F:NV Best Fallout New Vegas Mods 2011

Fallout: New Vegas
I spent a few hours tonight gearing up to play New Vegas again, this is what I have so far.

  • Mission Mojave - Ultimate Edition
  • IWS - Increased Wasteland Spawns
  • Project Nevada
  • Weapon Mods Expanded
  • Fallout New Vegas Redesigned 2
  • EVE - Essential Visual Enhancements
  • NMC's Texture Pack for New Vegas
  • A World of Pain
  • New Vegas Bounties
  • Conelrad Radio
  • Radio New Vegas - The Secret Stash
  • One HUD
  • The Mod Configuration Menu

I'm contemplating Interior Lighting Overhaul, but I'm worried that it'll make things annoyingly pitch dark as it did so within Skyrim.

I was also wondering about the differences between FOOK and Project Nevada if anyone has experience with both of them. Although, I have some prior experience with PV, I felt it took liberties with the lore of the game with its introduced weapons and armor. Is FOOK worse or better in this respect?
 
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Was trying to get an ENB package to work and apparently there's a hardcoded bug in FONV involving any such mod. When looking down the barrel of a gun, your hand is semi-transparent! The only solution is to disable both ambient occlusion and detailed shadows which, in my opinion, defeats half the point of ENB.

So, after hours and hours of various attempts at getting an acceptable graphical mod set up, I ended up falling back on something that is 2 years old: Nevada Skies: URWLified. Adding futher annoyance into the pot, the mod's author is pissed off by some of the people at the Nexus, so the only place I luckily managed to find it was Fileplanet(?!?).
edit: there's a new version up on moddb: http://www.moddb.com/mods/nevada-skies-urwl/downloads/nevada-skies-urwlified-v715

Anywho, final tally for my New vegas directory: 31gigs, heh.
 
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Still playing around with New Vegas and its modding.

Hands-down, the most important mod for New Vegas isn't really a mod at all: BOSS Load Order sorter. It reads from an online database and automatically sorts your mods. It is absolutely invaluable for when you have 100+ esm and esp files vying for attention. Also of particular note, if you are like me and have installed 10+ gigabytes of new textures, you will want to run Texture Optimizer - it is surprisingly effective for not only reducing initial load times but also increasing frame rates.

And for anyone interested, this is my final Installation for New Vegas… after many a restart, I think I'm finally ready to head to Primm.

Edited list 10/13/13
  • Mission Mojave - lore-friendly, highly-supported "fixpack" foundation.
  • MTUI
  • Project Nevada
  • MCM+patches
  • Pipboy 2500 - Removed! Both this and the "Readius" mod have a variety of bugs.
  • Weapon Mod Menu
  • oHUD
  • Unified HUD - handy mod to eliminate menu conflicts/crashes between HUD mods.
  • Extra Content:
    • Mission Mojave PLUS - restored content and other lore-based fixes.
      [*]BrotherhoodHouse Alliance
      [*]nvInteriors Project
      [*]Cesar's New Regime
      [*]A World of Pain (despite lore misgivings, adds great dungeons)
      [*]Warzones (can be unstable if not used with stability-geared mods)
      [*]Some guy series / Inheritance
      [*]Tales from the Burning Sands Complete
      [*]DFB - Random Encounters
      [*]The Collector
      [*]Area 51 - Project Roswell
      [*]Bobblehunt
      [*]CHEMS
      [*]Underground Hideout AMAZING MOD!!!
      [*]Follower Homemarker
  • Weapon Retexture Project
  • Weapon Mods Expanded (WMX)
  • EVE
  • NMC / Ojo Bueno / Flora texture packs
  • Textures over Time (rocks and Honest Hearts Canyons)
  • Enhanced Blood Textures
  • Hectrol FX Duststorm - dust storm retex, little to no fps hit. Demo.
  • Super Mutant Textures
  • Redesigned 2
  • Breeze body pack
  • Type 3 body pack
  • Spice of Life
    • provides much-needed variety in npc clothing/armor options and the reason I delved into different body types in the first place (required).
  • TFH Rugged Face
  • Misc Item Icons
  • Increased Wasteland Spawns
  • FNV Realistic Wasteland Lighting or Nevada Skies for outdoor lighting/weather.
  • Directors Chair - Total Visual Control Device
    • A special note for graphics people: Combined with the above, Director's Chair provides a better, more problem-free visual experience than any ENB I've tried. Especially convenient when used with oHUD/iHUD.
  • Interior Lighting Overhaul - a truly vital mod! Less garish Pipboy light too. Includes patch for Nevada Skies.
  • ConelRad
  • Wave Radio
  • CASM
  • Quicker Pipboy light
  • 4gb Enabler (for stability)
  • Fake Fullscreen (for stability)
  • Stutter Remover (for stability)
  • Purge Cell Buffer(for stability)

