Mods for a "Vanilla" playthrough?

[Vong]

Trying to get my brother to play New Vegas after playing only Fallout 4. Was curious if anyone had any recommendations for mods that would improve, but not taint his experience too much from the base game?

[Zeno]

Aesthetic mods, depending on your specs. I'd recommend looking into weather mods like Nevada Skies, URWLNV, and RWL. You can add an ENB to that too, of course. For textures, you can look at NMC's Texture Pack and Ojo Bueno.

I'd also definitely recommend the FNV4GB patcher, NVSE, NVAC, and NVSR for performance and stability. If you're wondering about stability mods, have a look at the pinned thread. There's a great deal of information about them there.

[キールス]

First get FOMM.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/36901/?

Or Mod Organizer(Recommended)
http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1334/?

Here are links to some aesthetic mods that will enhance your brother's "vanilla" gameplay.

Weather Mods
Nevada Skies (recommended)
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/35998/?

Project Reality
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/42180/?

Lighting Mods
FNV Realistic Wasteland Lighting
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/52037/?

Interior Lighting Overhaul
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/35794/?

ELECTRO-CITY - Relighting the Wasteland
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/37908/?

Texture Mods
NMCs_Texture_Pack_For_New_Vegas
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43135/?

OJO BUENO Texture Pack
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39755/?

Environment Mods
Mojave Sandy Desert
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/55328/?

Wasteland Flora Overhaul
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39856/?

I also recommend installing an ENB. Try different ENBs to see which suits your brother's taste.

Personally I like Overgrowth.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/58009/?

But alot of people have downloaded ENHANCED SHADERS - ENB.
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/49882/?

[キールス]

I also recommend:

Fallout Character Overhaul 3
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54460/?

or

Fallout New Vegas Redesigned 3
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/56312/?

But if you are going to use FNV Redesigned, you have to ditch the ENB.

[[OFN] Red Eye]

Personally, for a fairly "Vanilla" run I would just recommend the following (with reasons attached):

TOOLS
=====
FOMM - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54991/?
*Mod Manager for installing most of the mods you will want to use, and makes life generally a bit easier.

4GB Patch - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/55061/?
*This is going to let the game make use of more RAM which will help performance and using better textures.

FNVEdit - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/34703/?
*This is going to let you make a Merged Patch to cover any conflicts, which will actually be pretty minimal with this list.

NVSE - http://nvse.silverlock.org/
*This is required for a lot of modern mods so you will want to grab it, I would recommend just getting the latest Stable version.

JIP LN NVSE Plugin - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/58277/?
*This is an add-on of sorts for NVSE and is required for a fair number of mods that are more modern in design.

NVAC - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/53635/?
*Will help will overall game performance and relies on NVSE which was just advised, feel free to tweak things per the instructions if you like but usually works out of the box.

NVSR - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/34832/?
*This is actually somewhat optional, some people say it hurts performance for them so if that is the case skip it, but otherwise use it (2nd of many NVSE items).

UIO - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/57174/?
*This is for managing having a couple of UI mods running at the same time, which is something that is very common to run into and will happen with this list.


VISUALS/UI
=====
HD Startup Screens - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/58546/?
Vanilla Loading Screens HD - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/63222/?
Endgame Slideshow Widescreen Fix - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39847/?
Vanilla UI Plus - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62108/?
*These are all either 100% like Vanilla with some general improvements made, or in the case of the Startup Screens they are just the best I know of that still feel "Vanilla"

Better Pickup Prompt - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/63091/?
JIP Improved Recipe Menu - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59638/?
*These two are not "Vanilla" strictly speaking, but they enhance these parts of the UI very nicely and should not cause issues with anything else (though UIO should cover any potential issues).

NMCs Texture Pack - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/43135/?
*This is one of the two generally "definitive" texture overhauls, and I personally prefer this one with the more red rock tone as that is more true to real life Nevada, but he also has a much more "Vanilla" option.

Improved LOD Noise Texture - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/46451/?
*Makes the textures that appear in the distance look a bit better than they otherwise would, you can see in the comparison screens.

