Fenris' Personal Mod Guide / Setup
Because I'm gonna forget what to install in a year or two.
Title: Waiting on that part of my brain to come up with something decent.
Game
- Fallout 4 v1.9.4.0
DLC Required
- Wasteland Workshop
- Automatron
- Far Harbour
- Contraptions Workshop
- Vault-Tec Workshop
- Nuka-World
Introduction
If you're following this guide I'm going to make an ass of you and me and assume that you know what you're doing when it comes to modding Bethesda games.
I'll do my best to have the mods here ordered in a way that makes sense, though my usual install methodology is to go down the list of the top 100 mods and install them one after the other.
I tend to favor lore friendly mods that spice up the visuals, as well as grabbing as many lore friendly weapon and armour mods as I can fit into a load order.
I'll include reminders to run LOOT and to check that your game isn't derping out after each section.
Here's my PC's config if you're into that sort of thing, it's probably worth mentioning that this guide will favor high fidelity over FPS, with little to no compromises:
- CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K @ 4.2Ghz
- GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 980Ti @ 1440Mhz / 7Ghz
- RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz CL9
- Mobo: MSI Z87-GD65 Gaming Motherboard
- SSDs: 2x Kingston HyperX 120GB RAID0
Using Kesta's flares and fancy mod sections until I figure out how to do it myself.
Getting Started
First things first: Install the game
Whether via steam or some other platform, it's usually a good idea to install the game to a directory that isn't Steam's default.
That is to say, anywhere that isn't either C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86).
Below is a small walkthrough of how to set up a secondary install location in Steam.
If you have a second hard drive or an SSD just for games, then you have no doubt done this already.
Drivers & Applications
Whilst the game is downloading, this is the perfect time to prepare the other applications that we're going to use.
Update your graphics card drivers
Choose a text editing program
There are a few choices here, the main two being Notepad++ and Sublime Text 3.
Once you have chosen a text editor you should set it as the default program to open both .ini and .txt files.
To do this go to your Fallout 4 directory and right click an ini file such as Fallout4_Default.ini, then select Open With > Choose another app.
Ensure that Always use this app to open .ini files is ticked, then scroll down the list and click More apps > Look for another app on this PC.
Point Windows to the editor's executable file.
For Notepad++ this is a file named notepad++.exe located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++
For Sublime Text this is a file named sublime_text.exe located in C:\Program Files\Sublime Text 3
Repeat this process for .txt files as well.
Next, install an archiving program like WinRAR
I've been using WinRAR forever, so it's just what I'm familiar with. It's available in 32bit and 64bit versions.
Another option is 7-zip, which is also available in 32bit and 64bit flavors.
Run the game for the first time
This will set up the necessary registry entries and will create two files in your documents inside of \Documents\My Games\Fallout4
- Fallout4.ini
- Fallout4Prefs.ini
Go to the Options menu and click Advanced, then change the Godrays Quality option to either Medium or High. I'll be using Medium.
File:Fallout-4-god-rays-quality-performance-640px.png
There seems to be no difference aside from the FPS drop.
Nexus Mod Manager
Mod Organizer 2 has frustrating problems when installing a mod with multiple options, the menus simply don't work on some mod installers so you'll be stuck with the default settings.
This is quite a shame as Mod Organizer 2 is more feature complete then NMM, and I prefer it greatly. NMM will work fine for our purposes however until Mod Organizer 2 is fixed.
You can download Nexus Mod Manager from this link.
- Install Nexus Mod Manager and point it to your Fallout 4 install directory, create a folder on the same drive as your Fallout 4 install that will hold all of your mods.
- When you first select Fallout 4 as the game to use with NMM, it will ask where to install your mods, and where to keep the install info. Choose the folder on the same drive as your Fallout 4 install.
- Go to the mods tab and under Categories, click Categories: expand all categories, this will just make it easier to see the mods that you're going to be downloading.
Next you're going to need to log into Nexus Mod Manager using your Nexus account. This will enable you to download mods over 2MB through NMM.
LOOT
LOOT is a tool that automates load order optimization, it is also able to tell you if a mod has dirty edits and needs cleaning. You are able to run it through Nexus Mod Manager.
Installation :
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FO4Edit
FO4Edit is a powerful tool that has a myriad of features. We'll be using it to automate the cleaning process of mods with dirty edits.
Here's a guide for using xEdit to clean your mods.
