FalloutNV - Phoneboi-EssArrBee

The Fallout New Vegas Mod Experience

From Cold and Mountainous to Dry and Arid

Thanks and Credits

A big credit to EssArrBee's Fear and Loathing in New Vegas

Seriously, most of this is cribbed from that page, and it's thanks to the wonderful, frequently updated guide that I'm up and running with a modded game so quickly. In fact don't bother with this page, start with EssArrBee's guide and build from there. This isn't a guide so much as my notes on the experience, and any changes or differences between the guide and my own play-build.

Additional thanks to:

Bethesda Softworks and Obsidian Entertainment for creating the game, and providing the engine design and resources for mods to be created.
NexusMods for hosting the mods and providing a great service to the modding community.
The videos of Gopher, Brodual and MMOxReview for re-kindling my interest, providing useful information and a few good laughs.
All of the talented mod creators for their time, talent and skill in providing modding tools and additional game content.

Prologue

For $12, I couldn't pass up on the complete Fallout New Vegas pack during the Steam Summer Sale. Applying the same methodology that STEP uses (maybe STEP's an evolution of the NV methodology, I don't really know), I'm going to try and run it modded as well.

First, a confession, I don't have much experience with the Fallout series. I did play a few hours of Fallout 3 when it was first released, but never finished it. I discovered modded New Vegas after browsing videos on modded Skyrim. I've never played New Vegas before. I did run through the quests in Goodsprings in pure vanilla, giving me a good baseline to compare to as I add mods.

My goal here is to create a New Vegas experience with the following qualities:

Remain lore-friendly
Improve overall visual quality
Create a more immersive environment
Realistic, challenging combat
Extend survival elements
Extend crafting elements
Expand with new quest content

Install Fallout New Vegas

Pretty straight-forward here, most of this was already done to mod Skyrim

New Vegas Launcher Options

Using the Skyrim Launcher Options as a guide, setting up the same way where it applies to NV.

Antialiasing - 4 Samples
Anisotropic Filtering - 8 Samples
Detail - High 
Windowed - Unchecked
Vertical Sync - Unchecked
Screen Effects - HDR
Advanced Settings - select HIGH, all water options
Advanced Settings View Distance - Grass Fade to max, all others 1/2 of max
Advanced Settings Distant LOD - No changes, Tree:26, Object:50, Land Quality:100

Install Utilities

(1) When adding the 4GB Launcher to MO, include '-laaexe ./FalloutMO.exe' in command-line arguments.

Benchmark

The opening cutscene looks like a Bink video, so I'm not sure where a good benchmark could be taken at this point.
Maybe the opening with Doc, though pop-up notifications might skew the results with high FPS peaks.

Clean the Bethesda ESMs

ToDo: Not comfortable enough to mod the stock esm's just yet, will have to see what happens.

Quests

Originally I had installed the quest content after all other mods.
Going to move them up-front in MO (as suggested in EssArrBee's guide) and see if there are any issues.

New Vegas Uncut

(1) Dirty edit/cleaning noted in EssArrBee's guide, going to leave as-is for now.

Afterschool Special

Afterschool Special

 Main: Afterschool Special V 2O1 - Sortomatic V4 Full

The Someguy Series

There are some conflicts noted in MO for these mods, however they only conflict with each other.

Deimos

Deimos

Tales from the Burning Sands

Tales from the Burning Sands (1)

 Main: Tales from the Burning Sands 1.31b FULL version - all three chapters
Merge: Tales from the Burning Sands 131b UPDATE
(1) Dirty edit/cleaning noted in EssArrBee's guide, going to leave as-is for now.

User Interface

Unified HUD

(1) Darnified UI: INI edit required to enable new fonts
(2) Project Nevada: Copy "/optional/DarnUI/menus/" to "<MO>/mods/Project Nevada/"
(3) PN Extra Options: Install with FOMM and create overwrite mod with MO. The DLC patches are included if you enable all options.
(4) MCM: Merge MCM Bugfix 2 update
(5) Flashlight: Install with FOMM and create overwrite mod with MO.
(6) JIP Weapon Overheating: Hide "/menus/main/hud_main_menu.xml"
(7) JIP Selective-Fire: Hide "/menus/main/hud_main_menu.xml"
(8) One HUD: Install with FOMM and create overwrite mod with MO.
(9) Unified HUD: Install with FOMM and create overwrite mod with MO.

Extended Interface

Fixes

(1) NV Anti-Crash: Set fGrassStartFadeDistance=17000 in falloutprefs.ini
(2) HV Stutter Remover: Keeping defaults for now.
(3) Safe ShowRaceMenu: Using Mirrors version

Texture Overhauls

(1) Hall of Equipment: Install Main and all four optionals
(2) NMC's Texture Pack: Using small version, merge "Ceiling black holes" & "Red Wood and Burnt Fence Clash" fixes
(3) Poco Bueno: Merge "Skeleton Transparency Fix"
(4) Textures Over Time: Honest Hearts Sandstone textures only
(5) Precision Collision: Hide the "/meshes/clutter/billiards/" directory

Environmental

ELECTRO-CITY - Relighting the Wasteland
Interior Lighting Overhaul (1)
Nevada Skies - Weather Effects (2)
NVInteriors Project (3)
NV Interiors Urban Edition
Wasteland Flora Overhaul (4)
Hectrol FX DUSTSTORM Deluxe HighRes Retex 1024k
Hectrol Tumbleweed Deluxe HighRes Retex 1024k
HiRes Raider Graffiti
Improved LOD Noise Texture
Laurens Bathroom Poetry
Mojave Nights (5)
Vault 22 Flora Overhaul
The Strip Open
Survivalist Bunker

(1) ILO: Install 6-7 main file, tick "Lucky 38 Suite" and "NV Interiors Project Combo Ed.". Merge 6-7-4 Update and Pip-Boy Light Colors optional. "Move Interior Lighting Overhaul - Ultimate Edition.esp" to optional
(2) Nevada Skies: Move "NevadaSkies - TTW Edition.esp" and "Move NevadaSkies - Basic Edition.esp" to optional
(3) Install NVInteriors Core, merge Combo Edition and NMC Compatibility Patch (Using Small)
(4) Flora Overhaul: Using dead version, install Poco Bueno LODs to own mod folder. Dirty edit/cleaning noted in EssArrBee's guide, going to leave as-is for now.
(5) Mojave Nights: Using 140% Moon Size and Default Moon Glow