The game gives you *way too much*

[Charlemagne]

I'm playing Survival but the game feels so easy. I'm not bragging or anything. Sure sometimes a Deathclaw or a Yaogaui surprises me and kills my toon, or a raider gets lucky with a Molotov (I hate that). But overall I reign supreme.
The main problem, if one might call it that, is that the game gives you too much. You got to drink. Yeah just make a pump at Sanctuary and you will have all the water you want. Or collect unlimited dirty water from nearby stream and boil it. Or melons and soups. Now if you don't carry enough with you when you set out that's your problem. I only have needed to drink dirty water once, recently, and until then I noticed that it takes more dirty water to quench the thirst than purified (about 4 bottles).
You got to eat. IN the very first moments of the game while exploring Sanctuary, Red Rocket etc. you enjoy a very short time when you feel a real need and have to eat whatever you find. Pre war food, wild fruits etc. Soon you begin killing animals and cooking, and then your provision becomes practically unlimited. I've seen people discuss whether it's better to eat tatos or mutfruits from their settlements. I never eat that stuff, even if you have the Iron Belly or what-it's-called trait, vegetable foods (and pre-war) give a tiny mite of Rads anyway. Cooked meats OTOH are pure and I have a larder full that my toon will never eat in the whole game. Actually I love to get the Parasites disease to make me eat double, but even then the larder shows no signs of becoming empty.
You need money. Well this is the least of your worries. I used to pick to scrounger perk and soon found myself swimming in caps. Now I don't, and just by playing normally, picking up valuable stuff and selling I have more than I need. I thought maybe I would need to buy ammo, buuut...
You need ammo. HAHAHA. I can't run out of ammo as hard as I try. And I'm not using the more ammo perk. I have hundreds or thousands of each ammo stored. I constantly sell the excess. I use automatic weapons (my favorite anyway) and spray away but the ammo keeps accumulating. I figured I would use up the .38 first to save the valuable ammos (yeh), went out with an automatic weapon firing .38 and usually came back with more than I took out. For example, killing three raiders took 11 .38 bullets, but they carried among them 26. Economic. Now I leave the 38 at home because I ant to use the nicer weapons. BUt those don't run out either because they usually kill stuff with 3-4 bullets.
The only thing really scarce in this game is ALUMINUM. ♥♥♥♥ aluminum.

[Charlemagne]

Well as I said I would like a mod to nerf loot, period. Basically the game works the same, but you will find considerably less food, ammo, etc. making you need to make do with less or buy stuff (vanilla you actually sell food, ammo, etc.) However as I said I don't wan't it to make the game a masochism ordeal. I don't want the mod to mess with unrelated (to loot abundance) things, like combat.
Surely it gets better, but so far I find Horizon a total smack in the face. There is no way to get food, simply put. Diseased meat cannot be cooked and that is all I get from kills. Prewar and wild veggies are scarce and you run away real fast since each meal requires at least six to satisfy hunger. And you get hugely irradiated. A Cram gave you 5 rads in vanilla, 34 in Horizon. I'm only to Red Rocket and I already ran out of food (and ammo, thanks to that Molerat Broodmother in RR) with no visible way of getting more.
I tried another mod called Loot overhaul. It looked promising, but again it messed with combat. There are no fire arms to be found in the Vault, Sanctuary or Red Rocket. You have to do with melee weapons, and I hate melee weapons and almost never use them because with them receiving harm in every combat is unavoidable. So inelegant, especially in a mode that makes healing and removing rads so difficult. Similar to Horizon, which does give you a pistol but it is useless and you have to resort to melee.
Another thing that killed it for me was mod incompatibility. I had to remove more than half of my beloved mods with Horizon. I could keep most of my mods with Loot Overhaul, but then I noticed that Spring Cleaning didn't work even if I placed it last in the loading order. I can live with 5000 bullets in storage, but not without being able to make settlements the way I like.
I perused other similar mods and in each case there was something that made it unpalatable for me.
So this thread that I started only to discuss a problem, made me explore several options for the problem, only to end back in square one. Thanks to everyone who gave suggestions though.
I guess until some lite loot reduction mod comes out, if ever, I'll just have to live with the abundance. Maybe make myself some house rules like donating excess to charity, or perhaps dump it in the lake.

[Vul†s]

With Damn Apocalypse you can get food, but you must always have the Hunting Kit. As I said, there is no change in combat if you don't use the combat module. Sad to know that no mod could meet your needs. You'll have to be content with interference from mods, or how the game is. But overall it was a good discussion.

