I have been using Fallout 3 Realistic Wasteland Lighting for a while now. It is a subtle, but excellent mod that makes the wasteland exteriors look brilliant. I have never seen Megaton look this good. It also plays well with Fellout. I found it works best if you put it before Fellout in your load order.

That looks beautiful! I am not a fan of all the haze in some of those places shown, it really looks so much better without it - wonder how/if it changes the render rate/FPS's?

I have not seen any FPS drop with it.

Well, then I'll most def be getting it. That sky looks so much better, and the buildings so much clearer! I noticed one shot in Point Lookout - the big Ferris Wheel = I took that same shot in my game a few months back and mine is so foggy it looks like hell.

Thank you for posting that, I never would have found that without you mentioning it!

I found Slam M16 Pack a few days ago and have tried it out. The models are good. It adds several M16 variants, and even a couple of Heckler and Koch rifles that are essentially M16/AR15 knock-offs.

The only downside is the modder put them in the Megaton Armory, which you have to break into. So I just deleted that part, and put them in a respawning container outside of Vault 101.

I also used this to make a mod that replaces the vanilla assault rifle with the M16A4. So far so good. I am going to play with it a bit to see how I like seeing the M16 as opposed to the old vanilla assault rifles (which are really just the original model HK G3 rifles with wooden stocks).

I'm adding Stimpaks no longer heal crippled limbs to the list.

I keep forgetting Megaton has an armory! In all these years, and all the games I've played; I've never broken into it!

I have actually broken into the one in Rivet City, but never was able to survive the standing turrets and sentry bot long enough to leave there with any loot, lol.









I like this idea, but how do you heal crippled limbs then?

By sleeping or by visiting doctors.

Well (if that mod is seeking to make it more realistic), if they are going to disable healing crippled limbs with Stimpacks (which is a strong medicine); then how can they leave it so just sleeping heals them?

I agree with (and think it is a great idea) disabling crippled limb healing via Stimpacks; but think that sleep healing crippled limbs should be disabled too then.

The Player should have to visit a doctor - or the modder should make some kind of crafting thing where they have to find leg braces, syringes, forceps, etc - and actually make something themselves to fix crippled limb; not just sleep in a bed.

And maybe if they have crafted their own healing of crippled limbs (instead of paying a doctor) there could be a cooldown period where their speed/stamina (etc) was 5% less temporarily or something.

Now THAT I would like!

I agree that it doesn't make a lot of sense that sleeping heals limbs instantly but I still prefer it over stimpaks because you automatically heal any crippled limbs if applying stimpaks, during the combat for instance.

At least with this mod your limbs don't get fully healed with stimpaks, you actually have to find a place to rest (or use the blanket mod which allows you to rest anywhere, but still).

I remember (playing on the 360) where before my explosives skill was high enough to disarm the bomb in Megaton I used to live in the Gibson house in Minefield (because I couldn't find a bed in Megaton that didn't cost over 100 per night and include a prostitute in bed with me, lol).

Early in the game stimpacks and beds were more important than gold; and the trek from Vault 101 to Minefield had very few beds available or chances to find stimpacks either.

At that stage of the game I never had a good enough gun to tangle with the enemies I came across:

A really bad Raider camp on a bridge/Mireluks/a Super Mutant camp/another Raider camp/ - not to mention all the free roaming radscorpions/vicious dogs/patrolling robots/etc. and having to pass near the Bethesda ruins.

I remember feeling I might never make it to a safe place to sleep; and the tremendous feeling of relief and joy when I caught sight of Minefield on the horizon - it was sweet, and what a huge gaming experience that was.

That is when I fell in love with Fallout 3, because it really pitted your survival against the entire world in the beginning of the game.

Then when you gain in levels and get better weaponry and armor, then you are able to fight your way into places where there are supplies to be had; and then stimpacks and beds can be found more readily and lose their value to the Player because you can get them and are surviving a little better.

Then about 3/4 of the way through the game the balance seems to go the other way, where suddenly you have over a hundred stimpacks in your inventory and have a safe house with a full medical stand to treat your own injuries so don't need the stimpacks - and you no longer have to scrounge to survive; too much money and equipment so you are setting great armor and weapons up in displays around your house.

Somewhere between that initial surviving well and before it reaches the "owning" stage, THAT is when a mod should kick in to ease back on supplies or toughen up what it takes to survive. Like for instance, a person might have to use BOTH a Stimpack and bed to heal major wounds or crippled limbs; or the days in bed extended to 3 for a major injury or break. (because if you are not at home, that means you won't be able to safely sleep in a dungeon bed because the enemies will respawn).