Installation :
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INI Tweaks
BethINI
Installation :
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Manual Tweaks
Make a copy of 'Fallout4.ini' inside of \Documents\My Games\Fallout4 and name it 'Fallout4Custom.ini'; this is the file we will be editing.
Open Fallout4Custom.ini in your chosen text editor and scroll down to the [Interface] section. If you have played the game a lot before you can disable the tutorial messages by adding 'bShowTutorials=0' at the bottom of the section so that it looks like this:
[Interface] fSafeZoneX=15.0 fSafeZoneXWide=64.0 fSafeZoneXWide16x10=64.0 fSafeZoneY=15.0 fSafeZoneYWide16x10=36.0 bShowTutorials=0
We're going to improve the readability of the in-game console by adding a new section underneath the [MapMenu] section.
Copy this text and add it underneath 'uLockedTerrainLOD=32' in the [MapMenu] section:
[Menu] iConsoleSizeScreenPercent=65 iConsoleTextSize=16 rConsoleHistoryTextColor=153,160,153 rConsoleTextColor=255,255,255 rDebugTextColor=255,235,222
If you're interested in learning more about the different settings available in the .ini files, you can check out InsanePlumber's post here.
Extenders and Plugins
Fallout 4 Script Extender (F4SE)
This is an essential mod that continues the work from the Skyrim Script Extender.
Installation :
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Shadow Boost
Shadow Boost dynamically controls the the shadow draw distance in Fallout 4 to attempt to keep you at a specified framerate.
Installation :
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You can modify ShadowBoost.ini if you wish, however I find that the default settings work fine:
fTargetFramerate= - This setting determines your desired framerate, if you are playing with vsync or an fps lock enabled then be sure to keep it at least a couple fps lower than the maximum, otherwise the plugin won't increase the shadow draw distance when you reach that framerate. fDistChangeSpeed= - This setting determines how quickly the shadow distance will change. The safe range is between 0.5 and 5.0. fShadowDrawDistMin= - This setting determines the minimum distance that shadows will render. fShadowDrawDistMax= - This setting determines the maximum distance that shadows will render. Users with lower-end PCs may want to reduce this setting.
Essentials
For each of these mods, and the mods in each further section, the required files will usually be downloadable via Nexus Mod Manager by simply pressing the 'Download With Manager' button in the files tab of the mod.
The file or files to download will be specified as being under either the Main Files, Optional Files, or Update section of the files tab.
- MAIN FILES - Main
- OPTIONAL FILES - Optional
- UPDATES - Update
Armor and Weapon Keywords Community Resource (AWKCR)
Files to download :
 WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "This resource accomplishes the following things:
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Armorsmith Extended
Files to download :
Description : "This mod does twelve things:
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Bug Fixes / Patches
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch
Files to download :
Description : "A comprehensive bugfixing mod for Fallout 4. The goal of the Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch (aka UFO4P) is to eventually fix every bug with Fallout 4 not officially resolved by the developers to the limits of the Creation Kit and community-developed tools, in one easy-to-install package." |
Achievements
Files to download :
Description : "Uses F4SE to re-enable achievements while mods are active." |
Dead Body Collision
Files to download :
Description : "This mod will make actors collide with dead bodies, a.k.a. ragdolls, so you can push them, climb on them, etc...and won't just clip through them." |
Realistic Death Physics - No Animations
Files to download :
Description : "This mod decreases the amount of force of both melee and ranged attacks (especially crits) to more realistic levels." |
Faster Terminal Displays
Files to download :
Description : "I find the speed that the text on the terminal screens takes to appear is too slooooooooow, I always find myself just clicking to get it all to show up. So I've increased it by 2, 3, 5, 10, 20 and 100 times, just download whichever file suits your needs." |
Survival Unlocker
Files to download :
Description : "This mod patches the hardcoded "features" that come with the Survival difficulty. This mod restores:
This mod also allows you to return to the Survival difficulty if you had previously downgraded your difficulty. |
3rd Person Beard Fix
Files to download :
Description : "This is a small Material edit to make the beards in 3rd appear solid and like a proper beard." |
Workshop Spotlight Fix
Files to download :
WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "This mod will fix the fast travel blackout bug of the vanilla workshop spotlight and partially fix the wall spotlight from DLC Automatron and provide several light range and shadow options for the workshop spotlight." |
Rain of Brass
Files to download :
Description : "Rain of Brass is a small mod that makes shell casings from the player and NPCs last longer, and be visible from far away, so that after a firefight you can find piles of spent brass wherever anyone was shooting. Main version: Shells stay for 1 hour and are visible from weapons fired within 500 meters." |
