The main goal of the Modlist is to iterate more on Obsidian’s look of Fallout: New Vegas by making it into a truly harsher and tougher Wasteland of survival. Unlike Fallout 3 and 4, most of the world space is unleveled and enemies don’t scale to your level. This creates a unique situation of gameplay which encourages you to truly work on your characters progression and strive to get the better gear.
Much of the games aspects in regards to gameplay has been tweaked in various ways, such as adding new, more modern mechanics like sprinting, quickthrowing, gun management, proper wasteland survival and camping, and so on. The modlist is not for the faint of heart, but instead for those looking for an exciting, fun and challenging experience while also revisiting New Vegas with a fresh coat of paint.
The Modlist features a few select quests and expansions that add more diversity and quality to the Wasteland by introducing new locations, new NPCs and fresh looks to existing locations. Unfortunately though, New Vegas hasn’t seen many quest mods like Skyrim or Fallout 4, which is a strong point in expanding modlists with more content.
Listed below are all of the major quest and new land mods which are introduced in the modlist:
Various aspects of the game are built around a balanced, more equal and intense challenging survival aspect, one of the main aspects being combat. The combat in New Vegas provides a unique way of offering a more intuitive and fast-paced experience, while not making everything bullet sponges.
The modlist introduces various tweaks and changes to combat for a more challenging and thoughtful combat experience which requires planning and actual tactical input rather than allowing you to charge in tanking a minigun.
It is recommended to play on Normal difficulty, as this is the perfect balance between the player and NPCs. Hardcore mode is automatically enabled as this is the intended playstyle for the modlist.
Much of your time in the modlist, exploring Nevada and beyond, will require extensive planning and preparation before you can do anything significant. Each small step you take is a closer step towards surviving and thriving in the Wasteland.
Never has combat been more invigorating and challenging like it is in New Vegas, where every creature, person, or abomination is out to kill you. Much of the Wasteland has been overhauled in a drastic way to make it a more fast-paced, challenging and fun experience.
Now, you and NPCs are on equal grounds, if they don’t have Power Armor, and is solely dependent on how efficient you are in survival throughout the Wasteland (Higher levels = Better Survival). Originally, NPCs were intended to output huge amounts of damage while making the player completely vulnerable regardless, but no more.
Armor can make a difference in your chances of gunfights, essentially alleviating the risk of dying quickly from quick gunfire. As expected, Power Armor now has a significant threshold on soaking up damage, as it is proposed in lore and provides a great way for taking out large groups of enemies. More lenient armors, such as Combat or Leather have a slight increase in your chance of survival but don’t provide much difference throughout your levelling.
Check out Vicious Wastes for more detailed information.
Medical items are by far the most valuable item you will always want to have. No longer will food items heal you and provide increased benefits towards your survival, instead focus solely on your hunger and thirst. Limb damage and healing is treated by taking care of wounds and using the appropriate medical items provided in the game. No longer will you stab yourself with stimpaks to heal yourself, but instead Bandages now have the effect to stop bleeding.
There are three stages to bleeding:
The first two stages can heal on their own, but may require attention depending on your health. Critical stage does not self-heal and requires immediate attention, or otherwise you will bleed out.
Additionally, Trauma Kits are now present in the Wasteland, which remove all bleed effects but come at a very rare cost and are scarce to find.
More information can be found on the Bleedout mod page.
Loot has had a significant overhaul, making items more scarce and valuable by decreasing the chances of more important items, such as healing items and food.
Various items throughout the Wasteland, such as food, healing, weapons, ammo, etc. have all been drastically reduced to truly reflect what it would be like after 204 years the bombs dropped. Finding a stimpak in the toolbox while mid-combat won’t be a solution to help you endeavor your survival chance, except you now need to prepare beforehand in order to survive the wastes.