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About this mod
A first playthrough friendly modding guide that focuses on covering the entire game with all kinds of modifications, be it graphical improvements, gameplay enhancements or stability tweaks, while still keeping the core experience mostly intact.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
Update 1.9
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Changelogs:
Update 1.9:
Older updates:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an extensive, comprehensive and polished modding guide for Fallout 3. Here's some of its aspects:
-It is the result of gathering and organization of information from many sources, such as blogs, websites, videos, Reddit posts and other guides as well. I searched throughout the internet and tried to combine everything into a definitive modding guide.
-It is a WIP (Work In Progress) for as long as I keep interest in Fallout 3. Mods might be added, updated or removed at any point. And many might be replaced due to better alternatives (especially bugfixes).
-It should be first playthrough friendly, as it focuses on covering the entire game with all kinds of modifications, be it texture mods or gameplay tweaks, while still keeping the core experience mostly intact.
-It doesn't include mods that change gameplay features drastically or add completely new content, with a few exceptions and quality of life mods, such as RH_Ironsights and Weapon Mod Kits.
-It was extensively tested. I analyzed each mod, tried to increase and ensure compatibility as much as possible, avoiding bugs, conflicts, crashes and even creating or discovering a few fixes myself. The game should be pretty stable after all of the modding if you read with attention and follow everything carefully.
I'm always open to corrections and suggestions. Feel free to talk to me anytime on the comments section if you need help with something as well.
And please don't forget to endorse if you feel like this guide has benefited you!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little extra information/FAQ:
You're not supposed to be using LOOT, BOSS or any other load order sorting tool. I put a whole section at the end of the guide dedicated to the load order. If you find more mods you want to add, you'll have to analyze compatibility yourself. Open FO3Edit, click on plugins and see how many and which .esms an .esps are overwritten by the new mod plugin. You should look at conflicts/overwriting information in FO3Edit using some common sense. As a general rule you can put the new mod after all of those in the guide but that doesn't mean you won't have to check for compatibility and maybe put the plugin in a specific place in the load order.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overhaul Modding Guide - Tweaks and Fixes Patch
This is a patch I made to help with this guide. It includes:
-A mod I created called "Proper Projectile and Casings" (PPaC) that gives proper projectiles and casings to weapons. So for example, the 10mm pistol won't eject a rifle bullet casing when shooting. And the bullet projectile itself will be correct as well, according to the weapon. I have done that for all of the main firearms in the game and it was made specifically for the guide, so it requires RH_IS + WMK + Millenia's weapon mods + all of Millenia's weapon mods fixes by Jacqueslws + WMK - dlc weapons enabler by Jacqueslws + all of latinoheat1991's fixes for Jacqueslws' mods + Realistic Bullet Speed to be installed altogether and properly.
-A tweak to the 10mm SMG stats, to make it two-handed and fix a small animation problem present when using RH_IS + WMK.
Just download and install it when the guide instructs you to. I don't recommend trying to use it outside of this guide as it requires many specific mods/patches mentioned in the guide to be present in a specific order.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of missing retextures that should be added to this guide, if someone ever makes them:
Creatures:
Bloatfly
Albino Radscorpions
Broken Steel and Point Lookout Ghouls
Swampfolk
Weapons:
Mesmetron
Gatling laser
Fat Man
Heavy incinerator
Dart gun
Nuka Grenade
Blunt or unarmed weapons:
Axe
Chinese Sword
Trench Knife
Ripper
Shovel
Switchblade
Lead pipe
Nail board
Police baton
Pool cue
Repellent stick
Rolling pin
Tire iron
Deathclaw gauntlet
Power fist
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of relevant mods that had to be kept out of this guide and the reasons why:
More Map Markers:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2446
According to "CivisRomanus": "Before using, this mod needs a bit of cleaning and renumbering its entries with FO3Edit." According to "IAreBob" and "Deadmano", the whole plugin needs to be cleaned, as it contains many dirty edits. According to "Agm88", this mod changes the worldspace data of multiple areas to something complete different from the base game and causes many problems.