(Like maybe have your extreme wounds or crippled limbs only heal by 1/3 per day with both bedrest and stimpacks)

Like at that point suddenly make it where the Stimpacks have suddenly lost potency and work at 5-25% of their former state; or been poisoned so only some of them work and it is a random crapshoot whether you will be healed or not (or maybe even have them sicken the player temporarily because they have been out in the world soaking up radiation, so maybe they give radiation sickness now or something).

And without the Stimpacks sleeping doesn't heal a broken limb; you have to use both or go to the doctor for real healing (and at that point in the game the Player certainly has the bottlecaps to spend on Doctors, and doctors are plentiful in the wasteland, I've even come across them in random encounters).

I am really interested in seeing how Fallout 4's hardcore mode is going to be set up.



*

I have been using Vandr's HD Creatures for a little while now. It is a simple texture replacer that adds HD textures for most of the monsters in the wasteland. I have not seen any real performance impact, but your mileage may vary depending on your system.

One thing I really like is that it does not truly change the appearance of the monsters. It just improves the quality. I have recently tried out a few other HD texture replacers like NMC's Texture pack, which dramatically altered how some things looked, changing their colors, the materials they are made of (like desks going from being metal to wood), and so on. I didn't like that one bit, so I deleted them.

The one other high def texture replacer I did keep is UHQ Terrain Overhaul. It replaces the ground textures and meshes, improving things like rocks, streets, and so on, as well as the dirt itself. So far I am liking it, though I am not completely sold yet.

It comes one different levels of quality, so you can use a lower definition version if you have a slower system. I have not seen any reduction in framerate using the highest version on my machine. However, the load times when I change from indoor to outdoor cells, or when I fast travel, are about three times longer. But that is not a deal-breaker for me.

Finally, I have also been using Traits Project, which has been outstanding. It brings back the old traits from the earlier Fallout games, and New Vegas. You can pick two of them during the tutorial, just like the other games. What I really like is that if you have an already established character long out of the vault, the first time you start them you will get the prompt to add the traits. So it works for brand new characters and for old, pre-existing ones. That was very thoughtful.

I have seen some other Trait mods that simply add the traits as regular perks you pick when you level up. But I don't like those. It does not make much sense taking them, since the traits are balanced so that while they give you one bonus, you also receive a penalty to make up for it. This is because they are meant to be freebies you can take when you make your character, not rewards for experience. For example, why take Four Eyes as a regular perk, when you could just take the Intense Training perk and get a +1 to Perception with no drawbacks?

I like the land textures very much, and some of the creature ones looked great, but a couple of them seemed better in the vanilla (imho). That Traits perk sounded Awesome! Didn't we already have to choose our character trait at the beginning of NV?

The Traits are in New Vegas. It was only Fallout 3 that they were cut from. This mod only brings them back to FO3.

Oh, OK. I remember always wanting to try the "Wild West" trait, but always ended up spending my trait in defensive choices because of how under-powered I felt so early on in the game, lol.

I consolidated all the mods I created in the past to port New Vegas items into FO3, and put them in a single mod. There was more than I thought:

Stealth Suit Mk. II
Reinforced Leather Armor
Anti-Material Rifle
Bumper Sword (and Legate Sword)
Binoculars
Proton Axe (and Inversal Proton Axe)

I am planning on adding more Vegas stuff. That is what prompted me to put it all together into a single mod.

Right now I have it in a Sunset Sasparilla crate outside of Vault 101. But I am thinking of putting a Crimson Caravan merchant with a Brahamin outside of Megaton. Maybe Cass? If I can figure out how to copy over her face data.

Aha! I did figure out how. You can use FNVEdit and FO3Edit, and copy over the face gen data from one to another.

If anyone would like a copy let me know, and I'll email it, or put it up on a file sharing site like Dropbox. I won't be putting it on the Nexus, as Bethesda doesn't like people using resources from one game with another.

Does that Stealth Suit Mk II have a stealth field where you can become invisible by squatting? And I LOVE the Anti-Material Rifle with the incendiary bullets, wonder if they would have the same fireball VATS glitch if ported over to FO3? - In fact, I wonder if the PC game even has that glitch, it may have been just a 360 NV issue.

No, you are thinking of the Chinese Stealth Suit that makes you invisible. The Stealth Suit Mk. II is from Old World Blues, and is completely different.

