Using TTW solely to move FO3 to the NV engine?

[Asterra]

As the topic says. I'm thinking about giving FO3 another run, but I painfully remember the last time I did so. The biggest problem by far, which no mod could ever truly solve, was the fact that Pip-Boy music would stutter badly with every new track -- something which could eventually be fixed by (I think) opening/closing the Pip-Boy until it temporarily sorted itself out. All the mods which "fixed" this problem in fact simply replaced the audio files with mono equivalents... usually, in fact, the built-in, purposefully lo-fi mono versions of the songs that were meant for in-game radios. This obviously did nothing to fix custom radios. This problem was a strange incompatibility between FO3 and any OS newer than XP, and it was certainly not the only problem. (And, no, a million times, it was not due to a bad OGG codec or whatever.)

 

I have never used TTW. And while I can appreciate what it sets out to accomplish, there's simply no way I could ever overlook how, whatever balance it ultimately strikes between FO3 and NV's content, it was 100% arbitrary and by definition not what the original developers plugged into either vanilla experience. But I know the only way I could really enjoy FO3 is if I could take advantage of it with the NV engine. I also acknowledge that there are some fundamental differences between the two engines that I would have to accept, even in a best-case scenario, such as changes to shooting dynamics and how DR/DT is reckoned.

 

Still, it's something I want to do.

 

So I'm going to see if anyone knows whether this basic desire is within the realm of possibility, and what I might expect to need to do to render what TTW achieves down to a FO3 experience with no overt traces of New Vegas. None of its perks, no level 50 cap, none of the NV voice replacements (for Mr. Gutsy et al), that sort of thing. This assumes I'm not barking up an unnecessary tree, of course; ideally, TTW already comes with a "vanilla FO3 only" option and I simply never heard about it. But I have a feeling options weren't ever on the to-do list.

 

Mods made for FO3? I'm not worried. I'll port anything I'm using myself. Maybe even looking forward to it. Plenty of my own mods depend on NVSE and I definitely don't want to have to leave them behind.

[RoyBatterian]

You're going on old versions of TTW (prior to 3.2), 3.2 is much closer to vanilla Fallout 3.

 

As for audio, there's no issues with it in the latest version, if there is then its a problem with your audio drivers.

 

You can't plop F3 into the NV engine, it won't work, it will crash, have endless bugs and other headaches, and the mechanics simply sometimes cannot work in the NV engine due to changes, not to mention the record changes.

 

TTW is as good as it gets, you can modify it to more suit your liking, but it is now much less changing than the previous version, and there is no voice changes or anything like that anymore.

[Asterra]

You're going on old versions of TTW (prior to 3.2), 3.2 is much closer to vanilla Fallout 3.

 

I actually haven't personally seen TTW in action yet, so wasn't aware that there used to be versions that made more sweeping changes than the latest.

 

As for audio, there's no issues with it in the latest version, if there is then its a problem with your audio drivers.

 

The audio problems I mentioned weren't with TTW; they are with Fallout 3 itself, running on anything newer than Windows XP. And they're the primary reason why I'm looking into this workaround.

 

TTW is as good as it gets, you can modify it to more suit your liking, but it is now much less changing than the previous version, and there is no voice changes or anything like that anymore.

 

Thanks. I've perused the various (documented) changes made to FO3 to make it mesh meaningfully into an all-in-one experience. Some things I expected, some I didn't. I'm not certain everything listed can be reverted, but I suppose I will soon find out.

Edited October 6, 2019 by Asterra

[RoyBatterian]

Ahh audio problems with Fallout 3, yes it's getting worse. I used to be able to run it fine on Windows 7, but now it crashes any time an NPC speaks, so I can no longer do direct comparisons of things which is a bit annoying. I will be installing it on my XP rig in order to test things again.

 

Any changes that have been made are either to fix bugs, address a balance problem, fix something that was unintentionally disabled or broken (like female enclave), or restoration of some cut gear just to make Fallout 3 more interesting after a decade. There is always reasons I chose to do something, either to enhance game play or fix a balance problem, or to integrate things better. I don't pretend at all that it's "how the developers intended" since that's not an argument that I even deem valid for anything since only they know and it would be presumptuous of anyone to claim otherwise. The rules I chose were to make a seamless integration between the two games while retaining the feel of each and the balance as well. It is a total conversion and not just a mod and aims to create a new experience that is of the highest quality while retaining all the things that made it good to begin with, that was the mission goal for me.

