A minimal modlist for a modern, vanilla-esque experience. For first-time players and nostalgia-bait. Nostalgiabaters?

1. Nexus Mods For Fallout New Vegas
2. Fallout New Vegas Nvse Nexus 7

The goal here is to retain as much of the vanilla experience as possible, while making improvements that bring it up to the expectations of 2020. Check out the video if you haven't

This plugin is an extension of the New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE). It adds 900+ new functions, which can be used in GECK scripting and (in some cases) as conditions.Additionally, this mod includes numerous engine bug fixes/tweaks, and restores several broken game features. When logged in, you can choose up to 12 games that will be displayed as favourites in this menu.

This plugin is an extension of the New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE). It adds 900+ new functions, which can be used in GECK scripting and (in some cases) as conditions. Additionally, this mod includes numerous engine bug fixes/tweaks, and restores several broken game features.

I worked on this list over my first 2 (and a bit) playthroughs, with only maybe ½ of that time spent with the final list here, so I can’t guarantee a bug-free experience. That being said, it’s probably the lightest modlist you’ll find, and I personally didn't run into problems.

This isn't one of these complete massive overhaul guides that they have now, just a wee little list of my slight remaster. I’ll try explain everything enough to get you up and running but if you’re looking for a proper guide, some great guides/lists that helped me are:

Before you start

• This list assumes you’re using the Ultimate edition of Fallout: New Vegas (all DLC). And you’ve installed it somewhere other than Program Files, on an SSD if you have one.
• Download and install your mod organiser, this guide will be for Vortex, as it’s the simplest to get up and running with. imo. Other mod organisers are available.
• Specific installation instructions will be displayed as a tooltip, otherwise install through Vortex (But do read the mod pages for proper instructions, I am but a simple moron).

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Boot up the launcher, go to settings and turn off Antialiasing and Anisotropic Filtering, V-sync, and (in the advanced tab) water displacement. Load the game, make a test character, go outside (in the game), make a test save.

• New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE)
  Adds scripting functionality for mods
• FNV BSA Decompressor
  Decompresses some game archives to reduce load times, stutter, and fix missing audio
  If you just want the audio fixes without messing with your game archives grab Ogg Vorbis Libraries instead.
• JIP LN NVSE Plugin
  More scripting functionality for mods + some tweaks and fixes
• JohnnyGuitar NVSE
  More scripting functionality for mods

Beyond this point you should only be launching the game through Vortex (Using New Vegas Script Extender)

• FNV 4GB Patcher
  Lets you use 4GB of RAM
• NVTF - New Vegas Tick Fix
  Fixes stutter/FPS on newer systems. A better, less buggier version of NVSR
• OneTweak for FNV
  Adds borderless windowed mode
• NVAC - New Vegas Anti Crash
  Stops crashes

• Yukichigai Unofficial Patch - YUP
  Massive bugfix compilation
• Unofficial Patch NVSE
  Additional fixes that require NVSE
• lStewieAl's Tweaks
  Massive collection of optional engine level tweaks, everything comes OFF by default so be sure to change the .ini file.

• Tweaking lStewieAl's tweaks

  Install as normal, run the game, walk around and then customise the generated .ini file (Data/NVSE/plugins/nvse_stewie_tweaks.ini). Or download a preset, I have one that attempts to be faithful to vanilla (in the downloads), while Axonis’s one comes with every setting annotated.

• The Mod Configuration Menu
  Adds menu support for mods that have settings menus
• UIO - User Interface Organizer
  Lets mods add/change UI elements

• Uncut Wasteland
  Restores visual clutter that was cut to improve DLC performance on consoles.
• Lucky 38 World LOD Fix
  Before, looking out the window of the lucky 38, you would see mountains cut in half, a wee fix for that
• Asterra's Many Fixes
  Text/mesh/texture fixes and more
• Weapon Mesh Improvement Mod
  Improves weapon meshes, won't conflict with anything here, but does conflict with a lot

If you don’t see it and you have JIP LN NVSE installed correctly how to check (see #8), just a create new blank file called FalloutCustom.ini, or get mine from the downloads

