Community Guide: Pimp my Fallout 3

[Afrodisiac]

This thread is now a Community Guide. Anybody who downloads or makes mods for Fallout 3 can post their own list and will have it published in the OP, scroll down to the bottom of the OP for the list on other user created guides



Afrodisiac's Recommended Fallout 3 Mods


*Disclaimer*
I do not make Fallout 3 mods (don't know how to). None of these are my mods, they are all 3rd party mods, and I foremost remind you that I am definitely not an expert in the Fallout 3 modding community; this is simply a list of the mods I downloaded and installed that worked best together and provided the best gameplay for me. Also, keep in mind that this is not representative of the quality of the mods I listed; there ARE mods out there that are potentially twice as amazing but which I have not tried. Again, this is just my recommended list


*Important*
Things you need to follow this guide: Fallout 3 (of course), patched to the latest version, and an account on Fallout 3 Nexus.


*Super Important*
Please do not install any of the mods WITHOUT READING THE ENTIRE GUIDE FIRST. The mods listed in the "Compatibility Mods" section are absolutely essential to get some, if not all, of these mods working. I have left that section for the end to keep the guide neat and tidy.


Gameplay Mods
Description: these mods are ones that modify essential parts of the game, like the weapons/items, enemies, the interface/HUD.

• Mart's Mutant Mod: link. This is one of the most advanced and game-enhancing mods there is in my opinion. It adds many new enemies to the game, reskins all the current creature enemies and raiders, and it has many sub-modifiers such as "increased respawn", "increased increased respawn", and "Feral Ghoul rampage". I would give away more, but I would be spoiling the surprise. Install this and prepare to be amazed, it will be as if you have a completely different game launched
  
• Fallout 3 Overhaul Kit: link.This is another one of the most advanced and game-enhancing mods there is. In the same way that Mart's Mutant Mod completely overhauls the game's enemies, the Fallout 3 Overhaul Kit (or FOOK for short) completely overhauls the games weapons, armors and items. Every new enemy you will encounter will drop you a new weapon, this mod adds 120 different types of weapons and around the same number of new types of clothing and apparel, and it also makes armor specs more realistic; for example, Power Armor now gives you -50 Sneak (which makes a lot more sense), and you cannot use a heavy weapon without Power Armor (note: you can turn this option off if you like). Install this mod and prepare to be amazed; it adds multiple classes of energy weapons like Ion and Gauss (instead of just Laser and Plasma from the stock game). Absolutely amazing mod
  **FOOK v2 BETA is out!**
  Keep in mind it is a beta and might not be as stable as 1.6 which is linked above: link
  
• Repair Rethought Reborn: link. This is a gem of a mod that often goes overlooked. Its function is simple; adds new, creative ways to repair weapons and items. Any custom-made weapon (using schematics) can be repaired from any individual part of that schematic, weapons can be repaired using wrenches and scrap metal (having wrenches in your inventory while repairing makes you repair better), armor can be repaired with scrap metal and clothing can be repaired with it's corresponding materials. This is an absolute must-have with the FOOK installed because some of the weapons that the FOOK adds are very rare, unlike the stock game where you can find 8,000 hunting rifles an hour. It also makes scrap metal much more common in the wasteland, for example toolboxes hold 5+ usually and if you get lucky, 10+. Great mod
  
• DK Bullet Time Mod: link. Sick of the shortcomings of VATS? How it wears weapons down much more quickly, how it delays for a few seconds before opening up, and how sometimes when the enemy is 2 feet away and VATS still says you have no chance of hitting him? Look no further than this mod. Simply enough, it slows down time. Doesn't modify any of the game, and unlike VATS, it does not reduce the damage you take when it is active, and it does not wear down your weapons any faster than normal use. It uses Action Points just like VATS (you can modify how much it uses but I just keep it on "default"), and this is very useful for when you need to slow down time and think or be able to get a headshot. I have not used VATS ever since I downloaded this mod. Just install the mod and you will be amazed at how awesome it is. Note: you cannot have a hotkey for this mod if you do not use Fallout Script Extender, or FOSE; don't worry, I will have full instructions on how to install that later on in the guide. Without the hotkey function, you will have to activate it through Pip Boy, just like how you apply stimpacks. Trust me, you want to use FOSE with this. Try it out on a few molerats and then you will be an expert with it in no time
  
• Darnified User Interface: link. This mod overhauls the stock game UI. Instead of your health and AP bars taking up 75% of the screen, this makes them much more manageable. It also makes lists easier to scroll through by allowing more items to be displayed on the list at once, and it has customizeable options like having an XP meter or a Karma meter on your screen (adds them to the top right). I really like this mod. The font used is cool and it isn't really more or less annoying than the stock one, which is a good thing. I especially like how the Status page on the Pip Boy is all compacted so you can your Effects, Health, Limb Status and Rad meter on one page. Very cool mod and recommended highly, you won't be going back to the stock UI after using it
  
  Which of these mods will work together:
  All of them work fine together, and none clash. Mart's Mutant Mod and FOOK need a special compatibility program called FOIP, Fallout Interoperability, but at the end of the guide in the "Compatibility Mods" section I will cover exactly how to install it.