Power Armor Increases Height:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/22901
According to "XerionTheBrave": "This mod doesnt work with like half of the game (if not more) power armor or any custom power armor." According to "pvtboxtop": "NPC's shorter than others because the power armor is custom or just doesn't work with the mod". Basically the mod is incomplete and doesn't affect everything it should.
OJO BUENO Texture Pack (New Vegas Nexus):
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39755
Can be used in Fallout 3 and would be used as a base, to cover textures that aren't covered by NMC's packs. Caused a noticeable performance loss on my system, no matter which version I used.
Megaton Lighting Overhaul:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/7875
Caused a noticeable performance loss, and the lighting added by this mod seems to pop in and out of view depending on the distance, which can be a bit distracting.
FPS Grenade Hotkey:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/8112
Has a few bugs. Sometimes it makes you throw the grenade too fast (when you should still be able to cancel it) or not throw it at all. It also makes some animations look weird, while holding guns.
Combat Enhanced-Tactics:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/6492
This mod tries to bring some nice improvements to NPC combat behaviour, but it makes combat a lot harder as they move around way too much while shooting, etc. Some users have reported it breaks Liberty Prime as well.
Responsive Kill Reactions (and its alternative Kill Reactions - RKR Enhanced):
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/11750/
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20614
Similar to the mod above, it tries to improve on NPC behaviour but fails in a few areas, such as making NPCs indiscriminately crowd around a dead body even if you keep killing them one by one on the same spot. Another example is having every non-agressive NPC in an area flee as soon as you enter it just because there was a dead body lying around (that wasn't even put there by the player).
Ragdoll Overhaul FO3 Edition:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20143
Should be a great mod, but it seems to possibly cause many different problems with other mods and with some aspects in the vanilla game as well, such as breaking cutscenes or NPC behaviour. It also seems to glitch bodies in certain occasions and make bullet wounds not visible anymore.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Changelogs:
Update 1.9:
Spoiler:
Show
Older updates:
Spoiler:
Show
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is an extensive, comprehensive and polished modding guide for Fallout 3. Here's some of its aspects:
-It is the result of gathering and organization of information from many sources, such as blogs, websites, videos, Reddit posts and other guides as well. I searched throughout the internet and tried to combine everything into a definitive modding guide.
-It is a WIP (Work In Progress) for as long as I keep interest in Fallout 3. Mods might be added, updated or removed at any point. And many might be replaced due to better alternatives (especially bugfixes).
-It should be first playthrough friendly, as it focuses on covering the entire game with all kinds of modifications, be it texture mods or gameplay tweaks, while still keeping the core experience mostly intact.
-It doesn't include mods that change gameplay features drastically or add completely new content, with a few exceptions and quality of life mods, such as RH_Ironsights and Weapon Mod Kits.
-It was extensively tested. I analyzed each mod, tried to increase and ensure compatibility as much as possible, avoiding bugs, conflicts, crashes and even creating or discovering a few fixes myself. The game should be pretty stable after all of the modding if you read with attention and follow everything carefully.
I'm always open to corrections and suggestions. Feel free to talk to me anytime on the comments section if you need help with something as well.