PipBoy 3000 HD Retexture - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54609/?
*You spend a lot of time looking at this, and this is an HD texture that maintains the original look and design.

NVCE - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/39325/?
*This is a character overhaul mod that is much more faithful to the "Vanilla" look overall compared to the more popular options expressed by others here, but it still cleans people up nice.

Wasteland clothing Hires retexture - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54478/?
*Stays 100% with the original look for almost all the Apparel items in the game with a nice HD look to match you other updated textures.

Collision Meshes - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/59149/?
*This is all meshes, but it will make some factors of the original game less maddening since you will be able to more logical interact with the environment.

Precision Collision - Clutter NV - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/54455/?
*This goes along with the above mesh pack but is focused on clutter to make decorating and the sort much more bearable (and reduces some odd in game behavior).

Reloading Bench and Workbench Collision Fix - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/49255/?
*Sticking with the theme of meshes and collision, this is going to cover just a couple more items in the game to round out the work done.

MODS
=====
MCM - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/42507/?
*This will allow you to configure some mod options right in game from the Pause menu (when you hit "Esc") with a slick interface.

YUP - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/51664/?
*This is the cloest thing to a strictly "bugfix" mod that I am aware of that is available for NV, and it doesn't even require all the fancy NVSE stuff.

UPP - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62953/?
*This is the modern companion to YUP and works great with it, but does some stuff that required NVSE to deal with.

Simple Saves - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62181/?
*The normal save system in NV is something I don't trust being Gamebryo and prone to corruption on Autosave and Quicksaves, so this does legit full saves scripted on the regular for you to replace the Autosave system.

JSawyer Ultimate Edition - http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/61592/?
*The only thing modwise that I recommend that is not strictly "Vanilla" at all, but it is a modern NVSE style update to the mod made by Josh Sawyer (Lead Designer of New Vegas) that many consider to be a "Director's Cut" of sorts and well worth the load.

If you want to tag on a couple more things, the JSawyer Ultimate Edition mod has a "Recommended Mods" section on the main page of the mod that links to other mods that stay pretty true to the "Vanilla" experience while adding to the game greatly. You don't have to make use of them, of course, but your are welcome to tack any of those on as well without too much worry of issue.

[Vong]

Well, thank you all for your suggestions. I'll pass them along.

Red Eye, I won't pass along the JSUE, but only because my bro ain't a "hardcore gamer" (and let's be honest, the JS mod is a difficult mod). That said, glad to see such a thing got made. It'll definitely find itself in my own load order.

[grove]

DUST survival simulator

[Vong]

Originally posted by Operator:

DUST survival simulator

HA!

[[OFN] Red Eye]

Oh yea, I'm with ya, it does make the game harder for sure. Though with the Ultimate Edition it will let you tweak some settings in the MCM actually which can lessen that extensively if needed - certainly consider it and just tweak it for him so he still enjoys it.

Other than that one though, the ones I kicked up should be pretty vanilla for him and still enhance the experience a lot even without JSUE. Also, some of the "Recommended Mods" on the JSUE page may still be worth a look as they stay pretty vanilla still on most of them, depending on how much more you would want to do for him beyond that existing list.

[Anro]

Originally posted by Star Commander Vong:

Trying to get my brother to play New Vegas after playing only Fallout 4. Was curious if anyone had any recommendations for mods that would improve, but not taint his experience too much from the base game?

Dont instal Mod Organizer or NMM first thing


Mods for Overhaul
NNMCS
OJO Bueno
Wasteland Flora Overhaul
WRP
IHWT

FCO
New Vegas Redesign
BoS Reforge
NCR Ultimate Overhaul
Ceasars New Regim
Great Khans Overhaul


Project Nevada
Animation Project


WMX
EVE

more you dont need

dont insttall the bad unoffical patches

[Americvna Trudck Simulkator]

Fellout NV

[radosuaf]

Just install 4GB patch, NVSE & Tick Fix

[MurderMoose]

Got to love the classic Seven Year Necro.

[Fluffy Newfoundland]

Originally posted by radosuaf:

Just install 4GB patch, NVSE & Tick Fix

Holy necro.

[Dieter]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.