I just bought Fallout 3 GOTY through the steam sale the other day. I have never played FO3 moded before, but I have played Morrowind and Oblivion both heavily moded. I was wondering if there is a way to run the Fallout script extender through steam, but still be able to use the steam features. I have downloaded FOSE and put the separate files in the Fallout 3 directory. However, when I run the script extender I cannot use the steam community features, for example it does not keep track of time nor can I access my friend list, ect. I was wondering if there was a way to install FOSE in such a way as to allow me to fully use all the steam features and use FOSE. Thanks.

I think if you add a non-steam game and direct it to FOSE it will count it, but it will be separate from the 'official' FO3 part.

Is there anyway to do it so that when I play FO3 through steam it uses the script extender (like how it is used in Oblivion) or would putting the script extender in as a non-steam game be the only way (because that would not keep track of time through steam)? I know it is a minor point but I really like having a record in steam of how long I play the games.

Just go into steam under "Games" and select "Add non-steam game". Then use the browse button and find fose-loader.exe and select it. This will create a link in steam that will start fallout 3 with the script extender and with the steam overlay active. You can also right click on the link after it's created and create a desktop link so you won't have to go into steam each time.

You can't use FOSE and still be assessed as playing Fallout 3 as far as Steam is concerned.

This seems to be because Valve was not involved in FOSE at all. Due to the way the Steam version of Fallout 3 works the FOSE team were able to hook onto the main executable without needing Valve's assistance. The side-effect of this is that it makes the game not be recognizable to Steam as Fallout 3.

Oblivion and New Vegas are different because Valve assisted in the process of hooking the script extender, so Steam still recognizes the game.

Didn't really notice that before. The overlay will work but it won't track your game time at all.

Will it ever be possible to get steam to recognize me playing Fallout 3 while using the script extender? Or will this never be the case? It works for Oblivion and New Vegas, but never Fallout 3? That stinks.

It would require the FOSE team to work with Valve to use Steam's loader to hook the extender.

This would cost both sides extra time, would cost Valve some money, could potentially cause problems for the FOSE team (not sure about this), and would definitely break the 4GB patch unless the FOSE team worked around that.

So, it's possible, but I'd classify it as unlikely.

thanks for the informative answer