House Mods
Description: these mods are ones that either modify the stock Megaton and Tenpenny Tower houses by adding a new area to them, or completely overhaul the stock houses, or even add new houses.

• Bunker 72: link. This is the house mod I personally use. It adds a new section to the stock Megaton and Tenpenny houses. I do not know how it is in Tenpenny but in Megaton, it adds a door to your immediate right the second you walk in. This is a very secretive bunker. You first walk into a small cement room with a bed, fridge, broken down locker and a radio next to a wall with a few posters on it. You turn on the radio to listen to some music, and lo and behold, the wall with the posters slides down to reveal an underground haven. (There is a switch in the armory to the left which opens up an ENORMOUS underground armory and shooting range, and a mainframe in the storage room to the right which should open up a door to a garage but that feature has not been made yet, it is still in progress). This mod is a must-have with all the new weapons and armors of the FOOK, because you need some serious space to stash all your stuff, and most of all, having a ginormous shooting range helps you get aquainted with the 120 new FOOK weapons
  
• Megaton House Expansion Mod: link.This is a fairly basic house expansion mod. It puts a door in the same place as the Bunker 72 door (while keeping the rest of the Megaton house stock), and it adds a new area with a new bedroom, workshop and a main room with a few shiny lockers. Also has a pool table. All in all, a very basic but nice mod and it adds a good bit of space and variety to the stock Megaton house. Note: I could not get this mod to work without crashing randomly to desktop at times. It would be fine some days and then crash a few times in a row but ultimately it was an unstable environment.. YMMV though, and hopefully, if you like simplistic house expansions, it doesn't crash much for you
  
• DTOM's Rivet City Apartment Mod: link. I used to exclusively use this house until I installed FOOK. It adds a new apartment in Rivet City. Go to the main stairwell, go up to the upper deck area, go straight and turn left. Where there's normally a dead end, now you have an apartment door. To purchase it, buy the Deed from Seagrave Holmes, one of the merchants in the Marketplace which wears a motorcycle helmet. Great clean mod. Adds a beautiful bedroom with a bathroom and an armory with a workplace at the back. The beauty of the mod is the organization aspect; it has seperate boxes for all the STOCK weapons and armors in the game, as well as all the chems and workshop materials. Moreover, if you use the auto-sort tool (the second you walk into the house, go to your right and there should be a computer terminal called the Deburden), it repairs all the items it sorts to 100%. For example, if I walk inside with broken Tesla armor, 30% condition Talon armor, a Chinese Assault rifle and a 10mm Pistol and use the Deburden, if I go into the armory, it will have placed the rifle in the Chinese Assault rifle case (and repaired it to 100%), the 10mm pistol into the 10mm pistol case, the Tesla armor (repaired to 100%) in the Power armor locker, and so on. However, this mod does not sort FOOK weapons, and since it is entirely dedicated to the STOCK weapons of the game, then I really find no use for it with FOOK installed. Although, it has a nice Auto Plastic Surgeon and Auto Barber in the bathroom if you want to change your appearance
  
• Megaton House Overhaul Mod: link. This is one mod that I have been anticipating forever. Complete and amazing overhaul of the stock Megaton house. It is going to be released in 2 days!!! However, he's been saying that for 2 months and still no mod. So I really have no clue when this is going to be released. However, look at the pictures, watch the video and see just how epic this thing will be once it's released. In the end though, this is Fallout 3, not the Sims, so houses aren't really THAT important. However, I'm weird like that - I can't play until I have a nice house to stash my loot. If you have enough patience to wait for this mod to come out, power to you, because it looks like it's gonna kick some major butt
  
  Which of these mods will work together:
  The Bunker 72 mod and Megaton House Expansion mods WILL NOT work together because they both place a door in the exact same spot. Also, I do not think those two mods will work with the Megaton House Overhaul mod because they are designed to add doors to the stock home, not a modified one. Since the Rivet City Apartment is in a seperate area, it will work with any of the other mods with no issues.

