New Vegas mods

[502]

Is this the "active" NV modding thread?

To my surprise I painlessly ran the game again with my ancient mod configuration.

Now I want to try JSawyer Ultimate but for the life of me I can't install MCM which is apparently required. I'd rather not start over with a clean install since my current combination works fine, but I may have to.

 

[Butter]

You don't need MCM for JSawyer Ultimate.

 

[502]

Kept trying to use it sans MCM but didn't see any changes. Doesn't matter anymore, finally managed to install MCM.

What time is it? IT'S BALANCE TIME.

 

[Black Angel]

Kept trying to use it sans MCM but didn't see any changes. Doesn't matter anymore, finally managed to install MCM.

What time is it? IT'S BALANCE TIME.

That's Vanilla UI+, right? Or was it something else? I vaguely remembered Vanilla UI+ not altering HUD's fonts into Fallout 1&2's fonts.

 

[502]

The screenshot above was taken with DarnUI but MCM kept nagging me with error messages so today I replaced it with Vanilla UI+.

For the font I used this: https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/44920

Added the lines to Fallout.ini and FalloutPrefs.ini then set them to read-only. Wouldn't work otherwise, because I think UI mods keep changing the inis with their own fonts at every launch. Once you set inis to read-only it works fine with Vanilla UI+. No scaling issues or anything. The only issue is non-standard characters like æ.

For less yellow I use https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39619/ instead of Clarity or Fellout, because this lets you tweak things yourself instead of being stuck with premades. +5 blue, +2 saturation and +2 contrast works great for me. Too much + contrast makes nights and most indoor locations pitch black if that's your thing. I guess it may be used with some pipboy light tweaks or indoor lighting overhauls. Haven't tried yet.

Using https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/66347 which has a modular ini for numerous mini changes like no auto reloads, binding hardcoded keys like 2 and RGB UI colors in main menu.

And the crosshair: https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62903/

Is there a mod that stops NPCs from that absurd Quake-like strafing?

There's this, but you may have to edit it. See its comments.

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/37141

 

[sgm]

I usually write protect the INI files after modifying them when using a custom font, so the changes aren't reverted to the horrible default one. As for your error messages and JSawyer Ultimate; the mod uses MCM to configure the custom settings ingame (chance of expired Stimpak, sprint, etc.) so yes, if you want to change those you need both mods. Any other conflicts resulting in errors are impossible to determine without knowing what your load order is.

 

[502]

This is pure bliss. I'm having the best time.



Sadly the faction armor bug is still a thing, even with the unofficial fixes. I used up an equipped Khan Armor during the Vault 3 run with Jury Rigging, which removed my NCR reputation, didn't set it to vilified or anything, outright REMOVED it, making them permanently hostile.

Even without a killer bug like that, the whole "disguise" thing doesn't feel right as a mechanic. Pity they wasted too much time on it on such a tight schedule.

 

[laclongquan]

Is the game too easy for you? That is because you harvest xp too fast and so levelup too quickly for designed quests and enemies.

Use a mod that expand xp threshold for levelup so that you level up slower. Plenty of mod do this. You still harvest same xp as before, but you will feel the game is so much harder naturally. You will force to find low level exp quest and enemies to play (say the areas north of the strip).

Obviously, this is for veteran player only, who find the game piss easy even with difficulty cranking up. if you find vanilla game still normal for you, you dont need to use this method yet.

 

[JDR13]

Is the game too easy for you? That is because you harvest xp too fast and so levelup too quickly for designed quests and enemies.

Use a mod that expand xp threshold for levelup so that you level up slower. Plenty of mod do this. You still harvest same xp as before, but you will feel the game is so much harder naturally. You will force to find low level exp quest and enemies to play (say the areas north of the strip).

If he's using the JSawyer mod, that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Piotrovitz]

Is the game too easy for you? That is because you harvest xp too fast and so levelup too quickly for designed quests and enemies.

Use a mod that expand xp threshold for levelup so that you level up slower. Plenty of mod do this. You still harvest same xp as before, but you will feel the game is so much harder naturally. You will force to find low level exp quest and enemies to play (say the areas north of the strip).

Obviously, this is for veteran player only, who find the game piss easy even with difficulty cranking up. if you find vanilla game still normal for you, you dont need to use this method yet.

Game is piss easy anyway - just finished a VH/hardcore run, with project nevada cranked up to xp nerf -50%, extra limb damage, rare loot etc + economy overhaul, so without barter you couldn't afford shit. The only way for me to impose any challenge is to intentionally avoid OPd weapons that you can get even without metagaming, like survivalist or ALSiD. This, plus avoiding any crit improving perks and gear, as those trivialize everything.

 

[d1r]

Kept trying to use it sans MCM but didn't see any changes. Doesn't matter anymore, finally managed to install MCM.

What time is it? IT'S BALANCE TIME.

