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grasscid

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grasscid

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About this mod

Overhauls Dead Money to be a more enjoyable experience without sacrificing the core gameplay elements, and allows you to return to the Sierra Madre after completing the DLC.

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This mod makes several changes to Dead Money, with the hopes of making it a more enjoyable experience for players and more in line with the other DLCs, to some extent.

The biggest issue I felt the DLC had was how repetitive the experience was. Every playthrough boils down to pretty much the same thing: if you're melee heavy, you'll run around with the knife spear. If you're gun heavy, you'll run around with the 9mm pistol, automatic rifle, and police pistol. Energy weapon builds will use the holorifle almost exclusively, and unarmed only gets the bear trap fist to fight with. You'll be playing it vaguely stealthily, and when your ammo runs out you'll just run away from everything or try beating it to death. I wanted to spice it up, while also making a few other modifications to the DLC in the process.

So without further ado, here's the list of changes that this mod adds.

CORE CHANGES
-Apparel items will no longer be confiscated when you start the DLC. Your weapons, aid items, and ammo will still be taken away, but now you can at least continue looking baller as you work your way through Dead Money.
-Vending machine codes have been added for all basic ammo types (5.56mm, .50 MG, 9mm, 12 Gauge, etc.). These codes will be scattered around the Villa and the Casino, so you'll have to hunt them down first. The download file contains a readme and screenshots that will point the way to where each code can be found.
-Fast travel and waiting/resting are now enabled across the villa (except fast traveling from Salida Del Sol North, because I didn't want to cheapen the death run from the main quest).
-After you complete the DLC, you will be allowed to freely return to the Sierra Madre via a door in the Abandoned BoS Bunker. You can bring ALL your gear and companions with you, and you will be provided with the Ghost Hunter perk automatically if you don't already have it.

WEAPON VOUCHERS
The biggest new feature of this mod. Weapon Vouchers will allow you to claim weapon crates from the Sierra Madre Vending Machines. These crates will be added to your inventory as aid items, and "using" them will cause a random weapon to be added to your inventory in pristine condition, ammo included (if applicable; melee weapons obviously won't get any ammo, for example).
The weapon crates are divided by skill class (energy, guns, melee, unarmed, & explosives) as well as by tiers, with higher tiers containing more powerful items. However, higher tiers will also cost more vouchers, correspondingly to the tier level (tier 1 will cost 1 voucher, tier 2 will cost 2 vouchers, etc.).
So how do you get these vouchers? Well they can be found as random loot around the Sierra Madre. Ghouls have a chance of dropping one, and Dean's Secret Stashes have a good chance of containing one as well. You will also be provided with 3 free vouchers at the start of the DLC.

Once you actually get inside the Sierra Madre Casino, you will be able to find a vendor code that will allow you to purchase Weapon Vouchers directly from the vending machines in exchange for casino chips. The location of this vending code can be found in the ReadMe.

Note: You may have to exit your pip-boy and re-enter it after opening a crate for your new weapons to actually show up.

SMALLER CHANGES
-You will now be able to dispense Purified Water from the vending machines. Didn't make sense to me that there's all these options for food, but no drinks except for alcoholic ones.
-You will no longer receive the Dead Money jumpsuit when you start the DLC, since you get to keep your own clothes now. Copies of the suit can still be found in a few other locations though, as per vanilla.
-You will receive 1 Doctor's Bag and 3 Stimpaks at the start of the DLC. Don't know why Elijah would give you an expensive powerful energy rifle, but not basic survival equipment.
-The message that's displayed when you try returning to the Mojave no longer tells you you won't be able to return to the Villa.
-A map marker has been added for the Villa Fountain, so that you can fast travel to it directly from elsewhere in the Villa.


Here's a small video showcase of some of the mods features, including the Weapon Voucher system.


WHAT THIS MOD DOESN'T DO
-It doesn't disable speakers.
-It doesn't disable radios.
-It doesn't disable the cloud.
-It doesn't make the gold bars weightless.
-It doesn't let you take ALL your items from the Mojave into the Sierra Madre (except after you've beaten the DLC).
-It doesn't allow you to return to the Mojave before completion of the DLC's main story.

COMPATIBILITY
I tried to keep direct edits to a minimum. This mod should be compatible with anything that doesn't modify the Dead Money start up quests (delay DLC mods should be compatible), the door that leads back to the Mojave, or the Dead Money cell spaces. Changes to the Abandoned BoS bunker may also cause issues. If you have any doubts about anything, just make sure this mod is last in your load order.
It was brought to my attention by LachlanStowe that this mod has some direct compatibility issues with Realistic Wasteland Lighting. However, he graciously created an .esp patch to get both mods to play together nicely, and this patch is available to download under the Optional Files section of this mod.
Interior Lighting Overhaul will also have some conflicts with this mod, and there is no patch available unfortunately; I would recommend just loading this mod after ILO to get the full suite of features.


This mod can be safely installed at any point in your save, but for the full experience you will of course want to install it BEFORE starting Dead Money.

Feedback is always appreciated, let me know if there's any other changes I should make, if vendor codes drop too frequently or not frequently enough, if there's still not enough ammo or if there's too much now, etc etc etc. And of course report any bugs you may come across as well.

Thank you!