If you don’t want to make any .ini changes I have included a one size fits all version in the downloads

JIP LN NVSE lets us customise the game settings in a very clean and easy way, using a new file called FalloutCustom.ini (DocumentsMy GamesFalloutNVFalloutCustom.ini) I don't see it

Open it in notepad and paste the following code:

Disable the horrific mouse acceleration

[Controls]
fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0

Performance improvements

[General]
bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1
bUseThreadedAI=1
INumHWThreads=Set to number of threads in your CPU

[BackgroundLoad]
bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1

[Display]
iPresentInterval=0

[Audio]
iAudioCacheSize=4096
iMaxSizeForCachedSound=1024

And, if you’re feeling overconfident about how well the game is going to run, you can overcrank your LOD settings, as described here

The vanilla dialogue UI is iconic, and all the UI overhauls I tried messed with that, while not really offering enough improvement to convince me. There’s no SKYUI for Fallout: New Vegas. Though if you want to try some out, fortunately it’s a type of mod which you can tell what it does from screenshots.

• FOV Slider
  Easily change your FOV (note: this can be done through the console or your FalloutCustom.ini)
• Pause Menu HD
  Just changes the pause overlay texture, pretty nice.
• JIP Improved Recipe Menu
  The vanilla recipe menu almost unusably awful

ENB’s, if done right, can be a massive improvement over the vanilla game. If done wrong, they can be distracting and performance intensive

• Regular ENB
  My preset, which aims to just update the look, without doing anything crazy. Others, of course, are available See Screenshots

Transparency fixes

• My hair fixes
  Changes hair mesh flags so that ambient occlusion doesn't shade areas which should be transparent. Use FiftyTifty's fix for a far more drastic solution, or both (load mine last)
• And (anecdontally) go to Data/Shaders, and replace shaderpackage013.sdp with a copy of shaderpackage017.sdp (make a backup first!)

Tweaking your enblocal.ini

Not strictly necessary, but I think an obvious stumbling block that people have with ENB’s is that they haven’t got the settings right for their system

In your Fallout: New Vegas folder, open your enblocal.ini, and make the following changes

[MEMORY]
ReservedMemorySizeMb=Lower for older systems, higher for newer. (128, 256, 384, 512, 640, 768, 896, 1024). The official recommendation is to start at the lowest and incrementally increase until you stop noticing stutter.
VideoMemorySizeMb=Use VRamSizeDX9.exe, to get a 'video memory available' number. For Win 10 subtract 350, for Win 7 subtract 170, for Win 8 use the number it gives you.
AutodetectVideoMemorySize=false

There are some HD overhaul packs available, but I’ve been (broadly) unimpressed with how different they are in art style.

• EXE - Effect teXtures Enhanced
  Better resolution versions of all the effects textures

If you absolutely MUST have HD textures, here’s the best of the vanilla look. Be warned though, on the poor old Gamebryo engine, they can cause a bit of a performance hit for not a lot of difference.

• Charge's FNV HD Texture Packs
  Upscaled versions of most of the vanilla textures, varying quality but all vanilla
• Vanilla Loading Screens HD
  AI-upscale of the loading screens
• High Res Vanilla Posters and Graffiti
  AI-upscale but for the posters and graffiti
• PM's HD Ranger Outfits
  Faithful re-creation of the vanilla ranger outfits
• PM's HD Legion Overhaul
  Incredible re-creation of the vanilla legion armors/environment
• PM's Med-Textures - HD Chems and Venoms
  Beautiful re-creation of the vanilla chems
• PM's HD Ammo Boxes
  Gorgeous re-creation of the vanilla ammo boxes, if you can believe that.

