I'm kind of feeling the urge to play through Fallout 3 again. As much as I love New Vegas, I think the world design in FO3 is head and shoulders above FNV, and while FNV offers some faction-based stuff it's ultimately pretty shallow and kind of meh (for me). I know Jason put together one of his huge modpacks for FO3, but I also remember it being fairly unstable; with somewhat frequent crashes. What mods do you guys think are necessary for having the definition FO3 experience?
Ha, I'm waiting for mod downloads right now actually. I'm going big: FOOK2, MMM, FEK, and WMK. And some glue mods to hold them rogether. It's going to be a disaster!
I tend to go light on the modding, but I consider these two to be essential: Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch RH Iron Sights (requires FOSE to run properly) Less critical, but for sanity reasons, I also like to install a GNR playlist extender: GNR Enhanced
I'd look through the Fallout 3 list I linked and hand pick a few. In retrospect the make it harder mods were a waste of time. I never did track down which ones were crashy.
Man it's hard to get all this crap working. Steam Workshop's pretty clunky, but trying to mod Fallout 3 makes it look like a design miracle.
Gopher has an excellent youtube series that starts here, which thoroughly explains how to install and make all the most popular mods play nice with each other.
Like I said, he's very thorough. He tells you how certain mods interact, how to install them, which mods need compatibility patches, and how to tweak mod settings in game. It may seem like overkill if you just want to get on with playing the game already, but 40 hours into my current playthrough I've had zero crashes and I suspect I have Gopher to thank for it.
I stumbled over Gopher's videos when I finally got around to buying and playing FO3 about six months ago, and I have to say I found his video modding series terrific. He runs a little long (there were 9 videos in all, about 3 or 4 hours total), but at the end I had a fairly stable game that was enjoyable and gave a much better experience than vanilla FO3 could have. I highly recommend Gopher's vids, he does a great job of explaining everything that he's doing.
You guys are right. The practical usefulness of the videos are debatable (though he does tell you what to overwrite and the install order, which is great) but he goes into great detail about how the mods interact, which is interesting and informative. The videos are also a preview of all the mods he downloads, which is nice in case you want to go piecemeal on things.
God, I hate Youtube tutorials. There are some scenarios where they make sense, but other than that? Type that shit out, I don't want to have to listen to your voice. Most people don't have a voice I care to listen to for forty minutes at a stretch. That's nothing personal; it's just reality. You wouldn't want to listen to me for forty minutes. ARGH!
Now, normally I would agree totally with you, but Gopher is an exception (at least in my case). I liked his informative and unhurried way of speaking, and my wife LOVED his accent, which went a long way towards defusing any issues she might have had with me spending 3 nights straight modding a game that was going to eat up a couple of months of my free time.
I actually quite enjoyed having it as a video rather than a wall of text. I'd never tackle the text, but I can run the video while carrying out its instructions at the same time. Though it is a little intimidating that less than 5 minutes into his first-of-many 40 minute videos he's already linked you to an additional two 30min videos.
Nexus Mod Manager (NMM) is still a piece of shit and you should still with Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM). It's a shame because the download manager thing is really handy.
So after dicking around with the mods suggested in the videos I re-discovered that I prefer a vanilla style game on Very Hard, rather than monster spam at Normal. Fighting a small number of tough creatures is just more interesting. Anyway, I'm using the following mods: ArchiveInvalidaton Invalidated - Used to setup FO3 to get other mods installed Large Address Aware Enabler for FO3 - Enables FO3 to use more memory Fallout 3 Re-animated - Better weapon and idle posture DCInteriors Project - More buildings to explore Triage - Stimpacks heal over time and you need surgical supplies to repair limbs. Doesn't change other healing items unfortunately Better clutter and furniture - I install before NMC so NMC wins conflicts Dynamic Weather - I use the NEE version of the nights, the default stuff is too dark and dark nights = no fun. NEE is still darker than vanilla. Keeps the green which I like Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow - disable the ESPs, installed only so Dynamic Weather can use some of its stuff Eyes Without Cataracts - You can see the colour in them at last Fallout 3 Redesigned - Undecided, don't like what it does to Moira, but I like it in other areas and if it can sort out neck seams then I'm in. Might remove later, we'll see Fallout Street Lights - Makes the nights more interesting I think NMC's Texture Pack - PERFORMANCE version - Haven't tried full, but my system runs this without trouble GNR Enhanced - More radio songs Quieter Dogmeat - Because he's too damn loud Tried Mart's Mutant Mod, but I don't like the new monsters because they're all close combat, and that weights combat too far towards uninteresting. I like the idea of the natural selection bit, but enemies seem to ignore me too often to go off and fight radroaches. Tried Project Reality, but I found it made the world seem really bland and dull. I really missed the green tinge. Tried DarNified UI, but found the amount of text shrinkage and spacing applied to the difficulty text around locks and computers really annoyed me. This mod doesn't work through NMM either, it causes it to crash and is why I switched back to FOMM. I was intending to use Amplified Crippled Effects, only to find that someone had dug into the mod and found that it didn't work on enemies as the mod stated, beyond slowing them further on crippling a leg. My load looks as follows: [X] Fallout3.esm [X] Anchorage.esm [X] ThePitt.esm [X] StreetLights.esm [X] BrokenSteel.esm [X] PointLookout.esm [X] Zeta.esm [X] Project Beauty.esm [X] Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow.esm [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather.esm [X] DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm [X] Project Beauty- Broken Steel.esp [X] Project Beauty- Point Lookout.esp [X] GNR Enhanced.esp [X] Triage.esp [ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty.esp [ ] Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow in Fallout.esp [ ] Enhanced Weather - REBOOT.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Main.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Anchorage.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - The Pitt.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Broken Steel.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Point Lookout.esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Main + DLC Merged.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Night Eye Edition.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Anchorage (NEE).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Rain (NEE).esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Night Eye Edition Merged (NEE+OA+Rain).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Rain.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Dynamic Sneak Bonus.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Sandstorms + Armor Damage (FOSE).esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Sandstorms.esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Weather Machine (Quest Added).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Weather Machine (Start Game Added).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Weather Machine (Vendor Added).esp I was able to plug all this into an existing game without breaking it.