Companion Mods
Description: these mods are ones that give you either new or improved aid/followers, which are NPCs that help you and fight by your side.

• Enclave Commander: link. I absolutely ADORE this mod. It is very simple in execution. It adds 3 items to your AID inventory in the Pip Boy. 2 of them are customization options, and 1 is the actual mod itself. You can request ground support (and create a group of 5 customizeable Enclave soldiers, i.e. you can pick light soldiers with plasma rifles and assault rifles or heavy exterminators with gatling lasers and miniguns), and this group will follow you, purge areas, and much more, or you can request air support which involves a variety of different air strikes by Enclave Vertiberds, useful for taking out a Super Mutant Behemoth (a custom creature added by Mart's Mutant Mod, and trust me, you need around 3 airstrikes to kill these monsters). They act just like normal followers; they will be hostile towards real Enclave soldiers and they will be friendly with BoS. They are awesome. However, their skill does not scale like real Enclave soldiers. With MMM and FOOK's tougher enemies modifier as well as the game on hard or very hard, real Enclave soldiers are insanely tough but your followers are as vulnerable as molerats. Still, they are very useful against super mutants, raiders and ghouls. After all, you + 5 heavily armed Enclave soldiers = a very strong team
  
• CMF Deathclaw Pet: link. Adds a friendly Deathclaw follower outside Deathclaw sanctuary. Amazing mod. Deathclaws don't really need to have their awesomeness demonstrated; anybody who has ever fought one has probably wished they could get these guys on their side. And now that dream is a reality. It acts just like a real Deathclaw, except it is not a full sized Deathclaw. I have still not found a mod that gives you a full sized adult Deathclaw as a pet . Anyway, this guy does a bunch of cool stuff and he can also carry items, so he's pretty useful. You can tell him to sit and stay and he won't attack anybody, useful in a town or when talking to a potential hostile (like Andale) where he would usually attack before letting you resolve the issue through speech. Cool mod and if you want a Deathclaw pet, no reason not to try this one out
  
• Claw Deathclaw Companion: link. Adds a blue Deathclaw outside Rivet City (on the very edge of the shore under the extendable bridge). It has a teleporter which is useful when it gets stuck, and it fights very well, and it also has a backpack for you to store items in, but it has the voice and expressions of a Super Mutant which annoys me greatly because I want the sounds/expressions of a real Deathclaw! It is smaller and more compact than a real Deathclaw, and like I said, if you've always wanted a Deathclaw pet, no reason not to try this one. I like this one more than the CMF pet because it is more fine-tuned and polished and it is less buggy
  
• Dogmeat Deathclaw Matriarch Replacer: link.The absolute best pet mod because it doesn't involve an entirely new pet, it just modifies Dogmeat - it is now called Deathmeat! You'll find it at the same place you'll find Dogmeat. This is a new creature which is added by Mart's Mutant Mod, called a Deathclaw Matriarch, and she is bigger and more powerful than normal Deathclaws. One hit = instant knockdown so if you get hit once, you're dead. So imagine having this absolute beast on your side. Overpowered you might say, but not really; with Mart's Mutant Mod's repsawn and difficulty modifiers as well as the in-game difficulty turned up high, you will really need this thing to be able to do quests. Amazing mod and very well made, this is the highest recommended of all companion mods except for Enclave Commander
  
  Which of these mods will work together:
  The Enclave Commander mod works with all 3 of the Deathclaw pet mods, and AFAIK, all of the pet mods work together but I have not tried having all 3 Deathclaws follow me at the same time. I'm guessing it won't be an issue but to be safe, I recommend you use one Deathclaw at a time.

Compatibility Mods
Description: these mods are essential to getting all of the mods in this guide working well together (or in some cases, working at all).

• Fallout Mod Manager: link. The most essential Fallout 3 tool. This thing allows you to select what mods to run and what not to run, allows the launching of the Fallout Script Extender (FOSE, more on this next in the list), and allows you to set load order. For example, a sub-mod of the FOOK is "Big Box of Lulz" which adds a box full of everything in front of Vault 101 for you to play with. It is essential that you load the 3 main FOOK files, "FOOK.esm, FOOK.esp and CALIBR.esm" before the "Big Box of Lulz" file, so you simply drag the 3 main files to the top of the list and drag the "Big Box of Lulz" to the bottom and you're done. Some mods even allow for very simple .exe installation using Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM), so all in all this is a very essential tool
  
• Fallout 3 Script Extender: link. Another essential modding tool, this extends the stock scripts of Fallout 3 which makes modding a lot easier and profound. For example, the Bullet Time mod will not let you use a hotkey to trigger it (like VATS is V for example, my Bullet Time is Q) unless you use Fallout Script Extender (FOSE). You unzip the file, take everything from inside the folder (a bunch of folders, dlls, exes, and more) and dump them into your Fallout 3 main directory. And then, you open up FOMM (Fallout Mod Manager) and click "Launch FOSE" which should be the very first button. If you have done it right and installed the Darnified UI, there should be a small VaultTEC boy's face on the bottom left of the main menu which is added by Darnified UI, and placing your mouse on it should list the version of Fallout 3 and that you are using FOMM and FOSE. Essential to get some of the mods working, but not all, it is highly recommended; why wouldn't you get it?
  
