Fallout: New Vegas - Sawyer Mod v3

J.E. Sawyer has released v3 of his Hardcore Mod - the notes are too long to post here but here's a snip:

v3 Changes:
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1.8.2012
* THE MOST IMPORTANT BUG HAS BEEN FIXED: "HAS BACKPACK" HAS BEEN CHECKED ON ALL RANGER COMBAT ARMOR AND RIOT GEAR!!!!!!! WOWOWOWOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!
* Sturdy Caravan Shotgun added to ShotgunSurgeonWeaponsList
* Super Slam, Piercing Strike, Unstoppable Force, Slayer set to have OR conditionals for equivalent Unarmed or Melee Weapon skill levels.
* Lead Belly now negates ST penalty from eating raw meat (of all kinds).
* IsHardcore condition on raw meat ST reduction removed. This means you will always suffer ST loss from eating raw meat unless you have Lead Belly.
* Ninja now adds 15% to Critical Hit Chance with Melee/Unarmed (instead of multiplying by 1.15). Prereq allows Melee Weapons or Unarmed to qualify.
* Lady Killer and Cherchez La Femme damage bonuses increased from 10% to 15% due to proportionally lower numbers of female characters in the game.
* Demolition Expert now has only 2 ranks. Each rank grants +10% damage and +10% larger explosion radius. Don't worry; Explosives are still very powerful.

More information.

Folks who have played both with Sawyer's mod and the "Imp's More Complex Needs" mod — which is the more interesting of the two?

I am trying to decide which to use for my second and more exhaustive run through the game. As one of the original creators, Sawyer has a strong claim, but I'm curious just how much of a survival-sim Imp's mod would change the game into.

With all due respect to Sawyer, Arwen's Realism Tweaks laughs at the "hardcore" of this mod. Add Imp's to that and Sawyer's becomes more like vanilla by comparison

Yeah, I'm'a go download those.

Plus, I neglected to buy all the DLC in the winter sale, and I don't want to buy the less-great ones now that they're full price again just so I can install Sawyer's mod.

Originally Posted by SonOfCapiz
With all due respect to Sawyer, Arwen's Realism Tweaks laughs at the "hardcore" of this mod. Add Imp's to that and Sawyer's becomes more like vanilla by comparison

I find that Arwen's mod adds a ton of simulation statistics that don't really fit in a game of New Vegas' scope. You can endlessly add statistics like digestion, pissing, pooping, infections and whatever else an aspie will think is fun, more doesn't mean better.

I'd rather have a balance between gameplay and survival aspects.

Then you are clearly not HARDCORE enough! Arwen's is the only way to grow your e-peen!

I might give Sawyer's mod a go next time I start up New Vegas. Not crazy about some of the changes, but some others are quite nice.

Just play vanilla in hardcore/hard diffy with Project Nevada. You don't really need to punish yourself with mods that go counter to the core design to enjoy this game.

Horses for courses but I'm with D'Artagnan - it's just not a survival game as such and trying to force it to be won't work well.

I like the idea of adding a bit more depth (some might say "complexity") to the survival and medical aspects of the game, but haven't really tested any of the mods that do so. Most of them seem to add too much minutiae for my liking and in doing so shift the game's focus too far from "adventuring" to basic surviving. Granted, in a post-apoc world (like Fallout) surving should be hard, but there is a limit on what is playable, which does not penalize the player too much. Arwen's mod, for instance, goes waaay over the top for me.

Originally Posted by Lurking Grue
I like the idea of adding a bit more depth (some might say "complexity") to the survival and medical aspects of the game, but haven't really tested any of the mods that do so. Most of them seem to add too much minutiae for my liking and in doing so shift the game's focus too far from "adventuring" to basic surviving. Granted, in a post-apoc world (like Fallout) surving should be hard, but there is a limit on what is playable, which does not penalize the player too much. Arwen's mod, for instance, goes waaay over the top for me.

Yeah, I like the idea as well.

Problem is that the game isn't a survival simulator - and it's not even close.

It's built on (and closely resembles) the Fallout 3 paradigm. It's basically a traditional RPG with shooter elements, and it's pretty mainstream when it comes to combat and "challenge". It's not meant to be a punishing and harsh realistic game.

Rather, it's very obviously gamey with just the right sprinkle of realism to make immersion easier.

Project Nevada tweaks a lot of stuff - and (to my mind) improves a lot of the core mechanics - but it leaves the basic design intact. It makes the hunger/thirst stuff slightly more pervasive - and I personally think it's just the right balance between a meaningful feature and approachable gameplay. I felt "vanilla" hardcore was so lenient as to be almost pointless. As such, it didn't do much *for me* in terms of immersion into that harsh world.

I really don't think any one person can make a mod with wholesome enough changes to change the core design. It would take a complete re-design, basically.

As such, it will just be incredibly frustrating to all but the most dedicated glutton for punishment

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I felt "vanilla" hardcore was so lenient as to be almost pointless. As such, it didn't do much *for me* in terms of immersion into that harsh world.

I agree. Vanilla hardcore wasn't really what I expected. I can't remember there ever being a time when I needed to worry about my provisions or water supply (I did use Bottle That Water mod, though, because it makes sense - if you have an empty bottle, why couldn't you fill it with water). Also, I was practically swimming in Stimpacks and had multiple Doctor's Bags nearly all the time, so healing wasn't much of a problem either. So much for feeling the harshness of the "nuclear wasteland".

I think I'll have to test this Project Nevada mod. I recently bought all the DLCs and have been meaning to give them a spin. Maybe even start over with the mod. We'll see.