As the title suggests. Are there any mods out there that are considered "required" for an enjoyable playing experience?

Increased Wasteland Spawns adds a bunch of randomness and makes it more interesting to explore on later playthroughs.

New Vegas Bounties 1 & 2 are high-quality voiced quest mods that add a lot of new content, and some special encounters.

The Collector is a short but high-quality voiced mod that works very well with a bounty hunter character.

Classic Fallout Weapons adds awesome weapons from old games and adds a new degree of diversity.

Those are the only ones I truly consider "essential".

Just enter those into the search at the Nexus.

Thanks for the feedback. Any community patches to fix any lingering bugs?

I thought the community patch was a bad idea? I could have sworn I heard that it conflicts with dlc and some other mods.. I'd be interested to know if folks are using it without issues.

I haven't had any issues with it, although I've been using the more updated version of it. It isn't on the Nexus however. You'll have to do a search for "Innofficial Bugfix patch for Fallout New Vegas" or something like that.

Project Nevada Nuff said

I thoroughly endorse this message

Personally I'd play it first time with no mods, just make sure it's patched and decide after the game ends what you'd like to change or add.

Oh yeh, the game ends, so if you want to play on afterwards the mod lets you do so, can't remember what it's called, is essential.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1143482-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-nv/ of course.

Which reminds me... With Darn taking a vacation (or something. He hasn't been on in months) and the last thread being locked due to post limit, it would be a good idea if a new thread was created, since the only link to the download is in there and it's not on Nexus. And the thread might not survive the next forum purge.

You say you're picking it ''back up'' so does that mean you've played it on a console or something? If you've beaten the game before, get mods that add content so there's more to do and so there'll be stuff that surprises you. Many have already been suggested in this thread, AWOP being a major one. IWS, as far as I've heard, is outdated and buggy due to patch 1.3. Mods that only add items (weapons, armor, etc.) are a dime-a-dozen and generally just make the game easier.

I'd recommend not getting any UI mods, or at most, http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34913 (since it's bug-fix heavy without changing the look of the UI). Darn's UI in particular gives you a very ugly font. Overall, the game's default UI is adequate.

If it's not content, but gameplay changes you're after, those have already been covered, but I'll resummarize: Arwen's aims to make the game harder, Project Nevada aims to flesh out some existing game mechanics, and adds others.

Oh, and you'll need the http://nvse.silverlock.org/. It's supported by Steam; once its 4 files are in your New Vegas folder, launching through Steam will enable it; no need to use its launcher executable.

Avoid performance enhancing mods (and whatnot) until you've played the game and are sure you need any. Most have side-effects. That might be an understatement.

And lastly, don't overload yourself with mods. Get one or two big ones, see how they go, and then go from there. You don't want to be one of those forum threads of ''look at my load order of 100 mods and tell me why I'm crashing'' on day 1.

Queue

I'd second the be very picky about your mods. I was crashing every 30min and I was running a little under 60 mods. I stripped out everything I really didnt need, and it runs smooth now.

I have a 104 plugin install currently and the game is completely crash free. Well, apart from the occasional cell transition crashes. Once you master Wrye Bash and FNVedit it's simple to make massive load orders. Such as my 194 plugin Oblivion install that requires the 4gb memory hack to prevent out of memory crash at 30 minutes in :lmao:

But it's best to start simple.