+ Bashed & custom merge patches to keep things the way I want them.
Load Order 10/13/13
 
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Any of the FNV ENB's using newer binaries? Skyrim had the same bug but Boris fixed it. He is doing some great stuff with the recent binaries and he has released updated version this month for Fallout 3 and FNV. I have bene so busy with Skyrim that I haven't tried a modded FNV yet.
 
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Any of the FNV ENB's using newer binaries? Skyrim had the same bug but Boris fixed it. He is doing some great stuff with the recent binaries and he has released updated version this month for Fallout 3 and FNV. I have bene so busy with Skyrim that I haven't tried a modded FNV yet.

I hadn't looked at Boris' site in a couple days, so your post made me curious. Sure enough, he has a new build up for New Vegas. And, better yet, it fixes the first-person transparency issues.

…Unfortunately, it causes my load times for non-cached areas to be anywhere from 2-3x the norm. Even so, I spent a couple hours trying out ENB presets from the Nexus. At the cost of 5fps, I was getting color palettes that really didn't excite me. I ended up sticking with Nevada Skies URWLified sans any ENB.

In the end, Fallout New Vegas is a desert. I don't know if there's much an ENB mod can do with shaders in that enivironment without making it unrealistic. Skyrim, on the other hand… plenty of colors to work with !
 
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Still going strong (though my savegame just passed 20mb, which is worrisome given how unstable the Gamebryo engine can be).

I just wanted to update this thread with a mod that every RPG fan should try out in their New Vegas run. Tales From the Burning Sands is, by far, the best content mod I've experienced on all the Nexus. Actually, it's more than that - it surpasses Obsidian's content as well. The amount of polish, writing, and scripting that went into this is incredible.

In reference to other popular mods, AWOP will toss a hundred new locations at you with little regard to polish or lore, while New Vegas Bounties will lead you on simplistic assassination missions with practically no backstory. Given how popular those two mods are, it is an absolute shame that Tales from the Burning Sands has nowhere near as many downloads.

If you're playing New Vegas and like a story to unfold as you journey through a quest - a quest that has no map markers to lead you by your nose - and like reading pages of well-written dialogue, this is your first stop.
 
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Interesting update, thanks Drithius. A question though for clarity: Just how much regard for canon and lore is there in this particular mod you mention? I like new, well written content but do prefer respect and consistency where possible as far as canon goes.

I'm planning another play-through possibly come summer holidays - a heavy science and energy weapons build. I've just Old World Blues to go with regards to DLC before I've practically sampled all the content from the game. I've had an incredible amount mileage from the game, over 300 hours spanning the two or so years I've had it.
 
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A question though for clarity: Just how much regard for canon and lore is there in this particular mod you mention?
It blends seemlessly. From the people and places involved right on through to the custom art and objects, Burning Sands could have been a DLC. Actually, that's an understatement; it's on par with OWB for quality and better than the other DLC packs. There is only one caveat and it's a section of somewhat out-of-place poor sound recording for an NPC's dialogue in the mod's Chapter Two.

On the subject of custom art assets, these are a couple screenshots (from inside a weapons company you're investigating) that I chuckled at last night:
te0o.jpg

eq28.jpg
 
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Sounds great, thanks Drithius. I'll definitely place it in my text file of mods to grab whenever the call to the wasteland comes again. ;)
 
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Sorry if this has been covered, I just jumped in. But I heard there was a famous hardcore mod made by one of the developers who thought the official hardcore mode was too weak so he made his own. Does anyone know that one?
 