 

I do realize that not everyone agrees with this, but most of the nay sayers have never played it and given it a chance. The ones who have (some 100000 people) have for the most part really enjoyed what's been and compliment us on how well it works, how stable the game is, and how bug free it is now (granted there is always endless bugs to fix in any Bethesda/Obsidian title). All I ask is people give it an honest go before passing any judgement.

 

That said I always take *constructive* feedback seriously if there is well thought out reasoning behind any changes that are desired, or something that doesn't work balance wise etc. As for lore, I ignore all of those arguments as TTW is in it's own timeline and the lore is what we choose to make it. For example, Fallout 4/76 don't happen in the TTW timeline, and this also explains why the lone courier can also be the mailman with a bad case of amnesia. There's a quote from master Avellone that I stick too, basically he said that the lore is whatever the developer makes it to fit the game at the time.

[Asterra]

I do realize that not everyone agrees with this, but most of the nay sayers have never played it and given it a chance. The ones who have (some 100000 people) have for the most part really enjoyed what's been and compliment us on how well it works, how stable the game is, and how bug free it is now (granted there is always endless bugs to fix in any Bethesda/Obsidian title). All I ask is people give it an honest go before passing any judgement.

 

I know my own stance is pretty rare but I can't pretend it's not how I am. I figure the moment one "pushes the win button" even a little, they're on a scale sitting somewhere between "legit" and "why am I even playing this?" A big chunk of any playerbase could enjoy a game with 'tgm' toggled on. Others are fine with, say, getting a perk every level instead of every other. Lines drawn at different spots on the scale. I just happen to draw my line pretty close to vanilla. I have my exceptions. Anything which I can rationalize as "they'd have done it this way if they hadn't been lazy", I'm usually good with. Fixing the broken Nuclear Anomaly perk, for example (within reason and logically-supported limits). I certainly don't mean to knock anyone's efforts in the project of merging two different games -- it's just that I know enough about both games to recognize that there's zero chance I would fully agree with the unavoidable changes needed to make it happen.

 

If I had to cite the main thing that holds me back, it would be the matter of level cap vs. perks. For all its faults, the perk list in FO3 actually does end up working out well, in my own case where I aim for Nuclear Anomaly (rather than Almost Perfect) and coordinate everything else around that goal. Done right, it's still possible to end up with Nuclear Anomaly, every other perk I really want, and every SPECIAL at 10 with the exception of CHA (6) and PER (7). It's a satisfyingly tight build. New Vegas offers much the same deal, as long as one doesn't use Jsawyer. But mixing the two? You can't avoid it: it gets broken. You can get every SPECIAL at 10+ thanks to one endgame perk way back at level 30, still get the other so-called endgame perk Nuclear Anomaly on top of that, and meanwhile there are all of these essentially overpowered perks to use in a game world that was simply not balanced for it. I get it: People love this. But it's basically cheating. And the examples I cite also steal away the importance of a lot of other content, like the bonus SPECIAL point at the end of Lonesome Road, the Lucky Shades which are technically rather tricky to get, etc. Balance is thrown out of whack and that ruins possibly the thing I enjoy most about both games: Figuring out how good of a build I can get away with and how to work my way up to it. There's probably little sense in bringing up skill books, how their differences between the two games make them manifestly incompatible, and how that just further throws out of whack any designs towards trying to balance available skill points against one's build.

 

I did take a close look at what TTW adds and changes. And I admit that the idea of trying to disentangle vendor lists, remove weapon mods, delete perks, revert bobbleheads and sort through minutiae to guess what's restored content and what's new things added for flavor (harvesting maize in the Capitol wasteland, perks for FO3 followers, etc.) has me thinking I'd probably be better off just going ahead and dealing with a broken Pip-Boy again.

 

That said I always take *constructive* feedback seriously if there is well thought out reasoning behind any changes that are desired, or something that doesn't work balance wise etc.