• Just Mods Assorted
  A collection of little much needed additions (sprint, loot menu, hit indicators, better crosshair, objective markers). Very customisable through the mod menu. You can import my settings by copying the ini from the downloads
• Ragdolls
  I am just using the ‘Hit Reactions’ feature, to make combat feel that little bit more responsive.
• B42 Weapon Inertia
  Makes weapon movement feel more fluid, hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you see it.
• B42 Quickthrow - an alternative grenade hotkey mod
  If you want a grenade hotkey, this is the mod
  • Quickthrow Stylized FNV Icons v1.0
    But the default icons look incredibly out of place, so grab this
  • MadAce's Ragdoll compatibility patch
    If you’re running Ragdolls, it will conflict with Quickthrow. Download this patch

Nexus Mods For Fallout New Vegas

If you’ve installed everything in this section there will be a few file conflicts. Just make sure the load order matches the order they’re listed here.

I have included some crucial combat AI tweaks in my Stewie's tweaks .ini, under [GameSettings], if you’re not using my preset, copy and paste the below into your own. If you’re not using Stewie’s Tweaks at all, Combat Enhancer will make enemy combat AI a bit better, at the expense of a few bizzare and unnecessary tweaks.

Make enemies less likely to dodge bullets
fAIDodgeDecisionBase = 2
fAIDodgeFavorLeftRightMult = 0.5
fAIDodgeWalkChance = 15

Make it harder to literally run circles around enemies
fCharacterDefaultTurningSpeed = 100
fCombatFiringArcStationaryTurnMult = 0.8

Increase exterior combat/search range, so enemies will actually react to sniping
fAIUseWeaponDistance = 16000 fCombatAbsoluteMaxRangeMult = 5
fCombatSearchCheckInvestigateMaxDistance = 1024
fCombatSearchExteriorMaxRadius = 3500
fCombatSearchExteriorMediumRadius = 2048
fCombatSearchExteriorMinRadius = 1024

Now as I understand it, immersion means unnecessary bullshit. So here is the unnecessary bullshit I would recommend.

• Better Posture
  The resting pose in F:NV is noticeably weird, this makes it look normal
• Strip Wall Billboards
  Makes the discarded billboards around the outside of the strip have the occasional billboard texture on them. So they actually look like billboards.
• Old World Blues Path Lighting
  There's some path lights that never turn on. Now they do
• Ghost People Perception Fix
  There’s NPC’s that you can supposedly sneak around in the Dead Money DLC, the only problem is their perception is set to 0 which is interpreted as infinite. This mod sets it to 1, which is a low number. As far as I can tell it’s not included in any other fixes, and it seemed to work.
• Delay DLC
  Delays Story DLC so they show up in release order (the order they were written in)
• Pre-Order Packs Scattered
  If you don't want to start with all the preorder DLC gear in your inventory, this is the cleanest fix i’ve found.

If you’ve installed everything in this section there will be a few file conflicts. Just make sure the load order matches the order they’re listed here.

• Return of the Eyebots
  Adds the flying radio bots from Fallout 3, nice addition imo. Simple and, actually, lore friendly when you think about it.
• NV Gutsy Handy Animated Eyes
  Little texture that makes the eyes move like in 4. Very basic.
• DLC Weapon Integration
  Nice way of adding some extra variety to the game weapons, without compromising quality as it’s all from the DLCs. Obviously, very debatable.
• Populated Casinos
  The entire game is very sparse in terms of NPCs, but this packs out the Casinos. A little jarring to suddenly see so many people given the emptiness of the rest of the game but still neat
• Faction Wasteland Presence Compilation
  Small additions to fill out the wasteland a bit. imo The Living Desert tries to do too much, this is a lighter alternative
• Primm Reputation Restored
  Primm serves as a kind of the introduction proper to the games questing, it makes sense for it to have reputation
• Nuka-Cola Victory - Quartz - Quantum - Vending Machines
  The Nuka Cola machines seem pretty boring, this adds back the chance to get variants from Fallout 3 and 4

My Minimal ENB

A little lightweight preset, that aims to update the look of the game without going too far. With a light grade, some tasteful shaders, the goal is, an ENB you can forget is even there. See Screenshots

Nexus Mods

My ENB hair fixes

Fixes ambient occlusion affecting areas of hair which should be transparent

Nexus Mods

My .ini files

Includes settings for:

• FalloutCustom.ini
• Ragdolls
• Just Mods
• JIP NVSE
• Stewie’s Tweaks

Fallout New Vegas Nvse Nexus 7

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