Visual Reload
Files to download :
Description : "With this mod the ejected magazines will drop to the ground and stay there. It also affects the ejected shells when reloading the double barrel shotgun or the revolvers." |
Personal Vertibird Flight Altitude Fix
Files to download :
Description : "This mod prevents your personal vertibirds from defying physics. In other words: no more flying through buildings, trees, the ground, etc. when you ride a vertibird. Now they should detect buildings and such and will adjust their altitude and/or heading to prevent crashing into buildings." Notes : You only need the Far Harbor version of this mod if you also have a mod that allows vertiderps to be used in Far Harbor. |
Automatron DLC Legendary Drops (plus Legendary Clothing Loot)
Files to download :
Description : "Adds the various 'Robot' armor parts (chest, arms and legs), the three helmets (Assaultron, Eyebot and Sentry Bot) and the two melee weapons (Assaultron Blade and Mr Handy Buzz Blade) to the drop lists for legendaries. Adds all vanilla clothing items to the allowed legendary loot lists." |
Less Annoying Berry Mentats
Files to download :
Description : "Prevents the Berry Mentats effect from highlighting your current companion and disables the effect entirely while your weapon is holstered or you are in dialogue. Also includes the fix to stop the effect from turning certain neutral NPCs hostile." |
Glowing Animals Emit Light
Files to download :
Description : "This mod simply attaches a light source to every glowing animal variant, making them emit light. The size of the animal determines the radius and strength of the lights, so deathclaws are brighter than ghouls, which are brighter than radroaches, etc. This also fixes the Glowing Behemoths and Glowing Mutant Hounds, neither of which had actual glow maps. The Glowing Behemoth also has a radiation cloak like all other glowing variants." |
Companion Stealth Distance Fix (No Free Hugs) - Now with No Dogmeat in Crosshairs
Files to download :
WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "Ever notice that no matter where they are, your companion tries to Archon Merge with you as soon as you crouch? This stops that. They crouch and stealth also, but they maintain their current distance." |
Everyone's Best Friend (Dogmeat and Companion At Same Time - No Console - No Hack)
Files to download :
Description : "This mod allows you to have Dogmeat and a standard companion at the same time using in game functionality (not hacks or console commands). Also includes spacefiddle's bug fix for companion idle chatterspam." Notes : This mod is bloody awesome. |
Dogmeat - Doors are NOT for Dogs (No Door Opening)
Files to download :
Description : "All this does is checks a single flag on Dogmeat's race (DogmeatRace) to prevent him from opening doors (the flag is named "Can't Open Doors")." Notes : "This mod apparently causes issues during the tracking part of the quest "Reunions". I'd recommend you either don't install it until you finish said quest, or remove the mod temporarily when you do this quest (either one is fine). Another solution would be to move Dogmeat to where he needs to be using console commands. Simply select Dogmeat with the console, and type "moveto player"." |
Nuka-World Bottle Scenery Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Nuka-World has some graphical bugs, one of which is the bottle scenery appearing massively oversized and clipping through walls. This mod replaces the bugged models with ones that work." |
Workshop Lightbulb Emittance Fix
Files to download :
Description : "This is a very simple mesh replacer to fix the problematic vanilla Workshop light bulbs. There are numerous problems with lights in Fallout 4, but this one was particularly frustrating because it was NOT related to power. In some areas, light bulbs, while receiving power and lighting up just fine will suddenly only emit an extremely dim, dull white light. Many have said this happens for them at The Castle, and for me the problem areas were Tenpines Bluff and Greygarden. The issue is -- as with previous Bethesda engines -- layers of blending effects will easily confuse the engine. The default Workshop lightbulb has alpha transparency on the bulb glass, with an internal filament component -- which could never be seen in-game anyway, and made the light node glitch and not emit in certain viewing situations." |
High Res DLC Black Face Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Down-scaled versions of a few face textures that are added by the DLC that aren't compatible with modded face textures." |
Baby don't run away... (merchants stick to their stores)
Files to download :
Description : "I was tired of my unique merchants disappearing every day, so I addressed it using FO4edit and managed to prevent them from leaving, and all stay lvl 4 merchants. Now regular settlers are fixed as well, they stick to their assigned store and only leave when commanded or to sleep at night" |
Elevator Buttons Fix (Contraptions)
Files to download :
Description : "Today, I had the unfortunate surprise to see that the elevator buttons of my vault had vanished. By learning more about this bug, I quickly realized that Bethesda was to lazy to solve it. Here is why I share with you a fixed version of the concerned script I made today. If some of your elevators are already broken, it will automatically fix all of them! No ESP required, this is just an updated script (pex) file." |