I don't think that fireball glitch exists on the PC. At least I have never seen it with characters who have used the Anti-Material Rifle. But in any case I have not tried importing specialty ammo. I am not sure if FO3 would even support multiple types of ammo for a single weapon.

Oh, okay. Well, that fireball glitch was my main fun in using the Anti-material, (although on several occasions Veronica was accidentally the fireball recipient, unfortunately)

There was a revolver mod I tried out a while back but I gave up on it pretty soon on account of its ear-piercing sound. It was a very loud, high-pitched sound and I found myself reluctant to fire because of it. It hurt my ears!


-Mod authors! Check your sound levels!

mALX, I found a mod for FO3 that you might like. It's called RI_Sleep and allows you to disable limb recovery upon sleeping and has various other adjustable features like how much health recovers when sleeping etc...

I've also been using the Unselect Quest mod which automatically starts a quest without any markers.

Less Skill Points - does what it says, I find it ridiculous that you get your INT + 10 points to distribute when leveling, this mod lowers the value, making it your INT + 5.

This looks Awesome - and the author has made a sister mod to go with it called "Real Injuries," making crippling injuries and major wounds harder to heal. These sound like exactly what I've been looking for, thank you so much for the link!

This was a neat thing! I think every Bethesda game needs this mod...

Recently I've been using stimpaks again to cure cripple limbs, however not during the combat. So if you get crippled while fighting and inject a stimpak, your health increases but your limbs no longer get automatically healed as long as there's a battle going on.

With this mod sleeping no longer restores crippled limbs and health to max.

This mod removes all voice from the player character.

I love several of the RL mods by that (second) author; really wish they would combine them into one to save on the number of mods installed.

The first two mods are something I would def be interested in, but not the last. In fact, just the opposite - I want a mod that adds more voice to my character.

Thanks for the links, Lopov!

I put my Vegas Gear mod on Dropbox for anyone that is interested. It ports some things over from FONV to Fallout 3. They can all be found in a Sunset Sasparilla crate outside the entrance to Vault 101. It is things like the Rebreather, Anti-Material Rifle, Reinforced Leather Armor, lots of hats, and so on. Basically things I liked.

Thank you, thank you!!! Oh, I can't wait to use that rebreather in Point Lookout! Thank you so much!

*refrains from downloading on account I have no Dropbox account and don´t want one*

You can still download it. Just close out the window asking you to sign up. It will still let you download the file.

What SubRosa said.

It doesn't show till you click on it, but it does have an option to "Skip this and get on with my download" - (which is what I used).



WOO HOO!!! Thank you SubRosa!!!

Downloading has occurred

I am downloading The Lone Wanderer Theme for the Megaton House. I have been watching it for a while, and now it looks like it is finally finished. It adds appropriate trophies to the Megaton house whenever you do things like complete quests, discover specific locations, crafting things, reading skill books, and so on.

There are two versions, one that just unlocks all the trophies to start with, and the version I have been waiting for, that adds each trophy as you go through the game and meet the requirements for it. I don't know if I will use it in Hecate's game, since she has already done most things, and she has her house already filled with trophies she has taken. But I will definitely be using it with my next FO3 character, probably Annie. Or Persephone if I go back to her.

I love it! They even have an engine from "The Pitt!" But it did seem to make the Megaton house feel too cramped in the screens; wish they had created a basement or display room add on instead of stuffing it all into the little Megaton house.

Thanks for drawing attention to it!

Neat. I would download it but I don´t wanna mess up my home, I like it as it is..

I uploaded a new version of Vegas Gear. All I did was modify the Rebreather to use a different slot. Now your glasses will remain equipped when you put the Rebreather on, as will hats.

Oh, that is great !!! Thank you very much !!! We've been stormed out here, so I haven't gotten to install the original download yet and play with it, but I will most def be getting to play by this weekend at the latest and will install this update instead.

Thank you so much again, SubRosa!

Since I started playing New Vegas again, I have added a few essential mods into my load order.

Ultimate Invisible Wall Remover does just what the name says. Finally it gets rid of all those collision boxes all over the place, that funnel your movements into those few Obisidan-approved routes. Now we can go anywhere. Though surviving the creatures we find is another tale...

One Hud
"One hud to rule them all,
one hud to find them,
one hud to bring them all,
in the darkness bind them."
This does something similar to iHud in Skyrim. The big sell for me is that it dynamically removes and restores the hud as you play, so you only see the things you need, when you need them. You need MCM and NVSE, but I found it works without UIO (which I do not have, as I cannot open the blasted 7zip file it comes in).