 

The only thing I might say by way of criticism would be a suggestion to be more comprehensive in the FAQ about what was changed. For example, a lot of Fallout 3's own perks were modified, either in order to give them better utility and/or to make their functionality be a better match for NV's native repertoire. I understand the reasoning in either case -- the majority of Fallout 3's perks are very dry, uninteresting and even arguably useless, whereas every perk in New Vegas mechanically enhances the player character in some fashion, fair and square. But I would posit that there are two arguments to be made in their favor, the first being that it's how the game is, and any deviation is, on paper, arbitrary and unnecessary. Second argument being that if absolutely nothing else, FO3's perks are good for roleplaying purposes: Want to play as a thief, or someone obsessed with their father? Here are perks which legitimize that roleplaying; something more tangible than headcanon. It's really almost like FO3's version of traits: things that help define the player character without by necessity providing earth-shattering utility. I make this distinction because, as a solid counterexample, FO4's fixed perk chart dictated that this roleplaying-friendly perk variety went straight out the window (or it may have simply been another victim of Bethesda's marketing mandates, same as the rest of that game). Again, I understand the temptation to conform boring FO3 to the standards of compelling NV. Just suggesting that the FAQ might be misleading in its omissions.

 

Wish list: A raw FO3 experience inasmuch as porting it to NV enables this. For starters, the option to have the FO3 opening titles with the slide projector.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Asterra

[RoyBatterian]

Unfortunately I tried a raw port, and it just didn't work at all, I would have to straight up disable everything in NV except iron sights, and do massive changes to make it work the same way. Like I said, it's rather a blend of the two games rather than a straight port. It's not everyone's cup of tea. As for NV balance, well, that was just poor game design on Obsidian's part, which they did correct in the DLCs which do scale, the base wasteland does not. The mod is not finished, there is a lot of things still to do and balance of the New Vegas wasteland through leveling, economy will be altered to fit more with Fallout 3 as it was clear to me it was originally so (cost of doctors, vendor repair, reward caps, gate check on the strip, casino betting max) as well as in the far future restoring big guns, with an expanded arsenal to support it with Fallout 1/2/Tactics weapons which will be carefully balanced to fit the roles they are designed for. Armor/Oufits will be rebalanced to return most clothing to use DR instead of DT because that's silly honestly, and only armors which have stopping power will have DT and it will be capped at 20.

 

The books were reverted to 1 or 2 points, as removing them for magazines made the exploration of the CW less interesting/rewarding, NV books share this because again, too many points available.

 

The perks were changed specifically to help remove the everything at 10 problem. I will be changing Almost Perfect and other level 30 perks to level 50 in the future.

 

The Bobbleheads were changed to 1/2 perks for similar reasons. I am aware of the intelligence Bobblehead issue and it will be addressed into something else. The Charisma Bobblehead will be changed to make Charisma work like it did in Fallout 1 and 2 (max companions), and the Speech one changed to negate Karma with companions like the Charisma one currently does.

 

I would love the original slide show and loading screens, but this is a lot of work to restore this code. It cannot be scripted as they do not run during loading (we tried).

 

I also much prefer the original player sounds, the XP sound, the Quest sound, and the UI of Fallout 3, these can all be made optional.

 

It comes down to that I like most of NV's mechanics better, and I like FO3's wasteland and balance better. I hate both main quests and I'm a minority there as they have little to no replay value and that's not what keeps me playing/modding this game after 6 years. So I've crafted an experience that I enjoy and that I think works for the most part, with future changes taken into account. It's a lot of work to make a game and balance it, and it's taken darth, puppet and myself a lot of time and effort to do so. Those who want a vanilla experience, can buy the games on GoG and enjoy them. I just happen to want something more, much much more, but within the original design constraints and not kitchen sinking it like most mods and overhauls that get far far out of scope. All of these things were planned from the beginning for me.

[Asterra]

Unfortunately I tried a raw port, and it just didn't work at all, I would have to straight up disable everything in NV except iron sights, and do massive changes to make it work the same way.

 

Right. I actually think an acceptable result can be rendered -- certainly, at least, something more or less transparently FO3 to most people, just with the advantages of NVSE and none of the unsolvable issues FO3 brings to newer OSes. I gave it a fair shot. In the end, I actually think what finally made me decide to just stick with actual FO3 was the realization that NV's engine fixed the spring-loaded skeletons of FO3 ... which were honestly an unintended plus in my book. I legitimately didn't suspect the phenomenon was unintentional until my second playthrough. It's an effective jump-scare, especially if one is using a controller with vibration on (getting slightly damaged by the physics will cause it to briefly shake). Of course I could be wrong and those jumping skeletons may still exist in TTW's rendition of FO3.