I fired Fallout 3 up the other day and have been playing it a bit, but so far jusf vanilla. I have a bunch of Mart's mods, but they are all turned off. I was thinking about looking at some others but it's been such a long time I don't even remember how to install mods anymore anyway. And it sounds lame, but having to go find the DVD made me seriously considering just buying the whole thing on Steam again. Lol.
I've added Slower Levelling LITE to the list since I've already hit level 14 and there's a ton of wasteland to go. It goes at the end of the load order and I'm using the Extremely Slow option. EDIT: According to the comments this mod might not play nice with Broken Steel, so I've replaced it with Experience Level Adjustment Mod which also allows a more fine grain tuning. Definitely not going above 2x experience required this time.
I consider Fallout: Wanderer's Edition to be the definitive mod for me, but I also dabble in a lot of expanded story mods as well.
Just a few notes: I removed the Large Address Awareness (or rather, restored the EXE backup) while looking into an issue with my save. The issue proved unrelated but I haven't patched this back in and I haven't noticed any adverse effects. If you apply the XP increase to an existing game I believe it increases the next level XP to where it would be if you had started the game with the mod applied, therefore the first level you try to get after applying this mod can take some time, so be warned. I've saw a post recommending around a 60% increase and I think that feels like it's about right. Dynamic Weather sandstorms are awesome. I'm disappointed I haven't managed to find a mod which adds a follower with any depth. I'd love to get a little Bioware in my Bethesda. I've finished the Wasteland Survival Guide so my time with Moira is over and that's always a sad moment for me. The Fallout 3 AI does more interesting things than I remember. It loots, it retreats, it hides, it flanks. It's actually surprisingly fun to fight against sometimes. Latest load order: [X] Fallout3.esm [X] Anchorage.esm [X] ThePitt.esm [X] StreetLights.esm [X] BrokenSteel.esm [X] PointLookout.esm [X] Zeta.esm [X] Project Beauty.esm [X] Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow.esm [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather.esm [X] DCInteriors_ComboEdition.esm [X] Project Beauty- Broken Steel.esp [X] Project Beauty- Point Lookout.esp [X] GNR Enhanced.esp [ ] Mart's Mutant Mod - Project Beauty.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_10.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_20.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_30.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_40.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_50.esp [X] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_60.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_70.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_80.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_90.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_100.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_125.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_150.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_200.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_250.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_300.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_350.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_400.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_500.esp [ ] Enhanced Weather - Rain and Snow in Fallout.esp [ ] Enhanced Weather - REBOOT.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Main.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Anchorage.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - The Pitt.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Broken Steel.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Point Lookout.esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Main + DLC Merged.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Night Eye Edition.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Anchorage (NEE).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Rain (NEE).esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Night Eye Edition Merged (NEE+OA+Rain).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Rain.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Dynamic Sneak Bonus.esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Sandstorms + Armor Damage (FOSE).esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Sandstorms.esp [X] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Weather Machine (Quest Added).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Weather Machine (Start Game Added).esp [ ] Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Weather Machine (Vendor Added).esp [X] Triage.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_Challenges.esp [ ] Fallout_3_XP_Slower_NPCs.esp
I know of two companions I loved back when I played FO3... Charon Improved by llamaRCA - While this doesn't add any new quests to our favorite grumbly ghoul, it does add a lot more dialog (both with your character and other NPCs) as well as making him feel less like a cardboard cutout and more like a real person. Finally, it makes him look different, though there is a vanilla face version - as you're using Project Beauty, you'll want to use that one. He also works wonderfully with... Sydney Follower by drg6525 - This mod turns Sydney the Relic Hunter from a one-note character to a fully realized companion. And when I say fully, I mean it; she's got a ton of new dialog (made from the old lines as far as I can tell), can be taught skills with books, can be taught to use energy weapons through a small questline, and can even cook for you (which is nice when you're using survival mods). Be sure to read the readme, though, as it has (fixable) compatibility issues with FWE and Project Beauty.
