Haven't played since around release of the Pitt, wondering what mods are considered essential or nearly essential for FO3 now. I have all the DLCs now.
So far from just looking around FOOK sounds good but it seems to be a bunch of combined mods so wondering what else if anything?

FOOK2 and FWE are the biggest overhauls around. Personally i like FWE more, it makes the game tougher and the game mechanics not quite so forgiving. And, like with Oblivion, if you play without MMM you're doing it wrong

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3211

Get sum good quest mods, like all the ones from Puce (Mantis Imperative, Note Easily Missed, An Evening with Mr. Manchester, and the rest of them), and Cube Experimental. Watch for Hightown and The Eagle Has Landed when they're done/in beta, and if you want Enclave action with the Lone Wandered, try Enclave Improved. (The latter two are by Pistolero).

You may also want to look into small tweaks that suit your fancy; one I recommend that just recently popped up is Impervious Power Armor, by Talkie Toaster. Its still on the first page of this forum.

How about simple stuff like UI mods? I remember using one last time I was playing, but don't remember which.

DarNified. GNR: More Where That Came From. Fellout. Enhanced Weather. Those are just a few.

EDIT: found these links for you
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1085562-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-f3/
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1418
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2672
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6170

Ah, right, UI. I use
Darnified (http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1085562-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-f3/)

Im also currently testing out a voice mod that plays voice for some different actions....I dont have the link on hand. It seems good, though.

Do any of the overhaul mods affect bobbleheads?
Would like them completely deactivated so I'm not min/maxing my character around their existence which I will inevitably do if I don't disable them.

FWE allows disabling their benefits from the ingame menu. By default in FWE SPECIAL bobbleheads allow re-allocation of SPECIAL points (gain one point of the bobblehead attribute, lose one of something else), and the skillpoint bobblehead raise the skill by 10 (FWE allows skill to rise up to 200 though).

I'm not really sure if it's what you are looking for but you could look at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6395
or try out http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12300
The first link I have used, and it really does make it harder to find them. The second one I have not tried out.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1096923-relz-arwens-realism-tweaks-thread-no8/ reduces the bonus of the bobblehead. With it you also start with lower skills, and have 5 SPECIAL points less to spend in the beginning than normally (making you equal to everyone else instead of above average). Also you can only read a skill book 3 times IIRC, after which you can't learn from it anymore unless you get a perk which raises the maximum it to 5. So maxing out your skills won't be easy.

And that's only scratching the surface of the harsh wasteland Arwen throws you in... :chaos:

Is Impervious power armor compatible with FWE do I have to load it at the end?

I really like the randomized Bobblehead mod. It's so fun to stumble upon them when exploring.

You must have trees! Well, maybe not, maybe you don't feel the need. But if you do, I recommend this mod. http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2525 What I really like about it is that it adds some trees, and leaves quite a few of the old nasty ones so I'm not in a Disney movie. It still feels like the Wasteland to me, but I have some greenery. It's enough that I get quite lost in some places that I should know like the back of my hand (I played for a long, long time on the 360) and yet I can still see the big landmarks in the distance.

Yes, Impervious is fully compatible.

With everything. Pretty much.

Anyway, I suggest you scour the Nexus when you're bored/have time to kill; its certainly a decent way to find hidden gems you couldn't have found otherwise.

Thanks for all the suggestions, so far I'm going to start with just some basics and see what it needs. My game isn't starting correctly though, can anyone tell me if my load order looks alright?

Edit: Nvm it was enhanced weather causing the problem for some reason.