Recommended Mods for 1st playthrough

[Schmuddelfilm]

Hello my fellow wastelanders,

I'm about to start my first playthrough of Fallout 4. I've played 1,2, (Pre Steam PC) and 3 & New Vegas on the XBox 360 before, so I'm no stranger to the Fallout Universe.
I've already seen a bunch of YouTube Videos suggesting an almost endless amount of mods for this game and tbh I feel a bit lost at the moment. Is there some sort of consensus here in the community about which are essential and/or highly recommended?
I'm mainly interessted in mods that enhance the immersion. Other than that I'd like to give the graphics a nice overhaul; I've seen various mods that do all sorts of visual improvements, but I'm not sure which one(s) to pick. And at last, some general QOL stuff can never hurt i guess.

So, I'm open for ideas, suggestions and recommendations and I hope some of you could help me out. Thanks in advance!

Cheers!

[Jacob]

No mods are essential but if u want graphic mods i have some of the best ones listed in my guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2242115007

[The Inept European]

Do it with no mods, except maybe UFO4P (unofficial patch).
Add mods when you know what you do and don't like about the base game. Otherwise you are just letting other people's opinions prevent you from evaluating the base game for yourself.

[Schmuddelfilm]

Hey,

Thanks for your answer. Absolutely valid (and fair) point. But don't you think enhanced graphics and stuff like better blood textures or the full dialogue options (just to name a few) make the game objectively better? I'm totally with you in case of 'not altering the game/gameplay in itself' but I thought at least the better graphics are something everyone agrees on?

And one further question regarding the unofficial patch you (and Goonz) mentioned. On the Nexus site description it reads it requires all six DLCs to function. I have none. So tough luck for me or will it still run?

Cheers!

Originally posted by The Inept European:

Do it with no mods, except maybe UFO4P (unofficial patch).
Add mods when you know what you do and don't like about the base game. Otherwise you are just letting other people's opinions prevent you from evaluating the base game for yourself.

[Schmuddelfilm]

Hey,

Holy cow! What a list. :) Thanks for the reply and I will have a look into that!

Originally posted by Goonz:

No mods are essential but if u want graphic mods i have some of the best ones listed in my guide
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2242115007

[Evan]

Originally posted by The Inept European:

Do it with no mods, except maybe UFO4P (unofficial patch).
Add mods when you know what you do and don't like about the base game. Otherwise you are just letting other people's opinions prevent you from evaluating the base game for yourself.

I agree. Play it without mods first. See how the graphics are, decide on if you want to upgrade. I'm on my survival build and I think I'm going to get darker nights soon. But I think it may be best to go through the first playthrough vanilla. See what the game is ACTUALLY like without mods, and mod accordingly.

For settlement building, I recommend getting USO (unlock settlement objects) and whichever one will get rid of the building size limit. Some people don't like settlement building, some do.

"Tales from the commonwealth" adds in a lot of stuff. A lot of marked and unmarked locations, 20 quests, 125 NPCs, 3 companions, 12,000 lines of dialogue. It makes the game feel more alive. I definitely recommend if you're doing survival.

"Wasteland imports" Adds items from fallout 1 through new vegas.

For suvival, I recommend any camping mod or any backpack mod. I have "travelbag" and "Campsite - simple wasteland camping"

Deadly raiders of the commonwealth if you want harder raiders.

If you want gun mods heres a list of what I have.
- Wasteland Melodys chinese assault rifle
- Mk14 EBR
-G3 classic assault rifle
- Handmade revolver
-Varmint rifle
- 9mm pistol (browning hi power)
- Laser RCW - An energy machine gun
- .45 auto pistol (colt 1911)
- Crude blowback
-m1 garand

[hawkeye]

Many people recommend doing the first playthru as vanilla and then start modding new playthrus. Modded, the game is nothing like the original. So if you mod you'll miss out on something.

Modding also increases the risk of the game breaking and requires better pc hardware, just in case you have a low end pc.

[The Inept European]

I think the reason that UFO4P is only offered for all DLC is because there would be too much work for them updating and testing it for multiple variants, and having all DLC is actually the most common variant now. Sorry.