Mojave Nights is sort of like Baywatch Nights, except without anything Baywatch-related. Which is a good thing. It adds a much more interesting night sky, and has options for how large you want to moon to be, and how bright. It is the successor for the next mod in the list.



Enhanced Night Sky is a Fallout 3 mod that vastly improves the night sky. Throw in krzymar HI-RES Moon (install after Enhanced Night Sky, as it overwrites ENS's moon files), and it creates a brilliant night sky to gaze up at.

I believe the One Hud mod is applied to Fallout 4

Just wanted to say all Fallout 4 mod suggestions and discussions go here as well, naturally

Concerning the Commonwealth:

The first FO4 mod I will look for is one to stabilize the camera in third and first person. I do not find wobbly camera movement “immersive,” I find that it makes me hurl. Gun bob is not the issue. I think that’s done well in this game. In the meantime I will play my PS4 game with the “mod” of wearing Sea Bands on my wrists.

I would also like to see equipped weapons holstered on the characters instead of carried out of sight in crevices unknown.

My character’s hair texture looks like it is missing a file or two. Hopefully that will be patched, otherwise mod.

And finally (for now), the Pip Boy map is cute, but it is not a map. Maybe I just haven’t found one yet, but with all of the people around who do not have Pip Boys I would think that someone would have drawn a real map.

From what I've seen on YouTube, that PipBoy map was the worst I've ever seen in any of the previous Fallout games. Really have to agree with you - it is NOT a map.

I personally hope someone will find the cutting room floor stuff from this game and see if any of it is salvageable for some main questline doctoring and possibly some more substantial side/misc quests.

(Like for example: How Ghastley was able to take a "go kill Unicorn and bring back horn" quest into an amazing fun quest that did not leave you feeling like a murderous tool villain who would commit random slaughter for a jet pack hunting vest).








I wondered when I saw your character's hair too. I mean, so far on YouTube i've seen male characters with darker hair, but their hair looked great. The female NPC's hair looked fine, too. There is most def an issue with her hair.

You can go to a barber in Diamond City and try a different style and color, see if that helps?

Yeah, I’ve seen an NPC with Jenna’s hair style and color and she looks just as dusty as Jenna. My son’s guy has great, shiny hair. When Jenna gets to the barber she might try a different color. Until then she has an awesome hat.

That is what I noticed too, shiny and healthy looking hair. It must be just that color or something. It does not look good, kind of like it is still in cryo or something - or like you said, dusty.

Fallout 4

I’m not on a PC so I can’t vouch for this mod, but here’s one on the Nexus that displays the full dialog options instead of the mysterious Yes, No, Sarcastic ones that can cause you to say things you don’t mean: Full Dialog Interface mod.

Sweet! If I had the game I´d definitely download that

Thanks to this mod, actually a guide, I created my first custom companion for Fallout New Vegas. Instructions are very detailed and suitable for a beginner like me and companions come with their own companion wheels just like in the vanilla game.

Thorne, the man who saved Blondie's life in the Deep Creek Mountains, will at some point join her as a companion in the Mojave. I recommend this guide to anyone interested in making custom NPCs as followers.

This is Awesome, thanks Lopov!

Thank you for that link, Lopov. Congrats on making a companion for Blondie!

Looking for mods for the Hobo's game, I came upon a few lesser known but good mods:

Binoculars

No need to carry a sniper rifle for scoping.

Lower chance of alcohol addiction

Sometimes my characters like to have a beer or two or three but I dislike when I have to reload because they get automatically addicted.

Less suspicious NPCs

NPCs only say thieving-relaed comments when you're sneaking.

Portable lamps

No explanation required, I believe but I'll add one thing, not mentioned in the description - lamps require energy cells to be turned on.

Lootable rubble piles

Most of what you find inside is junk but there are people out there that call them treasures.

I really like the sound of the "Less Suspicious NPC's," it really irritates me in (for example) Rivet City Marketplace where just turning around to leave nets you comments by Flak/Shrapnel/Harkness/etc.

Also like the idea of addictions coming on slower. When you use something like Jet once and 3 minutes later your vision blurs and stays that way for the next 12 hours - kind of ridiculous. I think you should probably have at least 3 doses of meds before addiction sets up. And Alcohol should take more than that, say 15 bottles of beer or 5 bottles of hard liquer? I don't know, I just think getting addicted after one bottle is kind of over doing it.

But that said; if you buy the chem lab for your Player house - it clears up addictions every time you activate it to, so you can keep yourself addiction free as long as you stop by home daily.