If you haven’t read the previous post on this, this is an ongoing series spotlighting the huge variety of mods I use and enjoy in Fallout: New Vegas, quite possibly one of my most favorite recent video games.

In the last version, I posted links to a number of different weapon mods, that add a wide variety of new weapons into the game.  Unlike many modern shooters, which feel the unusual need to constrain you to holding just two weapons at a time, FNV allows to to hold as many as you can carry – and while the base game already includes dozens of weapons to choose from, mods can increase that number into the multiple hundreds.

Since posting that, there have been some changes to the mods, and I’ve tried some new ones as well, so here are a few updates:

-The Book of Earache mod is no longer directly hosted on New Vegas Nexus, and there is no longer an easy way to download this mod directly.  However, at least the weapons part of it is now integrated as a patch for the mod A World of Pain, which is another important mod to have around, especially if you’re looking for new content (I’ll talk about this further in the installment that talks about new content mods).

-In the previous installment, I mentioned a number of individual weapons, including the Glock set and the Mk. 23.  The author of those weapon mods has now compiled them, and many others, into a full-blown weapons pack called Westside Munitions.  While the store it adds has been somewhat glitchy for me, the weapons themselves are top-notch, and you can add them in elsewhere with the GECK if you’re so determined (I might also upload a quick .esp mod I did that allows you to pick up the weapons in the schoolhouse instead).  In any case, this is another well-done, highly recommended weapons pack.

-I’ve also had quite a bit more play time with the Stalker and Nordic weapons packs.  The Stalker pack provides a good selection of weapons, including a couple of very nice ones, but the textures on it are a bit low-res and have occasional glitches (that being said, they might work better on computers with less graphical resources).  The Nordic pack provides around a dozen weapons or so, scattered throughout the game, and all of them are well-modeled, sound good, have a full complement of mods, and pack a serious punch.  I would tentatively recommend the Stalker pack as decent extra, and would definitely recommend the Nordic pack.

-I also installed and played around with Ahztek’s Weapon Replacer, which now goes by the name of Shrapnel – The Definitive Weapon Collection. Like Classic Fallout Weapons New Vegas, it is a major weapon replacer, putting new weapons in the hands of factions across the wasteland. So far, it actually will work alongside CFWNV, and should replace faction equipment with its own weapons, while CFWNV weapons are still available in shops like Gun Runners. I’ve played around with it a bit, and so far I’m liking the weapons on offer a bit more than the ones in CFWNV, and it has even more variety, along with some very nice-looking weapon models. This is definitely one to check out, and along with CFWNV and Book of Earache will work well if you just want to choose a one-stop shop to expand on the weapons available in vanilla FNV.

There is also one weapon that I overlooked in the previous post that  you might want to check out:

–AEVegas Vol. 4 Mieze (M2-style heavy machinegun & artillery cannon)

Anyway, enough of that… on to player houses!

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In Fallout: New Vegas, the primary job of a player house is fairly simple: it provides a place to store the incredibly huge amount of stuff you will pick up over the course of the game (an amount that goes up significantly if your game is heavily modded).  Aside from that, houses can offer other amenities, from something as simple as a safe place to sleep to workbenches and autodocs.  In the vanilla game, there are a few options available, and certainly more than the binary choice offered in Fallout 3, but most of those on offer are fairly limited in scope – even the “luxury” suite at the Lucky 38 only offers a relatively small handful of amenities.  There are plenty of mods, however, that make considerable strides to remedy that.

-Of the player homes that are accessible reasonably early in the game and located near Goodsprings, probably the most comprehensive one is the Yangtze Bunker player home. This mod provides a full-scale vault-type bunker for your use, along with a short, simple quest to unlock it, power it up, and access all of its features. And it’s got features in spades – a full armory with auto-sort, hydroponics lab to harvest ingredients, autodoc, full kitchen area, and more. It also features an upgrade terminal similar to the one for the Lucky 38 suite, but with far more additional options, including hiring guards and staff to populate and protect the bunker. Additionally, you can set up the bunker to be randomly attacked by raiders, for some free combat practice. While it’s not the most visually striking home, it’s packed with a ton of functionality, and is at a good location for starting players.

-The Underground Hideout is another comprehensive player home mod, this time providing a mini-bunker located under a blasted house at Mt. Spring Ranch State Park, near Red Rock Canyon.  This mod packs most of the same types of features as the one above, perhaps even a few more, including a weapon display wall and mannequins to show off your gear, as well as a teleporter and more auto-sorting, including ammo racks which automatically stock ammo on their shelves.  It also manages to pack all of this into a more compact and well-decorated floor plan, making it easier to get to all of the equipment you need.  Plus, there’s some fun stuff hidden away around the vault as well.  This is a good all-around house that works quite well.

-There’s also an Underwater Home, which adds an undersea bunker a short distance from Calville Bay, along with a somewhat more involved quest to open and activate it.  However, once you do, it’s one of the most picturesque houses available, with subdued blue lighting and tons of portholes onto various undersea vistas, as well as plentiful animated fish tanks intermixed with all of the usual features.  Along with auto-sort for just about everything, with a full-featured armory, pantry, and display room, the armory also has a robot that offers the full Gun Runners inventory for convenient gear upgrades.  There is also a reactor room with working reactor, an underwater escape hatch, and a VR simulation machine that is currently in the works.  Its layout is a bit more convoluted than the underground hideout, but the aesthetics are even better.  And, like the two above, installing this mod is nice and easy – as all of the resources are packed in a .bsa file, all you have to do is drop two files in the data directory and activate the mod.

-If you want a house that offers a bit more than the tiny space offered in Victor’s Shack, but want a place in Goodsprings that’s not huge like the bunker, the Goodsprings Home is a decent choice.  It offers a small but decent house off to the side of the shack, and a short quest to gain access.  Inside, it’s pretty bare-bones, but functional, with a bed, both workbenches, and ample storage space.  If you have A World of Pain installed, another option is to purchase/lockpick your way into one of the new residences that it adds to Goodsprings, which offer decent accommodations as well as a technology-packed storm cellar.

I’ve only tested these ones slightly, but you might find them interesting as well:

–ACM Casino

–Synpathys Train Tunnel Player Home

–The New Bison Steve Hotel and Lucky Casino

There are many more houses besides these, but these are the ones I have a good amount of experience with, and I’ve been generally quite happy with them.  If you’re looking for something different, though, I’d recommend browsing through the different ones available on New Vegas Nexus to find one that better suits your needs – there are houses of all sizes and feature sets, located all over the map.  For ease of use and overall features, though, any of the ones I’ve listed above should do quite well.

Coming up in the next installment, I’ll discuss player armors, and possibly other equipment (like packs, NVGs, tac vests and similar things).

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