need FO:NV Mod recommendations from my fellow RPGwatchers..
 

after finishing dead space i am thinking about starting Fallout : New Vegas….
I googled some mods but i can`t really find a list of must-have mods that I should install for a first playthrough that make sense and appeal to me…

SO I am asking ye fellow rpgwatchmen: which are the mods that you use(d) and why are they recommended ?

Cheers in advance,
L.

There's a compilation fan patch that's good to have: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloa…e.php?id=37420

Veronica doesn't level up without a patch. Most texture replacers have the fix included but if you want to use vanilla Veronica, get:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloa…e.php?id=38116

One of the vendor ammo lists is broken so you'll almost never find a certain type of ammo:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloa…e.php?id=37398

If you want hardcore to really be hardcore, then Arwen's might be a must-have:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloa…e.php?id=34759

Hey, is there any mod to make hardcore less hardcore? Like the ability to choose which hardcore features I want? I would especially like to have immortal companions in hardcore mode, but I may also want to get rid of the need to eat and sleep which I really don't care about.

Search for essential companions on nexus. I use one named ICC (Immortal Companion Code).

I thought the need to eat and sleep made the game fun, but the companion A.I. isn't good enough to make them non-essential.

Yeah, I think that at least some simple commands would be essential if they can die - like "come here", "charge" or "when I say be passive I mean exactly the opposite of run ahead in the middle of a pack of deathclaws and get butchered while I'm trying to sneak around them".

I hope someone will get around to make a hardcore features menu at some point but this will definitely do for now, thank you.

I still don't understand the point of wanting to make your companions immortal.

Yeah I get that their AI can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but wouldn't making them immortal essentially break the game from a challenge standpoint? You could just stand back and let them kill everything while you cheer them on.

Immortal companions?

That sounds REALLY immersion breaking and unchallenging to me.

They still drop unconscious when the enemy is too strong for them, so I still have to fight. Sometimes they take care of the weaker enemies by themselves which I'm fine with.

That was no issue in FO1 & 2 because the turn based system at least allowed me to know what they were doing at all times and keeping them safe wasn't too much of a problem, but in this game they just run ahead out of sight and get knocked out way too often.

Yes, imo.
Companions have unlimited ammo (only for their default weapons, but these are all rather strong), their gear doesn´t deteriorate and stimpacks heal them instantly even on hardcore, so the fact they can die is pretty much THE balancing feature here. And works well in tandem with their deficient AI, heh.
At least on very hard/hardcore, first half of the game is relatively challenging in a kinda Gothic style - you can quite often walk into places where enemies stomp all over you - if you´re alone you usually don´t have enough offense to clear the place fast enough, with companions it´s their defense which is problem and they´re likely to die so you´re forced to either try to cheese it somehow or leave the place for later.
Eventually you won´t have to postpone anything but up till the end there still will be some combat situations where you´ll at least need to pay attention to what you´re doing and cooperate with the companions to prevent them from dying.
Moreover, as you become more self-sufficient, some scenarios will likely prove easier to be tackled alone as keeping companions alive would be too much hassle, which adds a bit more of "tactical" weight to the game.

I imagine immortal companions would throw out of window all of this fast and you´d be mostly just twiddling thumbs till the air is clear, without even need to care about resources.

Well… I'm a wimp and I find the game challenging enough for my taste even in non-hardcore mode + it takes more than companions that only get knocked out to break my immersion, so I'm sure you guys won't mind if I use that mod.
But I'd like to apologize to the op for (unintentionally) causing this derailment.

Why on earth would I mind you using a mod, in any case?

I just prefer a game to be immersive and challenging, if possible, but I understand why you'd rather not have to deal with sucky AI.

I never used companions in any of the Fallouts, except for the dog briefly - because I like to go solo if I can.

AI is one reason, but another is that I prefer being really "sneaky-crawly" - and companions make that hard in most cases.

This is why, imo, companions simply don't work very well in Bethesda style sandbox games.

They have no choice but to give them unlimited ammo, because the game world is balanced for a single character in regards to ammo availability.

I suppose they could simply double the amount of ammo you find while you have a companion, but it would be rather immersion breaking for ammo to just magically increase and decrease in such a way.

Hold on, Boone seems to run out of ammo all the time with me. He's also a kill snatcher and barely ever lets me kill. If I didn't need another person hauling my junk around I'd give him the boot. His shots are too accurate. I had to constantly have him wait somewhere so I could finish the "kill these people and bring there unmutilated heads" quest without him getting headshots all the time. He also tends to run away from me and hunt down enemies on the other side of the map when my radar shows a red dot even though I have his AI set to stay close and backup. At this point its basically him doing my killing for me and me cleaning up. He's also constantly telling me to "let me take care of that" whenever I'm shooting, my aim can't be that bad! I'm definately enjoying this game and I usually like to play solo but having him around makes it less scary when I'm going into an unknown dark vault or buildling.

You turned him to aggressive. In aggressive companions will attack any enemies. On passive they only attack if the enemies are coming after you.

There's not much left of hardcore at that point.

As I mentioned above, companions have unlimited ammo only for their default weapons, so if Boone isn´t using "Boone´s Hunting Rifle" he will burn through the ammo.
And yes, due to his sniper "class", in most exteriors he largely overcomes the companions-can-die feature. By the time most people are likely to get him (aka early into the game), he presents a major shift in difficulty and world becomes much less dangerous with him. He shouldn´t be so easily/early available imo.
In interiors he falls back in line with the others.

EDIT…
(Sorry, I didn't mean to offend or annoy anyone)

I feel completely violated by that post.

I apologize

@holeraw

I think the only one here with a problem relating to how you play your game is…. you.