[Bored Peon]

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

...but then I noticed that Spring Cleaning didn't work even if I placed it last in the loading order.:

Between Place Everywhere and Horizon itself the Spring Cleaning is a redundant mod. Horizon contains a superior scrapping system for settlements because it does not break pre-combines. The author even wrote on the mod pae how he duplicated all the textures and only edited those in the settlements. Horizon also makes those scrapping mods incompatible because almost all the borders are expanded.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

There is no way to get food, simply put.

Invest in hunting perks at the start. Chase down animal and insect spawns, looting those raise the skill. Do not cook molerat meat, turn it into ground meat and make wasteland burgers instead. How filling food and water is depends upon the value.

Assign a settler to be a hunter, use supply kit to send it hunting. You should be receiving at least one supply kit per day. Also keep in mind building or just being in your settlement gives you a workshop ration.

The gristle meat is good for making fishing bait, which is used once you unlock fishing traps. You can also place that and diseased meat into the compost bin to fertilize crops.

Also keep in mind that since level restrictions are removed for mobs that means ANYWHERE you go spawns mobs the same levels randomly. In other words it is just as dangerous around Concord as it is near Egret Marina, or Diamond City.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

I'm only to Red Rocket and I already ran out of food (and ammo, thanks to that Molerat Broodmother in RR) with no visible way of getting more.

Go to a workbench or use your weapon kit and change caliber. Also you should think about a melee weapon just for finishing blows or whatever to save ammo. The security baton, pipe wrench, wakaishi works well for that.

[The Inept European]

From the mod description, it's a huge amount of work just to reduce the amount of free loot laying around everywhere. And then you do have to change the levelled lists from looting corpses, otherwise all you have done is shifted the problem to the 'shooter' side of 'looter-shooter'. And you have to fix water farming and any for-profit crafting, otherwise the problem moves there. I am not exactly sure why they gave vendors zero caps, but short of coming up with vendor AI, it's hard to see a simple way to prevent you just dumping all your useless crap on them and cleaning out their caps every time.

[Bored Peon]

Publicado originalmente por The Inept European:

And you have to fix water farming and any for-profit crafting, otherwise the problem moves there.

Horizon did that. You need a purifier module to create purified water. and then it makes one bottle a day (for you.) It also costs materials for each bottle, so making them for profit is kinda pointless. For the settlers having a purifier gives +40 happiness and wellness stats.

I am sure you could sell some, but then you might not have any for making foods, meds, pastes, etc.

[Charlemagne]

Publicado originalmente por Bored Peon:

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

...but then I noticed that Spring Cleaning didn't work even if I placed it last in the loading order.:

Between Place Everywhere and Horizon itself the Spring Cleaning is a redundant mod. Horizon contains a superior scrapping system for settlements because it does not break pre-combines. The author even wrote on the mod pae how he duplicated all the textures and only edited those in the settlements. Horizon also makes those scrapping mods incompatible because almost all the borders are expanded.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

There is no way to get food, simply put.

Invest in hunting perks at the start. Chase down animal and insect spawns, looting those raise the skill. Do not cook molerat meat, turn it into ground meat and make wasteland burgers instead. How filling food and water is depends upon the value.

Thanks Bored, I always value your opinions. Maybe I'll give it another shot. All you say is fine except that it is several levels into the future. I'm fresh out of the vault, level 1, and found the initial hurdle too big. I didn't find any way to do anything with Diseased Meat (except eat it... yikes!), maybe I missed it. The cooking station menu is completely greyed out, I can't cook a thing of what I have (which is mostly Diseased Meat). I'm out of prewar and natural food. I need to gain several levels to advance the hunting perk etc. but by then I'll be dead of hunger and radiation.
Re: Horizon's Architect, I did notice that it is half decent, it still leaves some stuff that can't be removed (I imagine to preserve precombines) but at least I could remove trash which is the worst offender.
Maybe I'll study the wiki and try a new approach. After all I'm currently playing Fallout like a zombie, I know everything everywhere. I even remember where a can is placed on a certain bridge, what monsters are found in each place etc. Horizon could provide a new way to approach the game.

[Bored Peon]

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

I didn't find any way to do anything with Diseased Meat (except eat it... yikes!), maybe I missed it.

Diseased meat pretty much only for composting. You can eat it, but, it has a high chance of well giving you a disease. Also being hungry or thirsty aint a huge penalty either I know a few times early on I had to go hunt to eat for the day.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

I'm fresh out of the vault, level 1, and found the initial hurdle too big.

