Fallout: New Vegas, How I choose what to mod.

[Scythe Bearer]

Making a mod can be fun and rewarding. But, figuring out WHAT to change with a mod is sometimes frustrating. So, I have a thought process.

The first thing I do is simply record on a sheet of paper all the little nits, bugs, hassles, stupidity, etc I run across while playing. Nothing spectacular, just scribbles which allow me to recall moments in the game when I ask “WTF was that”?

After I complete a quest, or clear a dungeon, or when I get bored collecting Legion ears, I sit down with the list and ask myself some questions about each scribble.

Does it break the game? Is it something I can live with? Is it necessary? Is it worth fixing or changing? Do I really care? Asking these questions tends to narrow the list (or even make it disappear). With what is left, I start investigating what is needed to fix or change my concern into something different.

By way of example. My latest FONV mod, Booze in the BoS Bunker Vending Machine. After I had trapped Elijah in the vault and left him there to feed on gold bars, I started exploring the rest of the Sierra Madre (mostly looking for the Snow Globe, ’cause I can never remember where that damned thing is). As I was checking out things, I noticed that the booze items were not in “Sinclair’s little company stores”. I went back into the casino, and there they were. Hmm I says to me. That seems to make no sense. Why only in the Casino.

A quick game save, and a jaunt out the front gate verified the booze wasn’t in the Vending Machine in the bunker either. “‘Curiouser and curiouser’, said Alice”.

A quick check of one of the several Wiki pages verified that the booze only being in the casino was a known condition. “This shall not stand”.

I can understand why Sinclair might not want the work crews drunk or chemmed up. Hell, his little “trap” stripped one of all that stuff on entry, and had been since they were first installed before the bombs. But to not allow past guests to buy booze outside of the Sierra Madre made no sense.

So, after all that, I decided that the bunker needed to be able to get access to the booze after the player left the casino and the Sierra Madre in their rear view mirror. A mod was born.

I shall not bore you with the details of making the mod (it was actually embarrassingly simple). I just wanted to illustrate what I go through in my efforts to determine what needs to be changed, and why.

Enjoy.

[Author]

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