Do you use any LOD mods? I can't remeber ever seeing that satelite dish from Goodsprings.

 

[laclongquan]

Is the game too easy for you? That is because you harvest xp too fast and so levelup too quickly for designed quests and enemies.

Use a mod that expand xp threshold for levelup so that you level up slower. Plenty of mod do this. You still harvest same xp as before, but you will feel the game is so much harder naturally. You will force to find low level exp quest and enemies to play (say the areas north of the strip).

If he's using the JSawyer mod, that shouldn't be an issue.

Sometimes you want the more open features from other mods instead of JSawyer.

 

[502]

If you mean the original JSawyer it's outdated anyway.

JSawyer Ultimate is highly modular and lets you change a lot of variables including XP rewards.

I'm in my 20's on my current save with lots of quests and 3 out of 4 addons finished. Overall increased damage makes you care about tactics instead of tanking big groups spamming stims and meds. Carry weight makes you care about loot and your primary weapons. The unmodded game is tremendously generous so I used to collect everything including dirty water, Pre-War food and unused ammo types. Not anymore.
Feels rather as it is but maybe next time I'll crank it further to make it even more punishing.

Do you use any LOD mods? I can't remeber ever seeing that satelite dish from Goodsprings.

Didn't bother with anything LOD-related on Nexus. Must be one of the settings changed by the ini editor.

https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/40442

 

[JDR13]

If you mean the original JSawyer it's outdated anyway.

JSawyer Ultimate is highly modular and lets you change a lot of variables including XP rewards.

Does the Ultimate mod add any fan-made items or weapons/armor? I remember comparing it to the original JSawyer mod and feeling like the Ultimate took too many liberties.

 

[502]

Not really.

Spotted some armor variants with extra DR/DT and skill bonuses sold by Mick and Cliff, I was concerned about the liberties taken and "overpowered" gear, but it seems like Ultimate really tries to be consistent with the original JSawyer which had already introduced these to add some flavor.

e.g. Road Rascal is a cut and restored Leather Armor variant with the same look but high stats. Not as high as the top light armors but usable.

Original JSawyer changelog

JSawyer Ultimate changelog

in case you want to compare

 

[Risewild]

Does the Ultimate mod add any fan-made items or weapons/armor? I remember comparing it to the original JSawyer mod and feeling like the Ultimate took too many liberties.

The biggest problem with JSawyer Ultimate is that it used JSawyer Mod as a base and then the author went and changed/removed/reverted JSawyer Mod stuff because he thought would make more sense or feel better (for him). Then he added quite a few things on top of that and in the end, it's not the vision JSawyer had for FNV, but the vision PushTheWinButton has for FNV, which means using Josh Sawyer in the name of the mod became misleading, since it has long lost the felling of JSawyer's Mod.

The Jsawyer Ultimate changelog that 502's mentioned up there is not the full changelog of the mod, it's the changelog of what's different between Jsawyer Mod and JSawyer Ultimate. It makes more changes to JSawyer Mod than that mod does to FNV... Including increasing the uses of the Implant GRX because the author thought JSawyer got it wrong in decreasing the uses so much... And lots of other stuff.

 

[Trashos]

I could not disagree more with the above post. JSU feels like an improved JS, ie what JS would have been if Sawyer had put more work into it (I do respect Sawyer a lot for putting work in and releasing JS, do not get me wrong, JS was the game changer).

It is true that JSU takes some liberties on top of JS. In my view, they are 100% in the spirit of JS. You can read JSU's changelog, but to cut a long story short, the same modder has another mod that rebalances the game's economy to make it less generous (and therefore, you actually have to make decisions instead of easily buying everything). This should tell you all about his attitude.

In short, the game changer was JS. It turned New Vegas into a serious game, and you will not go wrong with it, if that is what you are looking for. JSU has more work into it, less bugs, and is generally a lot more polished, made by someone who has obviously played and loves the game a lot. JSU is better maintained, has much fewer compatibility issues with other mods, and it is just what FONV should have been from the very start, afaic.

I do have some minor disagreements with Pushthewinbutton's decisions (mostly what he did not do, not what he did, eg I wanted the level cap to go back down to 30, not 35), but JSU is such a good experience, that who cares.

 

[garren]

I think New Vegas is a game that benefits immensely from slower leveling mods, in fact it's the only game where I've ever used such a mod. You just level up too fast for almost anything to really be a challenge once you get some gear. Slower leveling somewhat fixes this by not making you so powerful even when entering later game areas, even if you got good gear.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

If I remember it right JSawyer's Logan's Loophole trait also caps the max level to right before the leveled lists get bloated.

 

[Trashos]

If I remember it right JSawyer's Logan's Loophole trait also caps the max level to right before the leveled lists get bloated.

The vanilla game (+dlc) has a maximum level of 50, and Logan's Loophole caps you at lvl30.

JSawyer has a maximum level of 35, and Logan's Loophole caps you at lvl21.