 

as well as in the far future restoring big guns, with an expanded arsenal to support it with Fallout 1/2/Tactics weapons which will be carefully balanced to fit the roles they are designed for. Armor/Oufits will be rebalanced to return most clothing to use DR instead of DT because that's silly honestly, and only armors which have stopping power will have DT and it will be capped at 20.

 

This sounds increasingly like you're doing the job that Bethesda either refuses or simply doesn't have the capacity to do anymore. I can see a far-flung future where the engine that supersedes FO4/ES6 gets used for a port of TTW with all the fixings.

 

The books were reverted to 1 or 2 points, as removing them for magazines made the exploration of the CW less interesting/rewarding, NV books share this because again, too many points available.

 

Right. I didn't know how you approached this problem, but knew it would have to involve a lot of give and take. Books are twice as common in the CW as they are in NV -- or really 3x as common since they're all confined to the CW itself whereas a large chunk of NV's books are scattered among its DLC. In the CW, one often finds multiple books in the same spot -- that's how common they are. Balancing this, especially against Comprehension, couldn't be anything but a nightmare. FO3 all by itself, without using Comprehension/Educated, gives the player enough points to cap everything (assuming high INT). Really the only way I could ever see this working is by deliberately imposing two different skill sets, one for each wasteland, and contriving some way of enforcing this differentiation (amnesia at first, obviously) at least until some key moment in game progression. Otherwise you have to choose between the player capping skills with basically zero effort (and certainly no perks or traits spent toward it) or allowing the FO3 component of the TTW experience to be played with an unnatural scarcity of skill points.

 

The perks were changed specifically to help remove the everything at 10 problem. I will be changing Almost Perfect and other level 30 perks to level 50 in the future.

 

That's really the only way to go about it, though again it brings up the question of how far does one take such modifications, however well-intended, before it stops being an ostensible link between two games and starts being the personal vision of the modder-developer. I guess the easy answer to this is Hobson's choice. You either make the change or your efforts contain gross imbalances that are far worse. I think you're safely on that side of the question. I contrast this with, say, JSawyer Ultimate. On paper, it started out as a project intending to complete what Joshua Sawyer left unfinished in his mod. But it wasn't long before it transformed into the author's personal vision of what the game should be, with the "JSawyer" component now a subtle fraction of the whole. I've already stipulated that I'm in the minority in preferring things to be as close to vanilla as possible so that I can justify playing by the game's rules. Most people seem happy to change things for the sake of changing them.

 

The Charisma Bobblehead will be changed to make Charisma work like it did in Fallout 1 and 2 (max companions)

 

Now this, I actually love. If you need to make changes anyway, justify it by following precedent. Makes the pill easier to swallow, for certain.

 

I would love the original slide show and loading screens, but this is a lot of work to restore this code. It cannot be scripted as they do not run during loading (we tried).

 

Hmm. Could fake it with a well-encoded video, maybe. Obviously not the same and would lack the interactivity... Definitely one for the "optional" pile.

 

I also much prefer the original player sounds, the XP sound, the Quest sound, and the UI of Fallout 3, these can all be made optional.

 

As do I. I have all of this modded back into my NV. (Except the voice of the protagonist. I use a higher-pitched mod of said.) The level up fanfare, too. Also Mr. Gutsy and other things that were changed for no good reason. I imagine you keep those changes intact for the NV half of TTW.

 

It comes down to that I like most of NV's mechanics better, and I like FO3's wasteland and balance better.

 

This seems to be the universal consensus. FO3's wasteland is the reason I keep returning to that game even though I prefer almost everything else about NV. It's still the only Fallout I've played which has done the post-apocalypse any real justice. (I've often noted that FO4's Boston looks more pristine, 200 years after being nuked, than many modern cities do right now.) I like both NV's daunting weapon variety / modding options and FO3's scarcity and clinical simplicity of weapons. Balance? I think NV does this better, if for no other reason than playing on Very Hard actually feels like the challenge has increased, whereas in FO3, Very Hard just turns certain encounters into endurance matches where you waste away most of your weapons beating the thing down (worsened by the fact that I use "Legendary" difficulty settings taken from Skyrim). I strongly dislike FO3's randomized and easy-to-manipulate encounter system, but also feel that NV's fixed-enemy system promotes a scarcity of enemies which demands correcting through mods.

 

I hate both main quests and I'm a minority there as they have little to no replay value and that's not what keeps me playing/modding this game after 6 years.