• Archive Invalidator: link. Simple mod saves you the trouble of messing around in complicated .txt files in Fallout 3's directory by conveniently modifying the .txts itself. Essential to get custom textures (like the ones MMM and FOOK add) working. Moreover, sometimes messing with the .txt (and manually setting bInvalidateOlderFiles to 1) will cause crashing, and it needs to be set to 1 to allow textures. This completely bypasses that issue
  **Archive Invalidator is unnecessary, refer to TestECull's guide, in the Compatibility Section, for more information. Link at bottom of post.**
  
• Fallout Interoperability Program: link. This is an essential mod to getting MMM (Mart's Mutant Mod) and FOOK (Fallout Overhaul Kit) working together. Simply open the link and download the "FOIP - Mart's Mutant Mod" package. Unzip it and you'll find a data file that says "Mart's Mutant Mod - FOOK", and that's the one you put in your data folder and enable through FOMM (Fallout Mod Manager). That's how simple it is to get these two amazing mods to work together
  
• Windows Live Disabler: link. This removes stupid Games for Windows Live which, for me at least, causes nothing but trouble. It's also supposed to remove the LIVE option from the menu, but it cannot remove the LIVE option from the Darnified UI menu. Not an issue, just don't click on it. This is absolutely essential because Live doesn't play nice with all mods (heck, it doesn't play nice at all)
  
  Which of these mods will work together:
  All of them work fine without a question, and some need each other (like FOMM and FOSE).

*Mega Important*
After installing ENORMOUS mods like MMM and FOOK which completely overhaul the game, it is highly recommended that you start a new game to prevent instability. Also, you will sacrifice your ability to use Games for Windows LIVE with all these mods, which is a bad thing for achievements but achievements suck so go on ahead and sacrifice it! I hope you enjoyed this list of mods. Remember that all of these mods work fine for me, Windows 7 RC Build 7100, 64-bit, so it is probable that they will work fine on any other operating system and PC but it is NOT GUARANTEED. And, most importantly, don't forget to have a blast!


*Ultimately Important*
Please don't forget to RTFM of all the Mods you download. Always read the readmes, all the instructions on how to install them properly are in it.




Users' Recommended Mod Lists
Description: have a bunch of mods that you want to share with us? Download the attached .txt file which has all the formatting of this post to keep things clean, change colors if you want to, add your stuff, and post it. I will include it in this list!

• MasterKromm's List: link
  .
• TestECull's List: link
  .
• Vlasov_581's List: link
  .
• User 4 list:
  .

[Argorn5757]

how do you install FOSE with a steam copy of the game?

[Afrodisiac]

Originally Posted by Argorn5757

how do you install FOSE with a steam copy of the game?

I have a Steam copy of the game. You stick it in the Fallout 3 folder just like normal, which should be in Steam/Steamapps/Common/Fallout 3.

[Radiix]

Great guide!

You should include a texture/graphics mod section next because I know there's a lot of people that don't know about mods like Fellout

[mrtn400]

Good list.

I wonder if someone's made a Halo 3 FO3 mod like Oblivion.

[WannaBeNoob]

Amazing Guide, +rep for sure.

[Afrodisiac]

Thanks for comments guys

Originally Posted by Radiix

Great guide!

You should include a texture/graphics mod section next because I know there's a lot of people that don't know about mods like Fellout

Ironically, I'm one of the people that don't know about mods like Fellout . It's a good idea but I wouldn't include it simply because I haven't used it and therefore cannot give it my Afrodisiac Recommended stamp.

[Argorn5757]

all my save files disappear when lauching with FOSE?

[Afrodisiac]

That's because Live is disabled through FOSE. Simply go to your Save Games folder, remove the save games from your account folder and put them in the Save Game folder.

Documents/My Games/Fallout3/Saves/your-account

Take the stuff out of your-account and put them in Saves.

[Argorn5757]

nahhh i was gonna restart and downlaod everything anyways