Glad you're enjoying the game! It's great with mods.
Yes, I'm having a much better experience compared to my disappointing mostly vanilla run a few years back. I still have issues, frustrations, and complaints with some of the world design (and design choices in general) but the core ideas of the game are still pretty fantastic for the most part.
One thing I've been quick to do is severely reduce XP gain through Project Nevada - even with that lowered to 33%, I've hit level 9 very quickly, probably thanks to IWS. Aside from that, the game looks
much better without even going completely overboard with graphics and lightning mods.
Bullet Time - a feature that I normally despise in most games - is also a major lifesaver in New Vegas. This is probably thanks to the engine, but enemy movement in New Vegas/FO3 is so janky, stilted, and awkward that aiming in real-time is extremely frustrating. Now I can actually line up my shots, and with the right balance conditions in place, the gameplay is still quite challenging.
These examples combined with conveniences - such as smoother interface functionality - drastically improve the base game.
[*]Do you see a DFB - Random Encounters entry on your MCM? If not, make sure you've downloaded the fix in addition to the main esm, available on the same.
Yikes, I read every word on the description page and didn't notice that extra file. I should have checked the file page more closely, but normally this sort of thing is mentioned by the mod author. Oops!
I'm not sure if it's working now, but I encountered a heavy concentration of fiends outside of New Vegas (on the west side of Fort McCarren). I'm not sure if this is from DFB or IWS (or both!) but this was much more fun than my tedious trek from Primm to Vegas, where I only encountered a few radscorpions on an otherwise uneventful, boring walk. I would never want too much combat in
any game, but there needs to be
some danger and excitement while exploring and traveling. If DBS is now running (and I
think it is), this problem should be solved now.
Thanks for the heads up on IWS! I haven't encountered any crashes yet, but it's good to know that it can potentially cause problems. Congrats on your mod! (small as it may be, it might help some people out). One question: What does "purging cell buffers" do exactly? I'm not very familiar with cell terminology and functions in Bethesda-tech driven games.
I'm hoping Fallout 4's engine isn't so pathetic in terms of stability in this arena, but I have my doubts with it likely using the Creation Engine, aka Gamebryo 1.01.
Best not to get your hopes up there
. It's a shame given Bethesda's resources, but they seem oddly content with their tech, probably due to familiarity. If only the parent company wasn't wasting what must be an astronomical sum on the Elder Scrolls MMO and used these funds instead to create a world-beating open-world engine from the ground up…