Should be a Vault-Tec training manual in the Sanctuary Cellar that gives you a perk point. Hunting is like Endurance 1 for rank.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

...but by then I'll be dead of hunger and radiation.

Like I said, first time around for me was the same way because I figured id find radaway to remove the rads or craft some before it became a problem. Yeah, back to the vault, lol.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

After all I'm currently playing Fallout like a zombie, I know everything everywhere. I even remember where a can is placed on a certain bridge, what monsters are found in each place etc. Horizon could provide a new way to approach the game.

Well between the ambushes, magazines mostly being shuffled, bobbleheads changing a bit (any +special is now +1 perk point instead), the explosive traps is quite the change. Topped off by being unable craft and build for xp.

Plus have to keep in mind you can choose the VAN thingy at level 5 and that gives you 6 perk points, or go with primal instincts and get 5% damage boost.

Publicado originalmente por Charlemagne:

Re: Horizon's Architect, I did notice that it is half decent, it still leaves some stuff that can't be removed (I imagine to preserve precombines) but at least I could remove trash which is the worst offender.

The later settlements got like a huge boost.
Hangman's Alley has two building interiors cleaned out to use.
Home Plate can be settled and has a basement.
Oberland Station extends to the shore.
Ten Pines, Outpost Zimonja greatly expanded.
Jamaica Plains extends past the church and about half way to Hyde Park.
Covenant extends in all direction including to the shore.
The Slog has actual tarberry plants (might wanna get some early on)

Some places have special option panels. Like Sunshine Tidings can repair the cabins or remove them. Castle has a repair walls option. Home Plate has an intercom that fast travels you to and from Diamond City Gate (skipping load a screen.)

On top of that a lot of the buildings were broken down so that if you use the extra object option Place Everywhere you can remove buildings by sections and pieces, instead of all or nothing.

Like I rebuilt the Abernathy tower by swapping stuff out. So it has a two story interior with side doors. At Somerville I removed just the broken roofs and built a second story.

[Charlemagne]

OK.
Sorry to disappoint those good friends promoting Horizon, but I found a setup that works better for me.
Food Mod + Wasteland wound care + Less Loot and Ammo.
This combination does what I wanted: It reduces loot (meat-fruits-settlement crops-caps-junk-weapons in containers-medicines-ammo). Perks that increase ammo/caps become necessary, but are still less effective than before. It makes vendor stuff very expensive, while they buy your stuff cheaper. Healing becomes a bit problematic, but has more (less satisfactory) options, like bandages and remedies; in a way analogous (but lighter) to the healing system in Horizon.
Pre-war foods are not radioactive, while meats and veggies are, even if cooked. This makes much more sense. Animals drop way less meat, and wild plants not always yield fruits. Food doesn't heal (only 1 hp typically). My larder is no longer full, but I don't have to kill 16 animals to grind their meat and make one burger.
I could keep every one of my previous mods (although VIS has some minor problems). And last but not least, combat is basically unchanged, except inasmuch that healing is generally a bit difficult, and that there is less ammo. I still have a positive balance, but it is much smaller than before. I don't have thousands of bullets stored. Typically the only ammo I leave at home is that not used by my carried weapons, and running out of a given caliber looks quite possible.

[The Inept European]

That sounds like a great setup. Would you mind posting the links to the mods you mentioned?

[Charlemagne]

Publicado originalmente por The Ex-ept European:

That sounds like a great setup. Would you mind posting the links to the mods you mentioned?

Food Mod https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/26942
Wasteland Wound Care https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12597
Less Loot and Ammo https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2593

[The Inept European]

Thank you sir!

[1L3550N]

Lol I'm clearly a scrub compared to you sir, I remember almost dying of infection in my power armor build on survival lol

If you want a food challenge have you considered starting a cannibalism only diet? lol

[Charlemagne]

I'm level 30 now, into the game the mods I am using work a very good balance. While my larder is adequately supplied, it is no longer chock full. Money is scarce, enough to get by and buy some ammo and stuff but not really rich. This with Caps collector. Ammo I also get by, I am well stocked now but it can run out really fast if I don't watch it. I use the shotgun a lot to save on other ammos. This with Scrounger (I hope I got the perks right? The perks that increase caps and ammo).

[Xenon The Noble]

Which is better? Going the caps/trader perks and buying stuff, or taking the scapper perks?

[Charlemagne]

Publicado originalmente por Xenon The Noble:

Which is better? Going the caps/trader perks and buying stuff, or taking the scapper perks?

Scrapper absolutely. You pick up a lot of weapons and armor and some of that gives very good resources, like aluminum.