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About this mod

Fugacity is a lightweight, vanilla-plus difficulty and balance mod that provides a comprehensive set of balance tweaks to make the game subtly harder, but preserves the spirit of the vanilla game.

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Fugacity
City of Ruins

Requirements:
All Official DLC



Introduction

Fugacity (pronounced few-gas-ity) is a lightweight, vanilla-plus difficulty and balance mod in a similar vein to Ascension, JSawyer Ultimate Edition, and Elegy. It provides a comprehensive set of balance tweaks to make the game subtly harder and more consistent, but preserves the spirit of the vanilla game. It is intended to be used as a base to build a modded load order around, or for those that want a one-stop mod for experiencing Fallout 3 again.

If anyone is interested, the name Fugacity comes from a chemical thermodynamics term related to the activity of a real gas (as opposed to an ideal or perfect gas). It's literary definition refers to a state of transience or evanescence, which makes it a suitably sciency-sounding alternative to Ascension and Elegy.


Description

Fugacity blends the gameplay and balance of Fallout 3 with changes from Fallout: New Vegas and JSawyer Ultimate. It aims to preserve the spirit and feel of Fallout 3, but with the improved challenge and reward of the latter.

A comprehensive list of changes is available in the Docs tab of this mod page. Below are some headline features.

Player Stats

Health and Carry Weight have both been decreased, similar to in JSawyer Ultimate; however, Carry Weight is slightly higher in Fugacity compared to JSawyer due to the larger number of weapons that the player usually carries in Fallout 3. The amount of experience required to level up has also been increased to match the formula in JSawyer. Action Points regeneration is now slower, and the VATS system has been made to match how it works in Fallout: New Vegas (lower accuracy, lower critical damage bonus, no increased weapon degradation, no extra damage resistance).

The number of skill points available per level-up has been decreased to be more similar to Fallout: New Vegas, although it is still possible to max out all skills if you collect all the skill books and bobbleheads. The base number of SPECIAL points has been decreased from 40 to 35, meaning you will now have to decrease a SPECIAL in order to increase one above 5. This change has been made as the bobbleheads each provide a free SPECIAL point and there is more opportunity to take the Intense Training perk due to the large number of perk selections available in Fallout 3 compared to Fallout: New Vegas.

Loot

Stimpaks, Bobby Pins, alcohol, and chems have been made rarer, in many cases borrowing changes from JSawyer Ultimate Edition Push's Tweaks. These changes also affect the game's opening sequence in Vault 101, which makes the early game harder. Purified Water has also been made rarer and replaced with Dirty Water in many cases. The added scarcity caused by these changes makes the game harder, and also makes more sense given the setting and story.

Armor and Weapons

The weight of armour has been decreased in line with the convention in the JSawyer mod. The maximum condition of many weapons has been increased so that they have a reasonable number of uses, as some powerful weapons would break very easily in the vanilla game due to Fallout 3's strange condition system.

Repairing has been vastly expanded for all armour and weapons. Every item now has a repair list, and all repair lists have been expanded so that you can repair an item with any logically similar item. This means that in most cases, you no longer require an exact duplicate item to carry out a repair, which means some rare or unique items are more viable. Additionally, all unique armour and weapons have been removed from repair lists, so that you can't accidently destroy them when repairing another item.

Aid and Misc Items

All chems now have a small amount of weight, to prompt you to only carry what's needed. This is mostly 0.1 or 0.2 lbs per item, so it's not high enough to cause a major nuisance.

The weight of small misc items has been decreased to more logical values, such as Tin Cans being decreased from 1 to 0.1 lb. The value of some common 'vendor trash' items, such as Cigarette Cartons and Pre-War Money, has been decreased to make the economy slightly harder.

Enemies

All damage-sponge enemies from the DLC have had their health decreased to reasonable levels, to make the game more playable past level 20. Additionally, some DLC creatures had additional damage bonuses that were impossible to resist; these have also been removed.