Keep Commonwealth Radiant quests within the Commonwealth
Files to download :
Description : "This is a small patch mod to prevent Vanilla Radiants from the Brotherhood, Institute, Railroad, and Minutemen from sending you to Nuka World or Far Harbor locations. It also prevents the Diamond City bounty quests from sending you to these locations as well." |
Brotherhood Pilots Wear Bomber Jackets
Files to download :
Description : "Brotherhood Lancers now only spawn with their bomber jacket and not the undersuit. This means they will actually wear it!" |
Settlement Attack DLC Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Are you using Bethesda's DLCs together? Then odds are depending on your load order you're missing out on some of the settlement attacks that the ofifcial DLCs bring. Automatron:
Wasteland Workshop:
Far Harbor:
Until now in order to get one you had to give up the others. This mod combines the records so they will all happen will happen. For load order be sure you load it after any DLC. Build up your defenses, because your settlements are gonna need you." |
Lever Action Reload Fix (Another)
Files to download :
Description : "This mod fixes the infamous reload bug when using Lever Action Rifle. Player always loaded 5 bullets no matter how many times you have shot. There already is the other mod which fixes that bug, but this one uses completely different approach + works in 3rd person." |
Mirelurk Model Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Bethesda made a small mistake when making the crab mirelurks. The UV maps of one of the parts used in the model is not set properly and it results in some kind of thick shell that blocks the gills of the mirelurk from showing. At first I believed this was intentional but after seeing many of the concept arts and the like I realized it was not intentional and they simply messed up. This fixes that problem." |
X-01 Armor Reposition Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Reposition X-01 Armor to fit Power Frame better and less clipping bug and also fix small floating bolt on the right pauldron. It's still have some clipping issue mostly on leg parts but thats require 3d modelling program to fix it properly." |
Nuka World Novatron Assaultron Torso Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Fixed the Material file for the Space Paint on the Assaultron Torso." |
Piper Interview Restored
Files to download :
Description : "Restores part of the interview with Piper that was cut from the final game." |
Power Line Physics
Files to download :
WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "Swinging power lines on settlements that dynamically react to wind conditions." |
Moddable Robot Settlers Compilation (Automatron)
Files to download :
Description : "Makes all the robots in Graygarden, the Drinkin Buddy, Professor Goodfeels in Sunshine Tidings co-op and Deezer in Covenant fully moddable as Automatrons. Also fixes multiple bugs like Codsworth not being moddable and Goodfeels' auto-disappearance." |
MicrofusionCell Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Fix texture of microfusion cell - for realistic markings on it. And fix position in receiver." |
Wasteland Workshop Street Lamp and Ceiling Light Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Simple node fix just for one of the street lamps (you know the one) and ceiling light from Wasteland Workshop." |
Vault 81 Mole Rat Disease Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Although lore-wise the disease is contracted after being bitten by an infected Mole Rat, in-game the player can contract the disease a number of other ways:
The root cause of each of these scenarios is a missing condition check on the "Give Disease" effect that Vault 81 Mole Rats carry. Rather than triggering the effect whenever the player is attacked, the effect triggers whenever ANYONE is attacked by an infected Mole Rat, and sometimes when the Disease effect is initiated. Since the effect is a script that manually applies the disease to the player, any attack by an infected Mole Rat on ANYTHING will give the player Mole Rat Disease." |
Invisible Bridge Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Simple fix for the invisible bridge." |
Fusion Generator Lights Fix
Files to download :
Description : "When you take fusion core from fusion generator its lights blinking and then just stay on. This is one of many 'WTF' moment in the game. And tired to see this again and again, so i just fixed script that control lights. No .esp, just script replacer." |
CryoFreez Fix
Files to download :
WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "This is fix for freezing script. Without it enemy that was killed with cryolator or any other cryo weapon respawns in dead-like state. They just lay on ground or stand still, not attacking, not moving." |
Auto Doors
Files to download :
WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "Auto Doors 2.0 uses new way to automate doors and was rewritten from scratch. New esp, new scripts, some new textures and meshes (well it's a edited vanilla actually)! This mod addes craftable devices that will allow to automate your settlement doors. There are three main type of devices, some have few types:
