reach a somewhat realistic sneak level has always confused me. If it's dark out and I crouch follow someone from behind, they shouldn't be able to see me or sense me unless i'm in heavy armor.

 

So those are all the changes I can think of that would make the game more realistic. Please share your thoughts on these, and also add your own ideas too! Thanks for reading.

[Ferodaktyl]

quite a wall of text you've raised here for something quite simple :rolleyes::)

 

well, begin with FWE - it has plenty of realism options

for example, ammo weight

 

then adjust your carry weight, i find very unrealistic carrying around 200+ pounds of equipment

 

and use a weather mod, like Project Reality with darker nights, this made traveling the wasteland in the dark a traumatic experience for myself, at least untill i got my hands on a nightvision set

 

IMP's more complex needs overwrites FWE and adds more subtle touches to the everyday diet

 

Reduce the skill points gained with leveling, an all-rounded char is very unrealistic too :tongue:

 

again, FWE lets you choose how weapons skill influence accuracy and damage of weapons, and obviously/realistically the damage a weapon deals does not increase with skill, only accuracy.

 

remove your compass markers, of course, or at least the empty/unexplored markers, and the quest finder marker

 

don't fast travel, or use the alternate travel included with FWE

 

Don't reload unless you die, so you'll be more motivated not to :teehee:

bla bla bla

 

i'd be interested in how far you will push the realism.

Edited August 31, 2012 by Ferodaktyl

[charwo]

Well, if you want realism, then I recommend the Scavenger World mod. Only...to keep the game balanced, only use the axe to chop trees, but it's a great way to forage for food. Then you want a no radiative water mod, and the Badass Wasteland Reclamation project, which goes a long way for realism.

 

As for how you character can be a badass? Well, it's very simple: the LW has a fair amount of experience with firearms because of the BB gun. It gives them an advantage over other Vault Dwellers. It also justifies a lot of sharpshooting. As to why they are better in combat, well, they're better fed, in better health and not drug addled like the Raiders. In addition if you use the Overseer's pistol, it's in perfect condition. Most of the raider junk is almost broken, meaning their weapons are inaccurate and lack stopping power. Add in the VATS combat assist and the Pip-boy mapping feature, and yes, the LW has some understated but vitally important advantages over their competition.

[kschang77]

You're NOT gonna get "full realism" and keep the game "fun".

 

Yes, the vault probably has a special armory for the bigger and better weapons, but you ain't gonna be let in on the secret. So whatever you got off the security guards is whatever you get.

 

And it even possible that the first contact team sent by the vault ain't that heavily armed, and relies on stealth to keep out of trouble.

[DavidYokosukaJapan]

@ scottym23:

 

Ferodaktyl and charwo pointed you to some great mods and guidelines for realism(kudos! :thumbsup: ).

 

I haven't found the "No-Pip-in-combat" mod... but if it was made, I'd give it a shot :thumbsup:

 

 

I'm curious... so how did it turn out??

[scottym23]

@ scottym23:

 

Ferodaktyl and charwo pointed you to some great mods and guidelines for realism(kudos! :thumbsup: ).

 

I haven't found the "No-Pip-in-combat" mod... but if it was made, I'd give it a shot :thumbsup:

 

 

I'm curious... so how did it turn out??

 

I couldn't find a no pop in combat mod either, but that's okay because besides installing the weather mod and fwe settings to make the game more realistic, I decided to just implement some of the other features myself. For example I don't loot dead bodies or containers while in combat, and I don't use the pip boy either. I only carry a few guns at a time and that's only if I'm using one of the army backpacks from a mod I installed too. I don't use stimpacks to heal or psycho/any other drug at all. I just collect them and sell them, basically considering them fictional drugs that people are tricked into thinking help them, but just like the magic medicine people would try to sell in carriages during the 1850's are all scams. So that's how I rationalize people buying them but not really working if you understand what I mean :P. And I don't rest or use wait times, because it's not realistic for my character to stand in one place for hours on end. I only used wait time once recently and that was when I was outside of a town and wanted to raid it and I was looking over the town from a large rocky hill, so I figured my character would have the patience to wait a couple hours for it to be dark so it would be easier. That's just a few examples of things I do now to keep the realism going that I've implemented myself due to the lack of mods that fill those needs. It makes the game much more enjoyable for me! Thanks to everyone who responded, I really do appreciate it :D.

[DavidYokosukaJapan]

Sounds pretty cool :) I do used drugs but keep the 'visuals' turned on. It makes a *lot* of difference. If you use pschyo and jet together, you almost can't see anything. VATS pretty much becomes mandatory. Either that or you have to put the enemy at pointblank range to hit. And since I'm playing on 'very-hard' difficulty in FWE that pretty much means I'm dead.

And if you mix some other drugs in there you can overdose and die. So... I guess the moral here "don't do drugs!" :tongue:

 

I think my next play through will go something along the line of yours: limit myself to one main weapon (probably the M249), one alternate (a basic laser pistol), and maybe a few frag grenades. No pipboy in combat. No eating 'raw' meats (love the Robco field grill!) Something along those lines.

What weather mod do you use? I'm currently running ProjectRealitymk1 and I've got the radioactive rain turned on. It's kinda cool because it rains somewhat often but it's rarely radioactive. But when it is, run for a shelter! You can die from exposure within a few minutes. Scary stuff, definitely adds to the tension. :thumbsup: