Fallout: New Vegas designer makes his own unofficial mod

Among the modders eagerly tinkering away at Fallout: New Vegas, arguably "correcting" what they see as deficiencies in the original design, is ... lead designer J.E. Sawyer. Sawyer has developed an optional patch for the PC version, which reduces the level cap to 35, halves XP acquisition, cuts water and food drop rates, and tweaks a bunch of other variables, all detailed on Sawyer's Formspring. You can download the mod here.

So why is this a mod instead of an official patch? "In addition to technical reasons," Sawyer said, "some of the mechanics changes make the game significantly more difficult (base health / stim changes) or at least more of a hassle (carry weight, stims having weight, H2O/SLP/FOD rate increase). I'd rather have people opt-in to those changes than make them the default in a patch." This is also something Sawyer is doing in his spare time, as nobody is officially working on New Vegas anymore.

Reader Comments (17)

He could always add it to the game, but have it optional similar to hardcore mode, but this works fine too. It's pretty cool that he's doing this in his free time for fans.

@Reapers

No one is working on new vegas anymore??? so this means that there is no more DLC ??? so i can FINALLy play new vegas complete without having to wait for more and more DLC????

It just so happens that *today only* on Steam you can buy every DLC pack for a total of $11.44. I like how that is the last item on the list after the jump.

Is the DLC really worth it? I've played this game a bit and I think it's fun but I bought it for $5 last holiday and i'm not sure if I want to lay down another $12 since I haven't beaten the game yet. This mod seems really fun too.

There is always the summer sale I suppose...

@Caveat

I have not played the DLC, though from my personal experience, I usually end up getting burnt out on the main gameplay before I even reach the DLC. Though, that's from obtaining the DLC later in the game, rather than having it all from the start.

It couldn't hurt to have the DLC, though if you already have mods for your base game, I would worry about crashes and other issues cropping up.

@Frostblade10

For example: there's a player-made gun mod that adds retextures a bunch of guns beautifully, but it turns out it doesn't work great with the Gun Runner's mod.

@Caveat I highly recommend Old World Blues, it is hilarious and adds a lot of great items and offers more content than the other DLCs. Get the others if you are really into the New Vegas story.

@Caveat
Old World Blues is exceptional. Lonesome Road and Honest Hearts are merely okay, and Dead Money is the polarizing one. I love it, and a few of my friends agree, but a bunch of them also completely despise it.

If anything, at least get Old World Blues, it's right up there with Point Lookout and Lair of the Shadow Broker as one of the best game DLCs ever made.

@Caveat You will definately get 12 dollars worth of entertainment out of the DLC for this game - if you're able, I highly recommend all of them.

Even the one I thought was relatively lacklustre (Honest Hearts) is pretty good. Old World Blues is completely marvellous.

@Caveat I really disliked Dead Money (expect for the equipment you get).

@Jennacide I loved how Dead Money felt like a horror survival game more than a bloody loot-fest. I just wish you could go back there and loot everything as well as explore it a bit more.

I loved point lookout. My favorite DLC from any game.

In case anyone was wondering... the most annoying DLC for New Vegas also happens to have, I believe, the best weapon: Dead Money. This is where you can get the Halo Rifle.

@SBMfromLA
2nd best if you are paying without Wild Wasteland. YCS/186 (unique Gauss rifle) is #1 but I don't think it's available if you have Wild Wasteland trait (you get an Alien blaster here instead). Both weapons are about even though and they are both really damn good.

Cool, I think it would be great if more developers and designers were close enough to their work to do things like this... although reading those changes I'm not sure if it has the intended effect... in fact it sounds like it would make the game less fun to me... but hey it's optional!

Sawyer has always been a cool dude.

Nice! I really wish I had a PC that could play New Vegas now. I had done my own "Masochist Mode" rules to try and make the game harder. Turned on Hard Core, 'took out' bartering and repairing weapons with other weapons (same with armor). It made the game a lot harder when you didn't have 100k bottle caps and perfect gear. And then I 'took out' V.A.T.S. so combat become a lot harder.
It's of course not a mod it's just a set of rules. A mod would have required a decent computer. Anyway, if you have any interest on it, I have a better list of it on my blog, http://gamingmonologues.blogspot.com/2011/01/fallout-new-vegas-masochist-mode.html , if you like reading and all that.

The game is still a bloody mess. I can't finish a certain unmarked quest because the old dude in ranger patrol won't talk to me.

Fallout: New Vegas

Fallout: New Vegas designer makes his own unofficial mod

Reader Comments (17)

Posted: Dec 30th 2011 11:41PM Reapers said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 2:18AM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Dec 30th 2011 11:41PM Caveat said

Posted: Dec 30th 2011 11:59PM Frostblade10 said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 12:01AM Frostblade10 said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 12:11AM LazerCharging said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 12:22AM Jennacide said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 12:44AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 6:08AM Arkard said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 4:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 5:48AM Special Agent Steve said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 9:52AM SBMfromLA said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 11:45AM Jin Saotome said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 11:41AM PN04 said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 12:03PM KungFuChaosNinja said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 4:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 31st 2011 10:05PM Dcmac said

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