Introduction

This mod tries to make Fallout 4 a bit similar to Fallout: New Vegas and JSawyer mod by Joshua Sawyer regarding balancing tweaks. I always considered this mod to be an official patch for New Vegas because a) it was created by the project director himself and b) "it does provide insight into the aims of the lead developer and contains planned tweaks that never made it into the final release or in official patches".
Out of 3 fallout games made on Bethesda's engine, New Vegas by Obsidian with JSawyer mod was the best experience for me, both in having fun and challenge. Unfortunately Fallout 4 felt like a huge step back with an abundance of overpowered perks, levels, lacking story and a lot of other things Bethesda could have done better.
JSawyer mod changes a lot, but I decided to implement only the most important changes, make this mod as simple as possible and compatible, and leave other areas for already existing mods. I will first describe the changes implemented here, and later give a list of recommended mods.

Warning: I played and tested only in Normal mode, but there are some known issues in Survival due to lowered base carry weight. Use Survival compatibility patch if you play in this mode.

Leveling

The most significant change in JSawyer mod, and in this one too, is level cap at 35 level. All leveled lists which had content past that level were downscaled to fit into 1..35 levels range, so when you hit that cap you will still experience all the content in Fallout 4 as if you were a level 100 for example. XP needed to level was adjusted for slower progression using the same values from JSawyer mod.
In overall you get less perks, less health, stronger NPCs and creatures appearing at much earlier levels. This means slower but harder, more involved and interesting game like Fallout New Vegas. No longer you can play a walking tank with tons of HP, enough perks to effectively use all weapons, become master of crafting in all areas, etc. Now you need to specialize your character and think beforehand on what perks you really need. Can't have them all anymore.

Settings

Base carry weight is set to 100 (was 200) similar to JSawyer mod though it uses even lower value of 50, but it is problematic to implement in Fallout 4 due to survival mode. Less hoarding.
Significantly reduced HP per level. JSawyer mod has flat +5HP per level, however health calculation has changed in Fallout 4 and it is impossible to implement the same value. Instead of that your health and +HP per level are strictly tied to Endurance now. For example 1 END gives no HP per level at all, 5 END gives +2HP per level, 10 END gives +4.5HP per level. Invest your SPECIAL points into Endurance if you want to survive, this is not a dump stat anymore (with 10 END you'll have around 280HP at level 35). Or play a glass cannon, ever thought that Nerd Rage perk is useless? :)

Perks

Ths is not a perks overhaul because Fallout 4 is a different game, so all perk effects and ranks remain the same. The only changes are downscaled level requirement for the new level cap and magnitude of boosting perks to be similar to New Vegas and JSawyer mod. In original game the level cap for perks is 50, I linearly rescaled all level requirements to max level of 32 to allow taking several highest tier peks before hitting the 35 level cap. Check the exact  level values in game (in perk chart press Alt to preview higher ranks). Perks magnitude changes:

• Big Leagues/Commando/Gunslinger/Heavy Gunner/Ironfist/Rifleman: +5% per rank (was +20%). This is still slightly more when taking all 5 ranks than in JSawer mod where dmg perks (Grunt and Cowboy) had only a single +20% rank. A compensation for downscaled leveled lists and harder creatures appearing at earlier levels.
• Nuclear Physicist: +15% and +25% damage for ranks 2 and 3 (was 25% and 50%), the same overall boost as all other weapons like in JSawyer mod.
• Concentrated Fire Rank 2: +10% damage (was +20%). The same perk in New Vegas doesn't have dmg part, but I didn't want to change mechanics of Fallout 4 perks and just reduced magnitude similar to other perks.
• Demolition Expert: +10% damage perk rank (was +25%) like in JSawyer mod, however it has only 2 ranks there, so you'll still get 20% more damage with full 4 ranks in Fallout 4. A compensation for downscaled leveled lists and harder creatures appearing at earlier levels.
• Rooted Rank 1 and 2: +10% damage perk rank (was +25%). Nothing similar in New Vegas, changes like with Concentrated Fire.
• Basher: +10% per rank (was +25%). Nothing similar in New Vegas, made magnitude similar to Rooted.
• Lone Wanderer: -5%/10% less damage taken (was -15%/30%), +10% damage (was +25%) and +25/50 carry weight (was +50/100). Changed to be in line with the similar Lonesome Road perk in New Vegas.
  

Recommended mods

• Damage Threshold and DT Patcher - the game can't be played like New Vegas if it doesn't have DT, don't you think? This is a must mod. Warning - your first fight with deathclaw in tutorial can be more challenging than you can even imagine. You couldn't just walk away at the 1st level in New Vegas and take on a deathclaw.
• Loads of Ammo gives variety to ammunition like in Fallout New Vegas. You will need those when using the above mod.
• Fallout 4 Loot Overhaul or any other loot reduction mod of your choice. JSawyer mod made changes to reduce ammo, stimpacks, etc. from loot, but I decided not to include this in mod for compatibility reasons and rely on fellow Fallout 4 mod makers here.
• More or Less XP to slower levels progression. Even though I used the same leveling settings from JSawyer mod, Fallout 4 has more ways of earning XP compared to New Vegas due to repeatable quests, extensive crafting and settlements building. Start with 50% option and later adjust to your taste to be even more slower or faster.
• Survival Options if you play in Survival mode. This mod already provides enough challenge itself to play on Normal (my preferred mode because I strongly believe that the player and NPCs must deal the same amount of damage with the same weapon). Additional damage multipliers on harder difficulties can make the game impossible to beat depending on your own skills and character build, adjust them if needed. Also don't forget about Survival compatibility patch I mentioned earlier.
• Wasteland Imports because we Like New Vegas.
• AutomatronSecuritron because we Like New Vegas.
• New Vegas Amber HUD purely cosmetic.
  

Any other mod of you choice for rebalancing, or adding custom weapons, armours, ammunition. Just keep in mind that some authors of custom weaponry and armours like to make them "end game" and exclusive giving ridiculous stats compared to existing vanilla items. Equipping such items from the start of the game will probably negate any challenge provided by this mod. Use common sense when selecting mods.

Installation, uninstallation and compatibility

The main file requires both Far Harbor and Nuka World DLCs! I recommend to start a new game or at least be a very low level when playing this mod because of level cap. It doesn't contain any scripts or changes that can stick in your saved game, and safe to install and remove any moment.

If you also have Automatron and Wokshop01 DLCs then install the AddOn mod from optional files, it downscales leveled content there.

I tried to keep this mod as simple as possible for better compatibility with Falout 4 mods, if in doubt check conflicts with FO4Edit. It will conflict with perk changing mods and has a chance to conflict on a few leveled lists (use bashed patch).

Contains changes from Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch on the same records, no bug fixes lost. Properly tagged for bashed patching.