Other Noteworthy Changes

  • The skill required to disarm the Megaton bomb has been increased from 25 to 50, but Repair or Science can also be used in addition to Explosives.
  • The dialogue topics related to the Megaton bomb will not be available until you go near the bomb to learn about it (this is a reimplementation of a broken feature in vanilla).
  • Moira's dialogue topic about disarming the bomb will not be available if the bomb has been disarmed.
  • The other characters in the Mothership Zeta DLC are now essential. At the end of the DLC, a reward container appears in the ship bridge that contains all their unique items (similar to Honest Hearts in Fallout New Vegas).
  • After the completion of Mothership Zeta, Elliot will also give the player some Cryo Grenades and Mines along with his usual items, meaning that the supply of these weapons is no longer finite.
  • Overcharged healing arches in Mothership Zeta will not waste a charge if you are already at full health.
  • Healing when sleeping is disabled.
  • Decreased the number of items given as rewards at various stages of the Wasteland Survival Guide quest.
  • Decreased the number of food items given as a reward for Trouble on the Homefront.
  • The 10mm Pistol given by Amata during Escape! will now have lower condition. (This prevents you leaving the vault with a pistol that doesn't need repairing for a long time. It also means you may find use in the Chinese and .32 Pistols in th early game, since their parts are more readily available.)
  • Ben Canning, a water beggar in a unique encounter, will now accept Aqua Pura (link other beggars) and Aqua Cura (since, unlike other beggars, he also accepts Dirty Water).
  • All water beggars will now immediately drink any water you give them, preventing you from pickpocketing the item back.
  • Decreased the time taken to travel to Point Lookout from 1 month to 1 day. (More realistic considering the real-world distance.)
  • The My First Infirmary kit will consume items depending on the function used (Stimpak for healing, Med-X for limb restoration, and Rad-Away for radiation removal).
  • The My First Laboratory kit uses a new loot table when producing items, that does not include water and has an equal chance for each item.
  • The My First Laboratory kit will now also remove Ant Nectar and Ultrajet addictions.
  • After purchasing a home theme once, it will not reset in value if you change theme, allowing you to change back at no cost.


Recommended Mods

Spoiler:  
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The mods listed below will create a simple vanilla plus load order. Consider this a sort of mini-guide, since there isn't a good one for Fallout 3. Some of the mods are personal preferences, so just pick the ones you want. Read the original descriptions for installation instructions.

Script Extenders and Patchers
Fallout Script Extender
Fallout 3 Anniversary Patcher
Fallout 3 Heap Replacer*

*Installing the Fallout 3 version of this mod may overwrite the Fallout: New Vegas version. If you get an error the next time you launch Fallout: New Vegas, you just need to reinstall New Vegas Heap Replacer.

FOSE Plugins*
ActorCause Save Bloat Fix
Command Extender
FO3 Mod Limit Fix
Iron Sights Plus
Loot Menu
lStewieAl's Tweaks
OneTweak
User Interface Organizer
zlib Updated
Sunlight Fix
Viewmodel Shading Fix

*None of these plugins are required to use Fugacity or any other mods in this list (except lStewieAl's Tweaks, which is required for Iron Sights Plus and Fallout 4 Survival Mode-Style Damage). Pick the ones that you need or want for your load order.

User Interface
Vanilla UI Plus

Bug Fixes
Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch
Point Lookout - No More Silent Doors
Fallout 3 Interior Optimization Project

Audio and Sounds
Ambient Wasteland 2
ATMOS Ambient Sound Overhaul
CONELRAD 640-1240 - Civil Defense Radio
Eerie Ambient
Immersive Pickup Sounds

Character Visuals
Fallout 3 Redesigned
Fallout 3 Redesigned - UF3P Patch
Fallout 3 Redesigned - Facegen

Gameplay
Caravan Fast Travel with Random Encounters
D.C. NPCs
Delay DLC Plus
Essential Followers and Caravans
Fallout 3 Ending Restored
Fallout 4 Survival Mode-Style Damage (if you want increased damage)
Shorter Cannibal Animations

Environment and Location Changes
FO3 Flora Overhaul (Dead edition) or Desolation Flora

Visuals
Dynamic Weather* or True Weathers or Clarity (Dark Nights version)
Darkened Interiors
Fallout Street Lights
Street Lights Script Fix
Original Pip-Boy Color Lighting (to match your interface colour)

*Dynamic Weather adds varied weathers, with a similar style to the vanilla visuals. True Weathers replaces the vanilla weathers with new lighting and assets, but mostly stays true to the original feel, but with less tint. Clarity just removes the green tint from the vanilla weathers. Use the style that you prefer.




Installation

Fugacity requires all the official DLC, those being:

  • Operation Anchorage
  • The Pitt
  • Broken Steel
  • Point Lookout
  • Mothership Zeta

Standard installation procedure: just download and enable with your mod manager (Mod Organizer 2 is recommended). For manual installation, add the files to your game's data folder and enable them in the game's launcher.

Fugacity should generally be loaded as low down as possible in your load order. It's always a good idea to check for conflicts with FO3Edit too.


Compatibility

The main download contains a patch for the Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch. There's also an optional patches for

Generally, you can ensure that Fugacity always wins conflicts by placing it low down in your load order.

Fugacity does not use FOSE, which means there are no scripted changes. All changes are visible in FO3Edit, which allows you to check for conflicts and make simple drag-and-drop patches. The relevant bashed tags are already included so that you can also build an automatic bashed patch with Wyre Bash.


Uninstallation

This mod can be uninstalled at any point and will have no permanent effects on your save game.


My Mods

I spend a lot of time creating and supporting my mods, so any donations are gratefully received.