And please don't forget to endorse if you feel like this guide has benefited you!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A little extra information/FAQ:
You're not supposed to be using LOOT, BOSS or any other load order sorting tool. I put a whole section at the end of the guide dedicated to the load order. If you find more mods you want to add, you'll have to analyze compatibility yourself. Open FO3Edit, click on plugins and see how many and which .esms an .esps are overwritten by the new mod plugin. You should look at conflicts/overwriting information in FO3Edit using some common sense. As a general rule you can put the new mod after all of those in the guide but that doesn't mean you won't have to check for compatibility and maybe put the plugin in a specific place in the load order.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overhaul Modding Guide - Tweaks and Fixes Patch
This is a patch I made to help with this guide. It includes:
-A mod I created called "Proper Projectile and Casings" (PPaC) that gives proper projectiles and casings to weapons. So for example, the 10mm pistol won't eject a rifle bullet casing when shooting. And the bullet projectile itself will be correct as well, according to the weapon. I have done that for all of the main firearms in the game and it was made specifically for the guide, so it requires RH_IS + WMK + Millenia's weapon mods + all of Millenia's weapon mods fixes by Jacqueslws + WMK - dlc weapons enabler by Jacqueslws + all of latinoheat1991's fixes for Jacqueslws' mods + Realistic Bullet Speed to be installed altogether and properly.
-A tweak to the 10mm SMG stats, to make it two-handed and fix a small animation problem present when using RH_IS + WMK.
Just download and install it when the guide instructs you to. I don't recommend trying to use it outside of this guide as it requires many specific mods/patches mentioned in the guide to be present in a specific order.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of missing retextures that should be added to this guide, if someone ever makes them:
Creatures:
Bloatfly
Albino Radscorpions
Broken Steel and Point Lookout Ghouls
Swampfolk
Weapons:
Mesmetron
Gatling laser
Fat Man
Heavy incinerator
Dart gun
Nuka Grenade
Blunt or unarmed weapons:
Axe
Chinese Sword
Trench Knife
Ripper
Shovel
Switchblade
Lead pipe
Nail board
Police baton
Pool cue
Repellent stick
Rolling pin
Tire iron
Deathclaw gauntlet
Power fist
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List of relevant mods that had to be kept out of this guide and the reasons why:
More Map Markers:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2446
According to "CivisRomanus": "Before using, this mod needs a bit of cleaning and renumbering its entries with FO3Edit." According to "IAreBob" and "Deadmano", the whole plugin needs to be cleaned, as it contains many dirty edits. According to "Agm88", this mod changes the worldspace data of multiple areas to something complete different from the base game and causes many problems.
Power Armor Increases Height:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/22901
According to "XerionTheBrave": "This mod doesnt work with like half of the game (if not more) power armor or any custom power armor." According to "pvtboxtop": "NPC's shorter than others because the power armor is custom or just doesn't work with the mod". Basically the mod is incomplete and doesn't affect everything it should.
OJO BUENO Texture Pack (New Vegas Nexus):
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39755
Can be used in Fallout 3 and would be used as a base, to cover textures that aren't covered by NMC's packs. Caused a noticeable performance loss on my system, no matter which version I used.
Megaton Lighting Overhaul:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/7875
Caused a noticeable performance loss, and the lighting added by this mod seems to pop in and out of view depending on the distance, which can be a bit distracting.
FPS Grenade Hotkey:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/8112
Has a few bugs. Sometimes it makes you throw the grenade too fast (when you should still be able to cancel it) or not throw it at all. It also makes some animations look weird, while holding guns.
Combat Enhanced-Tactics:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/6492
This mod tries to bring some nice improvements to NPC combat behaviour, but it makes combat a lot harder as they move around way too much while shooting, etc. Some users have reported it breaks Liberty Prime as well.
Responsive Kill Reactions (and its alternative Kill Reactions - RKR Enhanced):
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/11750/
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20614
Similar to the mod above, it tries to improve on NPC behaviour but fails in a few areas, such as making NPCs indiscriminately crowd around a dead body even if you keep killing them one by one on the same spot. Another example is having every non-agressive NPC in an area flee as soon as you enter it just because there was a dead body lying around (that wasn't even put there by the player).
Ragdoll Overhaul FO3 Edition:
https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/20143
Should be a great mod, but it seems to possibly cause many different problems with other mods and with some aspects in the vanilla game as well, such as breaking cutscenes or NPC behaviour. It also seems to glitch bodies in certain occasions and make bullet wounds not visible anymore.