Octopus Overlords

The mod Fallout: New California has been discussed as a side note in the Fallout 76 thread, but I thought it deserved its own topic moving forward so folks could compare mod loads, etc. It is currently available in open beta and estimated to be released final in late November/December. For those note familiar, it is a fan-made standalone prequel to the events in Fallout: New Vegas formerly under the title "Project Brazil"

I am in the process of doing a fresh install of F:NV and then using Mod Organizer 2 to upload a limited amount of additional mods.

This is their current recommended additional mod list, which will be my starting point:

4GB Patch
NVSE
Mod Config Menu
Solid Project
Project Nevada
ENB Series
Rudy ENB
EXE
EVE
Robco Certified
Weapon Retexture Project
Weapons of the New Millennium

I plan to update this and report what works/doesn't work, but would also like to compare notes with others doing the same.

Looking forward to some impressions!

Does one need all those mods to play the New California mod?

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 12:39 pm Does one need all those mods to play the New California mod?

Not at all. If you are playing FNV via GOG, then you than all you need is the original F:NC mod itself. If you are playing FNV via Steam then you need the 4GB awareness patch, but that is all. The above recommendations are purely optional.

What is an "awareness patch?"

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:38 pm What is an "awareness patch?"

Well, if you aren’t aware of it, we can’t help you.

You are just so funny.
You've always been one of my favorite comedians here.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:38 pm What is an "awareness patch?"

There are quite a few out there, but this seems to be the one they want us to use Link

Ah, thanks!

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 30, 2018 7:38 pm What is an "awareness patch?"

Apparently the sort of thing Bethesda should be sliding in as a regular patch, but they don't. Same old same old.

Just once I'd love to see them take community made fixes that don't alter the game at all and just fix the bugs and broken quests and fold them into the official game as real patches. Just once. Instead I swear they rely on the community to patch their games for them while they focus on releasing new content.

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Oct 31, 2018 9:44 am Instead I swear they rely on the community to patch their games for them while they focus on releasing new content.

I think you have your answer.

I'm in the middle of this too!

I've never done this much modding of a game (I'm going with pretty much that same list) and I'm sure I'm gonna screw something up.

Requires a 4 gig video card. Mine's only 3.

Its been a rough week for me to find gaming time with Halloween, kids sporting events and even Type-A flu spreading through my family like wildfire, so I will update my first post this weekend with details on how the modding is going, but I did want to mention that I am finding it pretty challenging to return to an older game and mod. My starting FPS (before hi-res textures) is high 40s with a modern rig/32GB RAM and 6 GB VRAM. So Windows 10 is certainly rearing its ugly head here and not playing nice (apparently many on the FNV modding forums maintain a Windows 7 drive purely for running older games like FNV). The other problem I am running into is being forced to manually install a few mods (like Project Nevada) since they are not updated to handle the newer Mod Organizer 2 format. Joy...(not)

[update]

Actually finished the mod install more or less with the above-mentioned mods (and tested it in vanilla FBV for about 2 hours) before starting the obligatory tutorial/prelude for FNC this weekend. About 6-8 hours in and it is a very impressive mod - definitely feels like a paid-for DLC and I am looking forward to putting some more time into it. However, it is tagged "beta" for a reason. They already came out with a patch 203 for it late last week fixing a number of bugs, but they are planning several more - and in my opinion they are needed. I have encountered minor bugs (such as dialogues not making sense in the context of what I have done) and some major ones (falling through walls/floors, blanks openings when opening doors and several crashes to the desktop). The author has already stated this past weekend that they are in the process of (1) balancing loot you leave the vault with and levels (in retrospect this is a spot on criticism because one of the quests required a 75 science skill in the freak'n first few hours of the game), and (2) adding more content to beyond the first part (in the vault) which is another big criticism in the reviews. So honestly, folks may want to wait until this one is cooked a bit more for another month.

What kind of specs do you need to run it?

Huh. New Vegas is still my favorite FO game, so maybe I'll have to give this a shot.

Time to reinstall FNV, I guess. Played FNV to death as a sniper.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:04 am Requires a 4 gig video card. Mine's only 3.

You sure about that? I ran FNV fine with just a 2.5GB Video card.

But have you run New California yet?

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sat Dec 22, 2018 8:06 am

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 12:04 am Requires a 4 gig video card. Mine's only 3.

You sure about that? I ran FNV fine with just a 2.5GB Video card.

From what I remember, this isn't about video memory but rather system memory for 32-bit applications. Some gory details about the core issue here. Setting the VLA flag may be necessary to support mods like New California or others with large assets but I don't recall ever seeing a mention of a restriction using it based on your VRAM. Go for it!

I just read through it, and the only reference to RAM is referring to the 4GB patch, which is system RAM. It has been a standard patch for every Fallout/Elder Scrolls game since Oblivion, at least until they started writing them for 64 bit processors.

Essentially, New California requires 8GB of system RAM to run New California. New Vegas was written to only be able to access 4. Thus the patch.

Moliere wrote: ↑Tue Dec 18, 2018 10:36 pm Fallout: New California is the best Fallout game you'll play this year

Very spoileresh. Its basically a walkthrough of the first couple of hours after the intro paragraph. Looks great, dont want to be spoiled.