Guide to Installing The Badlands

A guide to installing and configuring The Badlands, a Tale of Two Wastelands modlist.

1. Preparing Game Installation

Thanks to the method that is used within this Modlist, there’s not much you need to do to prepare your game other than having a clean game installation.

The way this Modlist manages direct root game files and mod files is by implementing a plugin for Mod Organizer called Root Builder, which directly injects any files that are meant to be inside of the Root folder such as ENBSeries. Further instructions can be found down below.

NOTE TO RUSSIAN/PCR Users

The list currently does not support users outside of the U.S. region, I.E Russian/PCR and the install will not be able to finish if you have a Russian/PCR version of the game.

NOTE TO NON-ENGLISH SPEAKERS

If you have your game set to any other language that is not English, Wabbajack will not be able to install the list.

Simply go to your Steam library, right-click Fallout: New Vegas and click properties. Locate the Language option in the General tab and set it to English.

After the Wabbajack installation has finished, you can set the game language back to your preferred default language.

Cleaning Game Files

  1. Begin by (re)installing Fallout: New Vegas, with all of the DLC.
  2. After that, locate your MyGames Fallout: New Vegas folder and delete all of the provided INIs inside of there.
    • You can ignore this if you have other Modlists and instead make the INIs profile-specific
  3. Launch the game via the Steam launcher to generate new INI files.
  4. Now, repeat the same steps for Fallout 3.

Concerns for Default Game Files

As many of you may be aware, many Wabbajack Modlists utilize a feature called Stock Game that prevents Modlists from overwriting the main directory of your game installation so you can simultaneously install multiple Modlists at once. This Modlist does not do that, instead it uses a plugin called Root Builder.

What Root Builder is, is it’s a plugin that allows root directed files such as NVSE, ENBSeries, etc. to be directly or virtually implemented into the game folder without actually having to install it directly.

The benefits of this are as follows:

  • Seamlessly integrate root files, such as NVSE, ENBseries and Presets directly into the game directory
  • Installation of root mods like any other normal mod installation through Mod Organizer
  • Simple enabling/disabling of root mods for further compatibility amongst other Modlists

Patching Game Executables

Before beginning any sort of modding, patching your games executables to 4GB is necessary, that way the game can run properly with certain mods.

To begin:

  1. Download and extract 4GB Patcher from Nexus anywhere on your computer.
  2. Drag and drop the executable in the extracted contents to your games folder.
  3. In your games folder, right-click the FNVpatch.exe and Run as administrator

Installing NVHR

New Vegas Heap Replacer is a quintessential mod for accomplishing a properly modded Fallout: New Vegas experience. Note that, while this is a great mod to use, DXVK is a significant improvement if your PC has the support for it.

DXVK and NVHR installed at the same time may cause crashes and instability. However, you may be able to get away with using the compatibility version provided in the modlist. Install NVHR over DXVK in any instance where crashes are present. Refer to the 2. DXVK and Special K section in the configuration page for more information.

To perform this, began by:

  1. Download and extract NVHR anywhere on your computer.
  2. In your Fallout: New Vegas game folder, drag and drop the contents of NVHR into it.
  3. On game boot-up you should notice a command prompt pop-up, that indicates it is now properly loaded.

2. Modlist Installation

Download and install the Modlist via the Nexus Mods main file through the Wabbajack installer program.

It is recommended to use a folder structure similar to this:

Wabbajack (Make This)
┗ Downloads (Make This)
┗ Modlists (Make This)
  ┗ The Badlands (Make This and Specify to This Folder) 
    ┗ (Wabbajack Files Will Download Here)

Note that the installation of the Wabbajack Modlist REQUIRES to be installed on the same drive as your Fallout: New Vegas installation, otherwise things will fail.

It is also highly recommended to ensure that your Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 installation is outside of any Windows Protected folders, I.E. Program Files (x86) and Program Files. Ideally, just simply install your games outside of your Windows installation drive.

Optionally, once you’ve got the Modlist installed, you can add a shortcut to the executable file inside of the Mod Organizer installation to directly launch the Modlist every time.

Building Root Files

The Modlist contains all of the necessary files for Fallout: New Vegas to function with root files, such as NVSE, ENBSeries, etc.

While building root files manually is not necessary, it helps prevents any hiccups with Root Builder that may cause files to linger after closing the game. This way, it recognizes what needs to be removed when closing the game.

3. Installing TTW

Installing TTW, Tale of Two Wastelands, is pretty straightforward and requires no more than a few inputs on the installer.

Download and install 3.3.2a from this website anywhere onto your PC, then run the program. Once it has opened, specify the download path to a folder called [NoDelete] Tale of Two Wastelands in the MO2 installation of the modlist.

If you followed the folder structure from earlier, it should look a bit something like this:
C:\Wabbajack\Modlists\The Badlands\mods\[NoDelete] Tale of Two Wastelands

4. Verifying the Modlist

Let’s verify that the modlist and game are setup properly. Firstly, check to see if your load order looks like this:

If so, good you can move on. If not, make sure you’ve installed TTW into the empty mod folder at the very top in MO2 called [NoDelete] Tale of Two Wastelands.

Check your mod count and make sure it equals around 466 total mods, along with 205 total plugins enabled. Ignore any other plugin that is disabled, as all of this is intentional in order to ensure that the plugin count doesn’t go above 254.

Generating Fallout INIs

Sometimes, the INIs shipped with the modlist can cause issues such as crashing or unoptimized performance specific to your system. To address this, just simply regenerate the INI files.

Do this by clicking the Folder icon at the top, select Open INIs Folder and delete the Fallout.ini and FalloutPrefs.ini.

Capping Your FPS

Within the modlist, and New Vegas itself, there can be a variety of issues if you play with an uncapped FPS, i.e. havok items freaking out, facial expressions messing up, lockpicking menu or other menus acting super fast, etc.. This step is required, which if you don’t do and post a report about any issues related to uncapped FPS, will be ignored.

This can easily be addressed by capping your games framerate using any of the hundreds of methods out there on the Internet. One of the simpler and easier ways of doing it is by using a program called RTSS, or RivaTuner Statistics Server. You can download this here, then run it and add the FalloutNV.exe to the list and specify a cap limit of 60 frames, or your monitors refresh rate. It’s recommended to cap to 60 FPS as the game engine starts to not handle havok physics so well above it.

After that, you are ready to play The Badlands. Enjoy!

Requirements

Below are the listed requirements in order to run this modlist. You must meet the software requirements and at least the minimum hardware requirements for pleasant experience.

  • Clean Fallout: New Vegas Install
    • Steam Only
    • Outside of the Windows C: Program Files folders
  • All Fallout: New Vegas DLC
  • Clean Fallout 3 Install
    • Steam Only
    • Outside of the Windows C: Program Files folders
  • All Fallout 3 DLC
  • Visual C++ Redistributable Package

Minimum Requirements

  • GeForce GTX 1660Ti
  • AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
  • 8GB DDR4
  • 150GB SSD

Recommended Requirements

  • GeForce RTX 3070Ti
  • AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
  • 32GB DDR4
  • 300GB SSD