I am brand new to mods. I've heard of them since who knows when, but I never actually needed to mess around with any of them up until I wanted to replay Fallout 3. My original intent was to stick to the vanilla game as much as possible and only tweak realism factors, but I don't know how much control I have over the mods. Nevertheless, my questions about them, thus far:

- If I download (whatever) mod(s) can I have one save file for the modded game and another for the vanilla game? Don't know if the mod essentially takes over or if I can toggle it/them on and off.

I believe the majority of my questions can be answered via the main FAQ page, but if I think of anything else I'll edit this post.

That being said, what mod(s) would you guys recommend? A short list of what I'm looking for:

- Carrying weight being cut down
- Ammo having weight
- Only being able to carry a reasonable amount of ammunition, weapons, and apparel
- Not being able to abuse stimpacks and other items
- Being fair about buying/selling/trading (and not having 60,000+ bottle caps early in the game)
- Utilizing a doctor instead of literally sleeping everything off
- Skills/perks/SPECIAL being within acceptable parameters (set a ceiling for skill points, not having 200+ skill books lying around, not being a tank with a jacked SPECIAL and overpowered perks)
- Limited use of VATS (notice limited use vs. not using it at all)
- Something to make repairing more realistic (being near a workbench vs. in the middle of combat)
- Having to actually eat food and drink water on a somewhat reasonable basis

Any other recommendations are highly welcomed. Like I said, I'm new. Perhaps there's a mod with new quests that people seem to enjoy? Or maybe adding new armor/weapons/etc to the base game DOES add something different to the Fallout experience.

This will cover most of what you are looking for: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/2761. Most of what you are asking for is just self discipline.

Sadly, yes I was just hoping it would be a good introduction to mods, though. Start off with something small like this and then work my way up. Thank you, nevertheless.

Small introduction mods you say?

Here are a few.

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/9455 HBs wasteland Tent

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/6044 MTC Wasteland Travellers

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/13064 Busworld

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/15973 My dog