Fallout 4 mods you can’t do without

For the record, I freaking love Fallout 4; that said, it’s by no means a perfect game.

Newly released Bethesda games are a lot like infant children. There are going to be times where they frustrate you, anger you, some may even reduce you to tears – we’re looking at you Fallout 3, the initial release of which was horribly buggy and crashed more often than not.

But in-between the hiccups and uncontrollable fits, there’s something you can’t quite put your finger on, an allure no one else but Bethesda can produce. It’s something you quickly fall in love with.

But there’s another way in which Bethesda games are like newborns; it’s all of that potential. We’re of course talking about mods.

Mods push Bethesda games from being great to the realm of the sublime, but like the game they’re created for, they take time to develop. I was going to say that mods are like a good wine, they improve with age, but inundating you with cheesy metaphors isn’t going to keep you reading, and there are some mods you just have to try out.

This list will soon be in need of an update, and then several hundred after that as better and newer mods are introduced to Fallout 4, but for the moment these mods are, in my opinion, the cream-of-the-crop.

Before we get started – Nexus Mod Manager

In case you haven’t heard of the site before, Nexus Mods is one of two premium modding websites – the other being ModDB – and it’s the one we’ll be sourcing virtually every Fallout 4 mod from.

Think of it as the library and gatekeeper for all that’s good in the world of modding – minus a few outlying issues. Expect regular updates, more mods than you can imagine, an invested and engaging community and any number of categories and ranking tools that make finding the good mods that much easier.

But before you invest too much time in modding your games, we highly recommend you install NMM (Nexus Mod Manager), the primary reason we recommend Fallout 4 Nexus.

What it will do for you is work miracles. Think of it as Steam for mods. It will backup any files before altering them as well as taking snapshots of your game folder prior to the installation of a mod, thereby allowing you to remove any mod without adversely affecting your game or the rest of your mod ecosystem – it really can be a careful balance at times.

It will take a bit of getting used to, but you will thank us when it saves you from having to redownload the entire game because a mod than adds cat skins breaks everything.

Competent Conversations – ‘Full Dialogue Interface’

Accidentally told that one guy looking to assist you in locating your long lost, beloved son to get lost?

How many times have you said something you really didn’t intend to in Fallout 4 because the dialogue options presented to you are either vague, lacking information or are a combination of the both?

Isn’t it frustrating to have no idea what you’re about to say, picking dialogue options based on gut feeling alone?

Full Dialogue Interface changes that by displaying entire script for each dialogue option. It also comes in a full and lite version, the lite version being more appropriate for those with gamepads, and the console versions of the game in time.

Full Dialogue Interface (Full)

Full Dialogue Interface (Lite)

Better express your weapon preferences – ‘Craftable Ammunition‘

Thanks to the crafting system in Fallout 4, with enough talents invested in the perks like Gun Nut and Science, weapons found along the way can be considerably upgraded.

And seeing as it requires the gathering of resources and time invested to upgrade weapons, it seems only natural that you’re going to upgrade a few preferred weapons over the rest. As you do, they become increasingly effective, and tend to be used a lot more than the rest, so bullets for those weapons usually run low.

Unfortunately, ammo comes at a bit of a premium following the nuclear apocalypse, and sometimes you’re just not going to find the ammo you’re looking for. Eventually, you’ll be in a situation where you’re forced to use less effective or enjoyable weaponry, simply because you’ve invested time in weapons you enjoy more – it’s far from a perfect system.

Craftable Ammunition does exactly what it says on the tin. It gives you the option to craft all of the ammunition types required to make use of the many, many, many weapons at your disposal, the lone survivor of Vault 111.

The PC elitism is strong with this one – ‘Fallout 4 Configuration Tool’

Fallout 4 Configuration Tool - Mod - Fallout 4

Like it or not, there are decided advantages to playing games on PC; I’m talking about more than just a mouse and keyboard, or even improved graphics for that matter.

Bilago’s configuration tool is more of a utility, others would say necessity, than an actual mod. It’s a collection of tweaks amalgamated into one neat application.

What the tool allows you to do is adjust your field of view (FOV); toggle things like mouse acceleration, the frame rate lock, intro videos and a whole lot more. It also grants you control of CPU priority; the game’s shadow resolution; God Rays; HUD, VATS and Pip-Boy UI colour; and uGridsToLoad, among a number of other neat tweaks.

As a result, it offers a more refined experience, and a much better one for PC gamers particularly.

I’d recommend you install it for the option to adjust your FOV and turn off mouse acceleration alone.

A distinctly deadlier pet – ‘Creature Follower’

I adore Dog Meat. He’s a little daft, agreed, but which lovable pooch isn’t.

He’s cute; he carries all of my excess junk without question; he performs tricks; and, unlike very other companion, he doesn’t judge me for lifting a few mini nukes out of a settler’s safe. The one thing he isn’t, however, is effective in combat.

Even with a couple perks invested into his battle prowess, he’s still very frail and quickly dispatched by anything more than a raider with a tire iron. This Creature Follower mod quickly amends that issue by offering an array of “hardier” creatures.

How about a pet deathclaw? He won’t let you scratch his tummy, but he will eviscerate the stomachs of those who defy you. Neat. The mod also allows for synths, super mutant behemoths and gorillas as pets.

All you need do is install this mod, use a few console commands and away you go. You can even have a cute little puddy tat as a pet – just be warned that unlike Dog Meat, kitty won’t fight for you.

Pimp my settlement – ‘Higher Settlement Budget’

This mod is rather easy to explain. In Fallout 4, when building settlements, you’re not limited by your imagination but by an object cap.

The mod simply removes the limit originally placed by Bethesda, a limit likely put in place so not to tax the consoles too heavily when settlements got overly large. It’s really that simple. You can even install this Increased Settler Population Cap mod to increase the number of settlers allowed in any one settlement.

Once installed, when your settlement still sucks, you’ll only have yourself to blame.

Check out this video of what can be done once you’re granted freedom by mods like Higher Settlement Budget.

Just imagine what can be done once we’re a few months down the line and a few mods have added a huge number of additional settlement items.

Immersion is king – ‘Lowered Weapons’

In a game like Fallout 4, immersion really is king. It’s for that reason that so many mods, whether gameplay-orientated or graphically-inclined, affect the world around you so as to create the most immersive experience possible.

For the moment, there aren’t an awful lot of mods that do that, but Lowered Weapons is an example of one that does,

All the mod does is prevent your character from having his weapon drawn at all times by having it lowered when not in combat. That’s it, but the change it makes is noticeable.

It’s all about T Swizzle – ‘Taylor Swift Pip-Boy Background Image’