This is an attempt at a mod assisted manual rebalance and revisioning of FONV

where life is unforgiving and the player isn't the nexus of the universe. This

is intended for PC users who are familiar with the game, and mods.

These are guidelines, not stone etchings, it's your game...play as you see fit. There's nothing to be had here except possibly a better game experience. As with most things under the sun, it's not

for everyone. There's elevated horror and violence, and more of a sandbox feel

than vanilla. Very hard is the recommended difficulty setting.

Prologue:

The player suffers permanent amnesia caused by a shot to the head. The New

Vegas Strip, the main quest and tutorial aren't used. The goal is to create an oasis, a

thriving community that serves as a refuge from the hard realities outside.

COMPANIONS

Essential companions(vanilla or companion mods) cost $10,000 to hire. You

can deduct the payment from your inventory once you have acquired the full

sum in order to avoid losing purchase ability because of an unpaid death

penalty.

There's a companion option in "Endless Warfare". I don't have a good feel

for those yet. I don't know if the recover health option sets them as

essential, so I'll say $5000 to hire for now.

DEATH PENALTY

(Level^2 x $100)/2

Example: Die at level 5...pay (5 x 5 x $100)/2 = $1250

Penalty to be payed for each death, not each level.

You can pay off your debt in the console: player.additem 000000f -50

(level 1), or you can opt to manually place the caps somewhere like a

mailbox or cash register.

LEVEL:PENALTY

1:$50 11:$6050 21:$22,050 31:$48,050 41:$84,050

2:$200 12:$7200 22:$24,200 32:$51,200 42:$88,200

3:$450 13:$8450 23:$26,450 33:$54,450 43:$92,450

4:$800 14:$9800 24:$28,800 34:$57,800 44:$96,800

5:$1250 15:$11,250 25:$31,250 35:$61,250 45+:$100,000

6:$1800 16:$12,800 26:$33,800 36:$64,800

7:$2450 17:$14,450 27:$36,450 37:$68,450

8:$3200 18:$16,200 28:$39,200 38:$72,200

9:$4050 19:$18,050 29:$42,050 39:$76,050

10:$5000 20:$20,000 30:$45,000 40:$80,000

Perhaps the cap should be lower, maybe $50,000 above level 30? I wish I

could find a simpler formula(no exponent) that was effective.

You may not make any purchases if you owe a debt. However, you can still

sell stuff. Stocking up on ammo early would be judicious.

Death by misadventure(drowning, radiation, falling) is half cost.

If you die, you are born again and pay the death penalty, and start at

your last save. Die again on the reload...that's all she wrote. New Game!

So be careful with those saves...you can disable any/all/none of the

autosaves. A nod to "Dead is Dead" here for the concept...

SLEEP(non-hardcoe mode)

Once a week only. Sunday > Saturday. Unused can be rolled over into the

next week.

SPAWN ALGORITHM

I use a few spawning mods, but the "Endless Warfare" mod's 'Spawn

Controller' which can be accessed in the Pipboy under 'Aid' is ideal here.

When you're level 1 set the percentage chance at 90%. Then decrease it 1%

every time you level up to an even numbered level:

level 2: 89%, level 4: 88%, level 6: 87% and so on.

Additionally, enable a spawned creature for each level:

1)Jackal gang

2)Viper gang

3)Fiends

4)Radscorpion

5)Feral Ghoul

6)Freaks

7)Super Mutants

8)Breach Droids ...gotta luv em

9)Cazadors

10)Take a friendly faction only on levels that end with 0, I like NCR here

11)Robots

12)Creature Consortium

13)Death Claws

...and so on. The picks above are for challenge, and arguably being

more in context than some others. Massive amounts of enclave and BOS

feel out of place. The "Mojave Enclave Patrols" mod is a better

option.

ESSENTIAL MODS

WARNING: Make a duplicate of your "Fallout New Vegas" folder with the

program files and put it somewhere safe before proceeding!

NVSE

Stutter Remover

Alternative Start(toss all the free stuff you get except the clothes

on your back)

Probably all official DLC's except weapon packs

A World of Pain...no taking AWOP stuff from Doc Mitchell's

Warzones

Endless Warfare

DFB Random Encounters or Increased Wasteland Spawns

Wasteland Defense and/or Realtime Settler

VendorGameTimeRestock

RECOMMENDED MODS

CompanionInfiniteAmmo

Mikoto Beauty

Traveling Merchant Fix

Someguy Series...all his mods to date

Mojave Enclave Patrols

Easy hacking/Easy unlocking

Weapon Mods Expanded

Weapon Mod Recipes..no selling these, for personal use only

aaaJNFSniperZooming...there's a fixed version in the comments section

for this at Nexus

I'm able to run all the mods listed and more(about 40 total) at 1600 x 900 resolution on my lame dual - core Dell studio w/6 GB of memory and $100 graphics card. A little stutter when I enter "Warzones" is the only significant problem. Most days I can get it up to 1920 x 1080.

I use a number of things to help:

Limit the Windows startup programs to conserve memory. Start Menu > Run > type "msconfig" without quotes and hit Enter > Startup tab. You can Google entries you don't recognise. Leave entries checked if you're not sure. Adobe is particularly pernicious in this.

Close Browsers/programs while playing

Stutter remover

CTD Ultimate Fix

DirectX 9 Fix http://www.ravenmodding.terminal47.net/?p=660>lang=en Use at your own risk/Nvidia version works 4 me

Better Game Performance V5

YUP A clean unofficial patch

CleanMem By PcWinTech.com There is a free and pro($5) version, I use pro and put FONV in

the ignore list, definitely helps. Google it.

Everything listed can be found on New Vegas Nexus unless otherwise stated

If there's any interest in this, I'll likely take consensus suggestions and

update, otherwise I'll play my game...