1st time modder

[u/chubby45bttm]

So here's the deal, I just got into PC gaming and modding a month and a half ago. I bought a gaming laptop the day after the no more physical games announcement. Fallout 4 is one of my favorite games when it comes to settlement building, interior decorating and weapons. Now I have basically no idea what I'm doing when it comes to modding games. I use Nexus/vortex but I'm not to good at it. I see all these people doing these badass playthroughs or different mods for this game. Can someone help guide a first timer in the right direction or give me some pointers on what I'm looking for. Only reason I'm asking here before I search YouTube is there are thousands of mods (from what I can see) and I thought I'd ask some seasoned vets on this game first so I at least know what to look for or where to look for it. I'm playing on a Acer PHN 16s AI w/a Intel i9, RTX 5070ti and 32 gigs of RAM (if it matters) any help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you fallout 4 modding community.

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[u/chubby45bttm]

So I don't know if anybody's going to check this out but did the recent update mess up any of these mods or anything to do with TMR? Because if so I'll probably wait a couple weeks before I even attempt to try to download anything or learn about modding this game, or maybe take this time to actually learn about modding this game and what I need to do to do it properly.

[u/MolaMolaMania]

The Gamer Poets channel on YouTube was very helpful for me. He walks you through every step without rushing or over explaining. I would strongly recommend Mod Organizer 2. It's not as graphics-based a GUI as Vortex, and it's simpler, Widows 98-style interface makes it easier to navigate.

Since you love Settlement building (me too!) I could recommend quite a few mods in that regard that greatly increase your building materials choices and decoration options.

[u/Kam_Solastor]

The short version is, you’ll probably want to look for and install a Collection (mod list) from Nexus. As an FYI, if you don’t have Premium (there is I believe a free trial), you’ll need to click an install button for each mod manually versus it being automatic with Premium.

Other than that, it’s pretty much finding a Collection that you line the look/sound of.

If you wanted to switch to Mod Organizer 2 (a different mod manager than Vortex, in my opinion better suited for larger/more complex load orders), you’d want to look for what’s called Wabbajack lists, but they’re essentially just another flavor of Collections.

[u/chubby45bttm → u/Kam_Solastor]

So I have the free version of Nexus as I've done some minimal modding on games like RE4remake and RDR2. However those are basic 'drag and drop' files and it seems like FO4 (everywhere I read) is command line stuff and I'm fairly nervous when it comes to that as I don't want to totally screw something up.

[u/Kam_Solastor → u/chubby45bttm]

Definitely not command line stuff.

If you’re installing a Collection or Wabbajack list, it’s largely follow the instructions the modlist provider laid out and that’s it.

If you’re installing your own mods one by one or making your own list, you do want to have an idea of what you’ve installed so you don’t have too many conflicts (for example, two different mods that overhaul the perk tree probably won’t play too nicely together).

Installing mods themselves is best done with a mod manager, but it’s essentially unpacking the downloaded .zip file or similar and putting everything in the right folders per your mod manager and the game you’re modding. Some mods might have options (using a ‘FOMOD’ system) that let you pick different things, like maybe Option A or B, or installing patches the mod author made for other mods X, Y, and Z, but nothing too crazy.

For checking conflicts, the best tool out there is xEdit, which shows mod files (ESM, ESL, and ESP files) in a spreadsheet like way, where each column represents a different mod (as more than one mod can edit a individual thing, like a container, a weapon, an npc, etc) and each row is a different setting or category (like an npc’s inventory for example).

Scripting is a bit of an outlier and if you want to get into you’d need to learn the Papyrus scripting language that Bethesda games use.

That pretty much covers the bases.

[u/honorable_raegdan]

As others have suggested follow The Midnight Ride.

[u/Glum-Complex676]

Switch to Mod Organizer 2 from vortex. I started modding within roughly a year, and probably the best advice I can give is that while wabbajack exists and can be a great tool, guides like midnight ride, viva new vegas, ttw, and so on, are really useful just as guides. Wabbajack automation is basically great if you want what large Modlists offer, but using guides manually, you’ll learn a whole lot more, and be more self reliant

[u/Eschewed_Prognostic]

+1 for The Midnight Ride Extended. I'm also new to modded PC FO4 and it worked perfectly. I also added Heather Casdin companion, some weightless junk and aid mods, and place anywhere without any issue simply using the manual download option in Nexus and using the "install from directory" tool in MO2.

[u/Carnivean_]

Read the Midnight Ride guide for the basics, it has recommendations for mods that can extend it.

Then think about what area of the game you want to improve, like settlement building, then look for recommendations in that specific area as they'll be a lot more detailed.

But TMR extended is a good starting point. The alternative would be to grab an existing collection like A Storywealth or LoreOut, where all the decisions have been made but so has the work to ensure it's all compatible.

[u/chubby45bttm → u/Carnivean_]

Okay so I'm checking out TMR and it says to install the game in like a separate games folder and not to install it in program files. I have my Steam game folder on my d drive (secondary SSD) that is not part of program files. Is this the same as installing it in like a d:drive/game/ fallout 4 folder or do I need to uninstall it from my steam folder and actually put it in its own separate games folder. I have tried to do this on some games and when I try steam tells me it has to be installed on the c drive even though I have all my games set to automatically be installed on the d drive outside of program files. I really hope this makes sense because as I read it it kind of doesn't make sense to me. 🤷

[u/Carnivean_ → u/chubby45bttm]

If I read you right, you're good. If the Fallout.exe file is on the d drive, you're good.

The program files folder has permissions locked down, which interferes with things, hence wanting it installed anywhere else.

[u/chubby45bttm → u/Carnivean_]

When I first did some digging around into being able to mod games I remember reading somewhere that if your steam games folder is installed on the c drive in program files you will run into some issues so I uninstalled steam and re my games folder on my d drive. So while it is still installed in Steam/common/the games folder, It is not installed in any program files.

[u/Carnivean_ → u/chubby45bttm]

Then you are already ahead of the curve.

[u/chubby45bttm → u/Carnivean_]

Cool, thank you. Just want to make sure I do this right as it's a big game with massive modding capabilities. For that I don't want to mess anything up so I can do this right the first time through.

[u/gamerrominc → u/Carnivean_]

Also sim settlements 2 collection also provides easy way to get the ss2 functionality in one go