 

Hm. What keeps me playing is a variety of factors. For FO3, definitely the presentation and world. NV, the careful thought put into developing one's character. It's so obvious they obsessed over this facet of the game. But the main quest in NV is non-trivial to me, too. The game lets you choose from several factions, but what's genius about it is they are good matches for real-life inclinations, cementing for the player which they prefer to go with. FO4 tried real hard to rip this off and it's actually the best thing about that game. That said, what I actually look forward to most in NV is reaching the level cap with my build more or less complete (generally by finishing off the DLC as soon as possible) and taking all of that back to the game proper so I can, by the game's own rules, essentially control the world and be unstoppable. No cheating necessary. FO3 doesn't really permit this level of agency, either in player build or game canon, and that's where it falls short to the greatest degree, I think.

 

I just happen to want something more, much much more, but within the original design constraints and not kitchen sinking it like most mods and overhauls that get far far out of scope. All of these things were planned from the beginning for me.

 

Here's a suggestion that I think might help with legitimizing TTW as a solid third option going forward: Consider developing a Wiki-like guide for the entirety of TTW -- essentially a mirror of the content you find on fandom.com for FO3/NV, but with TTW's changes and bugfixes accounted for (with some kind of note, in each case, specifying that it differs from vanilla FO3/NV), and perhaps also footnotes documenting changes to TTW itself, such as the changes to perks and bobbleheads you've mentioned being planned. So, for example, the Intelligence Bobblehead entry looks like this: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Bobblehead_-_Intelligence and your page would look identical, except indicating that it's the TTW entry, providing a link to the FO3 entry, showing TTW's version of what the bobblehead does, noting that this differs from how FO3's Intelligence Bobblehead works, and citing at the bottom how the Intelligence Bobblehead used to work in TTW 3.2 or whatever. I think a resource like this would be important not only for helping keep people from scrambling in the dark, but also, using myself a a case-in-point, assisting those who have interest in planning how their playthrough of TTW is going to transpire.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Asterra

[RoyBatterian]

Oh yeah a Wiki is planned, just who's going to do it? I don't have time nor inclination to do such a thing, I think the fans should do this like they did for the games. I can add foot notes to things later, sparingly.

 

I made my own small patch of jsawyer, for those very reasons and I use it together with my mod BLEED and some of the tweaks jazzisparis made for me (like FO3 repair) and some that stewie did (like removing the damage cap on weapons, and remembering lockpick health). For balance reasons and to make the skills more valuable. As for building a character, I will make a mod that starts at 0 skills and you only get any points to start in them if you chose them at character creation, and also reducing the points you get per level by 5. I already use the reduced XP of TTW *and* jsawyer which makes the game progress better for me. I would choose legendary difficulty... but that just defeats the purpose of BLEED for me, however I do play on Very Hard, I prefer being a glass cannon. We did try to make lock picking the same as Skyrim, where you could do it at any level, but that ended up not working out.

 

Something to note is I balanced TTW like vanilla is, like the player has no idea what is there or what is to come, and that is to be discovered, so that someone who has never played either game can find their own way. The game is trivial for people of our experience and modders often balance things too difficult for the 1st time player, I tried to avoid that as well. Can't please everyone, not worth trying. As you say, the best thing I can do is just make the change, and I try to stick to established things, or least try to keep things from being OP and work inside established game mechanics.

 

I still don't enjoy NV's main quest, it seems half baked with the lack of Legion content, and the BoS content also seems weak and contrived. That said, I love the DLC (Except HH which is trash), particularly Dead Money which is the best Fallout has to offer in any of the games, followed by Lonesome Road, and Old World Blues. For Fallout 3 Zeta is my favorite, followed by The Pitt and Anchorage. Broken steel feels like it was in the game and then removed and re-added so I don't count that one, and Point Lookout is just boring and aimless to me, but looking into all the DLC and the game itself I know that PL was only half done and abandoned. You are right, that agency isn't there for the FO3 DLC, except with Zeta imo.

[Asterra]

Oh yeah a Wiki is planned, just who's going to do it? I don't have time nor inclination to do such a thing, I think the fans should do this like they did for the games. I can add foot notes to things later, sparingly.

 

I'd like to imagine that 90% of the work is already done, provided you'd be able to duplicate the data that already exists on fandom.com, and the only thing left to do would be to plug in the differences and additions.