[Flippy]

Highly Recommended Rock Solid High Difficulty Off the Leash Mod List

This mod list never crashes and there are no bugs. All high quality sim friendly none game ruining.

This mod list raises difficulty level but is balanced only by having multiple companions at least some in PA, making squad type gameplay a must.


*TrueStormsFO4.esm - turn on max difficulty and dump the holotapes
*InstitutePowerArmor.esp - Institue guards in their own new kind of power armour
*Hollywood Bullet Tracers.esp
*Hollywood Lasers.esp
*CROSS_Wasteland_Ronin.esp - usable Samurai armour and makes ghouls tougher
*EFF.esp - multiple allies the way it was meant to be
*RealTroughs.esp - Brahmin deserve better than dirty bathtubs
*StrongerRaids.esp - stronger settlement raids
*PumpeSpawnPoints.esp - be prepared to be surprised but in a sim friendly way
*MoreEnemies.esp - this and the one above result in great gameplay
*FeralGhoulOUTBREAK.esp - must have adds zombie hordes and sim friendly
*Yona_Weapon_DefenseGun.esp - pipes were made to be modded out and this is the mod
*Pip-Boy Flashlight.esp - atmospheric must have
*llamaCompanionHeather.esp - best companion mod?
*FO4 NPCs Travel.esp - adds npcs having coffee at Drumlin dinner and much more
*BogartNick - Gen 2.esp - just a good mod
*LR_APCTransport.esp - a sim fast travel is must have this is the best i found



Must have a load accelerator mod to it works and is 10x faster.

A mod that adds the key words for no power armor damage and no ammo use to companions so they are like Danse and settlers is also must have for a proper PC version of Fallout 4 survival which i did myself in the CK as well as other similar mods.


Thanks to https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4 even if there are no New Vegas dancing mods for Fallout 4 yet.

[xybolt]

Originally posted by Schmuddelfilm:

So, I'm open for ideas, suggestions and recommendations and I hope some of you could help me out. Thanks in advance!

Thing with mod lists is that it is a personal list, based on the composer's experience/expectations of the game. For example, one has problems with the clothing textures ingame and adds such retexture mods to their game. Another just want more versatile clothing, so they install a mod that adds a whole new clothing with nice texture ingame. Weather? There are some weather mods out of there, so picking one is more a matter of taste which mod would suit you. There is no guarantee that you may like this or that mod from a random list. What you can do is to use these lists as a guide, to find good mods that you can use as well.

Therefore; that is why I - and some of others here - have advised to play the game first. "Feel" what it is missing, what could be improved and use these experiences to find mods and build up your own mod list. There are some mods that can be seen as "core" mods because they does a lot behind the scenes. These mods are

- Unofficial Fallout 4 patches (for FO4+ all DLC)
- Workshop Framework
- Buffout 4 (continuously in development atm)

Also, I strongly recommend to read the sticky thread about mods: https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/1520386297698187757/ albeit a part of the information is out-dated now. Yet in general sense, it is a solid line to get hold on when adding mods to the game.

[Schmuddelfilm]

Ok, the majority wins. ;)

Thank you all for your feedback. Vanilla it is then. Everything else on the second run.

Farewell fellow vault dwellers!

[Iron Knights]

FORGET MODS ! Run through your first play without them (and no crashes).
Then you will have a full understanding of what mods you would like and what is not needed.

[chris.boney]

my very first playthrough was watching 60+ hours worth of gameplay footage.
i started the game "vanilla" but never even made it to red rocket before encountering a stupid bug.
i ran into the car just past sanctuary bridge and instantly died on impact.
granted, thats quite a rare bug but ive never played the game "vanilla" since...
i'd rather my game crash now and again than have to put up with a vanilla game rife with vanilla bugs (and restrictions).

enjoy your your game though and i hope you get as much enjoyment and freedom of expression as you wish for out of fo4.
;)

[The Inept European]

Originally posted by Schmuddelfilm:

Ok, the majority wins. ;)

Thank you all for your feedback. Vanilla it is then. Everything else on the second run.

Farewell fellow vault dwellers!

Enjoy! And do get back to us with your feedback on vanilla, that will be very interesting to hear.

[lukandroll]

Place Anywhere is a great mod if you like building
It lets you overcome some limitations the building engine has in order to build better settlements