I don't know if it's just how Charon is in vanilla or the mod giving him a .44 magnum and higher starting health, but he seems terribly over-powered. I had to fire him because he was owning everything. I'm trying Sydney now. Hope that works out because getting the Fallout Redesigned face in there was a pain in the backside.
So where as I sent Charon away because he was too powerful and it was making things dull, I couldn't bring myself to do that with Sydney because the mod is so much better. All the little extra dialogues, the stuff you can give her to build trust or boost stats. It's all so well done, even if trying to get VO which wasn't meant to fit together fit together can lead to some clunky joins. The whole giant adventure across the wasteland thing is such perfect territory for a buddy adventure (or even a full party) I'm amazed no one has put together a full NPC mod to do exactly that, a start to finished scripted and voiced buddy, with comments for everything. Perhaps it's simply too vast a project for the community. Or it's interesting only to me. I was rather hoping that Fallout NV would hit that sweet spot for me, but Obsidian went in a completely different direction with it. To make it work I've put MMM back into the mix along with its default increased spawns and put difficulty back at Normal. Seems to be working pretty well. Installed it just before going inside Fort Bannister and holy shit was that awesome. I was laying down traps of mines, taking drugs (and ensuring Sydney had a supply), launching desperate attacks when Sydney got in over her head (I've set it so she can die). A couple of times we got split up and it reminded me of the finale of The Usual Suspects. I could hear gun fire, but couldn't tell where it was happening. Finally we emerged victorious and it was mighty sweet, best fun I've had in some time. I might need to change to XP 100 from XP 60 though. I've also gone back to DarnUI along with the adjustable and immersive hud mods Back to using Nexus Mod Manager because of one mod I got tired of trying to download manually. If anyone knows of a decent fast travel limiter outside of the FWE bike, I'd love to hear of it. Also, a warning to those looking at my load order above: you need to enable Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Rain.esp in addition to Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Night Eye Edition Merged (NEE+OA+Rain).esp to get rain. At least that's my understanding from a post the author just made to me on Nexus. Also note that BOSS will get the load order wrong and load rain after NEE merged, but rain needs to be loaded prior to NEE.
Shame Charon Improved didn't work out... now that ya mention it, I remember him being pretty damn deadly myself, and I think it's due to the magnum... if you decide to give him another whirl, maybe you can take away his 44 and give him a weaker weapon? TBH, though, with MMM's increased spawns, his damage output does get mitigated a bit... he may kill a ghoul pretty quick, but 5 or 10 of 'em take some work. I'd recommend you give it another shot, because he is pretty darn cool... he actually has dialog regarding Sydney, though I forget if it's a full-fledged conversation between the two of them or not. Actually, I do! Try Wasteland Travel Caravans, which provides an immersive alternative to fast travel via caravans you pay to ride along with. I don't think the mod adjusts travel speed to match your timescale, though.
Well funny you should mention it, shortly after posting I decided to run Sydney and Charon together, then upped the MMM settings to use 3-5 increased spawns and the 25% hardcore chance to spawn something tougher. We'll see how that goes. I recall the readme suggesting he talks about her at the beginning of her quest (which he wasn't present for, so I missed that). Whether there's more to it I don't know. The real kicker is I sent him home literally in front of the door to Sydney.
Yep, that, combined with the advice LlamaRCA gave ya (funnily enough, I was on Charon Improved's page to see if there was more info re: Sydney dialog, and saw you had posted) should get ya set as far as difficulty goes. As far as the Archives talk goes, I think you may have missed the gist of it, though they might still have some dialog together. I'll just copy what Llama had to say on the subject here (though, I'll spoiler it just in case): It's a little thing, but it's kinda neat.
DAMNIT! Also, a warning to those looking at my load order above: you need to enable Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Rain.esp in addition to Xepha's Dynamic Weather - Night Eye Edition Merged (NEE+OA+Rain).esp to get rain. At least that's my understanding from a post the author just made to me on Nexus. Also note that BOSS will get the load order wrong and load rain after NEE merged, but rain needs to be loaded prior to NEE.
Thanks for the interesting write up - now I wish I'd played the game with that mod! I actually remember looking at it on the Nexus, but I think by the time I discovered it, I'd already resolved her arc and I didn't want to /couldn't be bothered messing with console commands to bring her along again. Oh well.
Well, don't expect too much from it, it's an improvement over what comes with the game, but still very much limited by what dialogue is in the game already. She's no Bioware companion.