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Yes there is game's lead designer's mod.
Yknow.
The one who decided what goes into the game and what doesn't. The one who left endless respawns so you can get level cap by just grinding lizzards and put bizzarities we had in FO1 and FO2 not as default, but as a bloody trait.
Josh Sawyer. And it's still eating him inside. Check his pics, he looks like a death on a vacation.

You don't need that you created the game, you're selling it, don't bullshit now mod.

Btw... FO:NV IMO is still nearmasterpiece game.
 
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Sorry if this has been covered, I just jumped in. But I heard there was a famous hardcore mod made by one of the developers who thought the official hardcore mode was too weak so he made his own. Does anyone know that one?

Just in case you didn't get the information you wanted out of Joxer's bizarre mini-rant: It's Josh Sawyer's hardcore mod which the 'Watch has mentioned before in its news.

Here's a relevant link to his blog and the last edition of the mod: (5.1) http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/jsawyeresp-v51.html
 
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What's with all the invisible walls in the outdoors? A simple low ridge between 2 areas has invisible walls?. wtf? Really detracts from the exploration for me (that and the emptiness of the world).
 
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I never really had much of a problem with invisible walls. Are you possibly referring to the ridge near Wolfhorn Ranch and Dead Wind Caverns? In any case, you could try this mod out: Link. I have not personally done so however.

As to "emptiness", are you referring to npcs or locations? I installed IWS mainly to combat the npc aspect; you could also try Warzones but be sure to install the aforementioned 4gb Enabler to combat crashes - warning: Warzones will throw such huge battles at you that they will definitely screw up the balance of cash-on-hand, not recommended for first playthrough. Also adds a couple new areas to fight in.

As to locations, it's never going to be as… filled as FO3 considering it's a desert afterall, but the following each have their benefits:

A World of Pain: pros: over a hundred new locations with a [slight] story to tell; cons: unpolished, grammar mistakes, and will completely alter the balance of the game - not recommended if it's your first playthrough. I have a slight balance/grammar patch for it if you like, but it's a work in progress.

nvInteriors Project
: pros: an interior here and there for you to explore, unique (decorative) items; cons: not overly… refined - some spelling mistakes, some texture glitches.

You could also try out a couple relatively new mods, Factions Reloaded - Legion and Faction Reloaded - Raiders.
 
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Well there's lots of them. They are annoying. The most recent being the one along the ridge between the 195 and the eastern downslope towards Cottonwood Cove north of Coyote Mines.

Interesting post on this subject from Josh

http://spring.me/JESawyer/q/400723116738768512

"We put them up for four reasons: 1) to mark the boundary of the playable space (i.e. the outer edge of the game map) 2) to prevent the player from reaching a vantage point where the world looked "extra bad" 3) to prevent the player from being lodged in world geometry (this happened in Zion a lot) and 4) to prevent the player from standing in an unassailable (to AI) location."

Well I've already had quite a few # 3's and 4's happening despite their best efforts. I can imagine that the engine is pain to deal with and for something this big, a ton of work to take out all those bad places. Seems like 3 is something they could test pretty well using automation and flag those spots. Lots of computing time though.

I really don't care a rat's ass about 4's. Hey, we know there will be graphical glitches in something this big and complex. And there are plenty in this baby, in particular, only half filled in boulders or textures that are floating above their objects like a skin.

Another thing, enemies, static lootable bodies, and items disappearing when you sneak away, and then the enemies strangely respawning upon your return when you are in their midst. Of course the goodies and lootable bodies are still missing, fallen through the environment or some such… Particularly annoying when you just killed off 10 deathclaws at level 10, and got nothing for it but more spawning on top of your ass… :p

Emptiness, yeah you can go a few acres without a single thing to interact with or unusual to see. Lots of mountainous areas / canyons with no hidden secrets. They really could have added many more small goodies (or in particular oddities) here and there to reward hard to reach, out of the way places.

Thanks for those links. AWOP looks particularly inviting, oddly enough. ;) Tempting, but will probably leave my game unmodded for my first playthrough, since I've gone so far already. Which will probably be my only one given my backlog, sadly…

I've forgotten how annoying Obsidian-messes incompletenesses can be. ;) Of course, I'm still loving the game. :)

Sorry for the highjack.
 
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