All devices reevaluate it target door when crafted and/or replaced. Script will scan area for doors in short range, if there several door found it will calculate nearest. You can find this devices in Power->Miscellaneous category in workshop menu. Depending on chosen option while installation mod support vanilla doors, Homemaker's doors and Snap'n Build doors. Mod also support pre-made vanilla doors from locations: Red Rocket, Hangman's AlleySanctuary, Tempines Bluff, Outpost Zimonja, Egret Tours Marina, Warwick Homestead, The Castle, Bunker Hill, Taffington Boathouse, Covenant, Starlight Drive In, Sunshine Tidings Co-Op, The Slog, Spectacle Island, Croup Manor, Kingsport Lighthouse, Finch Farm, Coastal Cottage." |
Third Person Revolver Audio Fix
Files to download :
Description : "Minor edits to fix the missing audio when wielding a revolver in third person. This restores the sound effects for reloading and cocking the hammer of the Pipe Revolver and .44 Pistol, as well as any other weapons which use their animations (e.g. Nuka World's Western Revolver, or skibadaa's .223 Revolver). Also has a similar fix for missing reload sounds with the Submachine gun and any inheriting weapons in third person (which for some reason only happened in Power Armor)." |
1st to 3rd Person Forced Reload Fix
Files to download :
Description : "There exists in Fallout 4 a horrible bug which causes the player to reload inappropriately when switching from 1st person to 3rd person. This occurs whenever changing perspective during any mandatory post-shot animation, such as cocking the hammer on the .44 Revolver or cycling any bolt-action weapon like the Hunting Rifle. This makes certain play styles, particularly trying to use scopes in 3rd person, unnecessarily painful and frequently lethal." |
Vault-Tec Workshop Overhaul
Files to download :
Description : "Fixes three of the main lighting issues within the Vault-Tec Workshop DLC; brightness, lighting node positions, and the bug that caused lights that were on to appear off. It also adds connection points to various Vault walls, so that players can now snap lights into position without tediously trying to line up each light, and addresses some minor quality of life issues (see features)." Notes : Manually download this mod and then add it to Nexus Mod Manager by clicking the green plus icon in the top left, and then double clicking the mod in your download location.
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Vanilla Reflection Maps
Files to download :
Description : "These are just the vanilla reflection maps; no changes, no edits, no improvements. Just vanilla textures. Why, you ask? If you're like me and you use some degree of mods with new textures and an ENB, you might notice that Fallout 4 sometimes doesn't load in these reflection maps like it is supposed to. Even if you don't have any mods that feature chrome-looking things, you might at least notice that metal crates and Codsworth can sometimes look a bit dull. What? You mean I can just restart Fallout 4 and it'll work fine again? Whippee! But wait, what if it doesn't? What if chrome things show up a dull grey or oily black almost every time? Well, if you're worried about just that, this mod(?) is for you! GONE are the days of cruddy reflection map loading!" |
Weapon Rack Fixes
Files to download :
WARNING Template:FOMOD_Instructions is deprecated and should no longer be used on this wiki. Please change this template call to use the better-looking and simpler Template:Fomod. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Description : "While working to update all of my mods for Nuka-World, I decided to use the Contraptions Workshop Weapon Racks to make it easy to access all of the different weapons. During this, I found a number of weapons that didn't go on the racks. There were both weapons from the vanilla game and Nuka-World that didn't go on the racks, so I ended up making two versions of this mod. One for people with Nuka-World, and one for people without. The Nuka-World version does fix a few other problems with the weapons too, such as allowing them to benefit from the appropriate perks. Here's a list of the weapons, and the racks they can go on in the default version:
Alongside the ones above, here's a list of the Nuka-World weapons, and the racks they can go on in:
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Glass Glare Fix
Files to download :
Description : "This will fix a glare issue on a vault and Prydwen windows as well as on a jukebox glass." |
Various Material Fixes
Files to download :
Description : "The new material swap system works pretty well, but it looks like the developers forgot to actually apply some of the textures to the items. Specifically items with a pre-war and post-war version. So far this fix includes:
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Sorting, Cleaning and Testing: Part 1
With all of those fixes out of the way, as well as those essential mods that a lot of other mods shall be using, it's time to sort our load order, clean our current mods and make sure that the game still runs.
First, load LOOT through Nexus Mod Manager from the Supported Tools menu.
Then, click this button in the top right to automate the plugin sorting process:
For cleaning: DLCRobot.esm DLCWorkshop01.esm DLCCoast.esm DLCWorkshop02.esm DLCWorkshop03.esm DLCNukaWorld.esm