 

I made my own small patch of jsawyer

 

Same. Did a Jsawyer (not Ultimate, obviously) playthrough, mainly to be able to say I got it over with. Was unceasingly frustrated by my lack of inventory space -- I tend to avoid the use of companions and was also playing a low-STR (high other stats) build, both of which Jsawyer is very poorly balanced for. Made a mod to give back the 25 perk count and it still barely made the experience tolerable. I know why the change from 50 to 35 was made, of course: Literally just so Logan's Loophole could land on level 21. Whatever. I made a cut-down iteration of Jsawyer like you did, so I can have the smattering of officially-sanctioned post-release tweaks... just not including the level cap change.

 

As for building a character, I will make a mod that starts at 0 skills and you only get any points to start in them if you chose them at character creation, and also reducing the points you get per level by 5.

 

I'm satisfied with the challenge presented by a Logan's Loophole build, which is what defines my current playthrough. I consider it to be my personally canonized run. Zero perks or traits were sacrificed to skill points, so in the end, only a certain number of skills can be capped, and reaching that state is an extremely delicate balance. I use the HH crate mod that ensures all four skill books will appear in each, provided LUC is 10. It's essential. That said, ultimately most skills don't absolutely need to be capped; it suffices to know exactly how many points one needs to spend on rarely-needed skills (100 lockpick/science, etc.) in order to be able to make up the rest with every available asset -- gear, ingestibles, mood lights etc. And that in turn gives those options a nice chance to be actually useful. Turns out that there's only a dozen or so points of leeway at the end of the build.

 

I still don't enjoy NV's main quest, it seems half baked with the lack of Legion content

 

A decision I can't criticize them for. They understood perfectly well that the majority of players would have objections about progressing the defacto bad guys, and that if they stuffed a significant chunk of the game's total content into a faction those players decided in advance they're not going to touch, it would be like selling them a $60 game that's only worth $40. They were even careful to enable the player to do what Legion content does exist without being specifically evil. Having fully fleshed-out good and evil options split 50/50 only sounds good in a single sentence; the reality is that it would be tantamount to giving (most) players half a game. I consider the Birds of a Feather quest line to be Obsidian's concession to players looking for evil choices, but underscore the strictly optional, arguably non-canonical nature of said quest by pointing out that unlike the Legion, there's no associated achievement.

 

That said, I love the DLC (Except HH which is trash), particularly Dead Money which is the best Fallout has to offer in any of the games, followed by Lonesome Road, and Old World Blues. For Fallout 3 Zeta is my favorite, followed by The Pitt and Anchorage. Broken steel feels like it was in the game and then removed and re-added so I don't count that one, and Point Lookout is just boring and aimless to me, but looking into all the DLC and the game itself I know that PL was only half done and abandoned.

 

OWB is my favorite, probably in large part due to the absolute glut of neat perks and weapons you bring out of it. Dead Money has grown on me a bit so I think I could rank it #2, not least because the "treasure" was cleverly done. You can escape with everything without cheating or abusing game mechanics as long as you know what you're doing. And it's debatable whether the actual treasure is the pile of gold or the mountain of Old World Money you can contrive to secure. I brought out well over 20,000 units during my current playthrough. (And I definitely do NOT allow Jsawyer to drop the value of said money to 2 caps. That was an inexplicable change. One unit is an entire stack of bills!)

 

Honest Hearts is poor but it did give us the second most compelling character in NV, at least.

 

I consider all of FO3's DLC to be sub-par. Zeta is a bit tedious with an astonishingly annoying guide character (the 30-something trying to sound like a little girl). I'll probably use her Japanese voice files when I get to that. Point Lookout, I actually find genuinely insulting, for two reasons. First, Redneck Rampage. Somebody at Bethesda thought that would be brilliant, and nobody stopped him. Second, a pretty hefty chunk of the content demands that your character canonically get lobotomized -- something which I, as one who values the roleplaying aspect very highly, absolutely could not stand. I only do PL because there is of course a mod which bypasses that entire advent.

 

Pitt is actually somewhat interesting, though. There are some tangibly good perk upgrades (unlike the other DLC -- Bethesda missing the mark as usual), and the ending is rather gray. In fact I've always found it more compelling to side with the slavers, circumstances being what they were.

 

Anchorage gives you the most OP item in the whole game (or all of TTW, as it were). Something that so thoroughly trivializes the rest of the experience that I only wear it for a short while.