Okay, I threw this into the mod detectives thread, but I didn't really get my hopes up in the first place. As the title suggests, I would really appreciate a mod that disables the respawning of fruits, vegetables and nuts (yes, pepper included) entirely. I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to Fallout modding, but this sounds simple enough (perhaps it's even as simple as altering one single line), so maybe someone nice could get around to doing this in a couple of minutes. If no one does, no biggie, but the constant supply of quality food rather annoys me and, as I feel, takes away from the challenge of hardcoe mode.

Doing that ought to be simple, go into geck, select falloutNv.esm

From there do a search all for cactus. You will come across several form type 'script'. You want to look for the plants you want to alter. Like PrickleyPearCactusScript. Double click on that and it will open up a window with some text. Hunt for :
begin onReset
if State == 1
playgroup Backward 1
set State to 0
setdestroyed 0
endif

Delete that, resave the script, save your new esp file, name it whatever you want.

Downside to the above method is that those plants will never respawn. And if you pick them while using the above method, they will not revert to its unpicked look. A fancier way of doing this would be to add a timer. Something that does not automatically refresh the plant on reset. That way you could have it automatically respawn in a month of in-game time.

Also note, I haven't tested the above method, but it looks solid to me

edit: if above works, then you could do extra searches to edit all the other plants you want.

Funny, usually people is asking for plants and such to re spawn when they don't...never heard of any one wants it the other way around

Thanks for the tip, Mavkiel. I did download the GECK and make the change you suggested; however, I won't activate the .esp for now until I can find a cactus to test (pick the fruit --> wait for x days until it respawns; then activate the .esp and repeat the process to confirm whether it's working).
If anyone could tell me exactly how long it takes for plants to respawn their pickables, that would definately help me out.

Ceano, I guess you're right about that. Thing is, I'm really a svcker for survival games with sparse supplies. During my vanilla playthrough with hardcoe mode enabled, I didn't even need to touch any sort of meat; all I needed was some Purified Water and the abundant fruits and veggies, and I was still able to sell quite a few of those since my stock was continually growing. Easy nourishment without any sort of radiation penalty - no thanks, not really my style.
Now I'm rolling with HAM which addresses some food issues, but it still feels a little too easy for me. So I hope this change will make the game more demanding and make me actually concerned about filling my stomach.

Have you had a look at Imp's More Complex Needs? It sounds like it might be up your alley. Among other things, it adds spoilage scripts to appropriate food items and gives you a strong incentive to eat a varied diet.

I did read through the opening post of More Complex Needs and I can definately see where it is headed. However, I was under the impression that it was just a tad too complex, even for me . I might check it out again though, thanks for the tip.

I am guessing 3 days for reset. At least thats what it was for fallout 3 if memory serves. In goodsprings there is a plant by the abandoned school, I forget which type. It might make a good test subject.

Pick it with your unmodded game, wait 3 days in the goodsprings bar, and check on the plant. If it respawns, you now know how to test the altered esp

I was able to test it, picking up a Barrel Cactus Fruit and waiting inside for 7 days (didn't read your post before and wanted to be on the safe side). With the .esp active, it didn't respawn. So I went ahead and did the same for all the other plants. Thanks a bunch, mate .

Yeah, that has always been my thoughts on IMCN as well.

I agree that picked food is too plentiful though - though really, all forms of food (and water) seem to be awfully plentiful in this game. Without mods to change things up a bit, the "needs" portion of hardcoe seems somewhat of a waste.

Yeah if I had to do it I'd go the timer route,

Variables needed

dayholder(a variable to get the gamedayspassed variable of when you picked the fruit)

timer - a short variable to keep track of how many days have passed. Anyhow I have not tried the below, its just something I doodled while watching tv.

General idea is every day the timer variable is incremented by 1. At day 20 the respawn script kicks in. The downside to the below method, if it works, is if you pick a piece of fruit on day 1, and pick another piece of that same fruit on day 13, you would only have to wait 7 days for both plants to respawn (as they are controlled by the same script.)

However, even with that limitation, it should slow down a person somewhat. If it doesnt you could always increase the 20 day timer to something more. Anyhow the below logic needs to be looked at some, but its the general thought. Plus since I am on painkillers atm, I am sure there are a couple issues

short timer
short dayholder

begin onLoad
if State == 0
playGroup Backward 1
elseif State == 1
playGroup Forward 1
if timer == 0
dayholder= gamedayspassed

endif

if State == 1 && timer < 20 && dayholder<= timer + 20
timer = dayholder +1
endif

if State == 1 && timer>=20 && dayholder>=20
playgroup Backward 1
set State to 0
setdestroyed 0
timer = 0
endif

The thing is, I wanted to tone down the plant food in particular since these items are radiation-free. I'm fine with having a whole crapload of meat at my disposal at any given moment; even though starvation is not an immediate threat, at least there's a drawback to eating. So far, Purified Water still seems to be too abundant, but I can live with that.

I would agree with that -if- radiation actually meant much of anything in NewVegas. Other than exploring a very few specific places, radiation is such a non-issue in the game that the amount of rads you pick up from eating meat (and even dirty water) is barely worth keeping track of.

IMO, the entire dynamic is somewhat poorly done in the vanilla game (like so many other aspects of both FO3 and FNV, it is just "too easy"), and no one single thing fixes it.

(I would eventually like to put together my own "needs" related tweaks into a releasable mod, but have many other things/mods on my plate to deal with before that)