Works as a core list, and as a starter list for newbies
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By a "Keepers" list I mean a core list of mods I always keep in my load order, which I feel would also work as a starter-list for newbies.
I don't claim this list to be some gold standard, nor care if anyone reading this thinks their's is better. It's just from time to time, maybe due to my ornery rants on Nexus, I get newbies asking me for mod lists! As my health is in decline (cancer) and don't know quite how long I've got left on this earth, I thought I'd make public the most recent list I gave out for FO3.
It's been a couple of years since I played the game fully so my info may be getting out of date, and sadly some mods I would recommend have since been deleted from the Nexus! But from what's still available here's a shortlist, in the order I have them loaded. I've tried to avoid any that might have notable compatibility issues, so it hopefully could also be considered a starter-list for newbies. I've maybe a few more to add, and I list other interesting mods (eg, maybe not "keepers" but worth playing once) in the comments section below. Some of you will know me for being very critical of some mods and if I've time I might put in the comments a list of mods to avoid - at least ones that are bad/broken or game-breaking, so check again in a while.
I've not yet made this a one-stop for helping newbies get the game running/setup for modding but might add links later. So for now I've not listed any utilities (eg, FOMM, FOSE or stutter removers etc). Nor have I yet listed any texture, light, sound or weather mods as these are a matter of taste or depend on how powerful your PC is. Anyway, the mod list is in this spoiler:
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Spoiler:
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Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch - newer versions veer too far into the subjective (how they want the game) rather than pure bug fixes, imho, but you probably still need it for the fixes.
DC Interiors Combo Edition - adds many enterable interiors and items to buildings which in the vanilla game are boarded up - no mod list should be without it.
A World of Pain - adds more interiors of varying complexity and some unmarked quest-like stories with challenging enemies (some might be a bit too challenging for newbies).
(I would put "GNR Building Redux" next but sadly it's now gone from Nexus - you could try GNR Shop instead but I've not tried it).
Alton, IL - DLC sized world space and neat story, slightly janky in some spots, minor bits unfinished(?), but a worthy mod (also note an overhaul in my "also consider" section below).
Metro Carriage Interiors (fixed) - adds enterable interiors to most of the metro carriages (requires assets from the original mod Metro Carriage Interiors).
Another Interior Mod - complements the DC Interiors mod with more similar interiors.
Dupont Circle Interiors - complements the DC Interiors & Another Interior mods with even more similar interiors.
Shadows and Dust - adds some places, skeletons & stories about DC in the war and its aftermath (there's also a "Volume 2" mod but I didn't like it - see my sticky comments below).
Georgetown Expansion - I use the v1.2 esp version (the top file), not the esm one (and load after Shadows and Dust, especially if using that mod's volume 2).
Scavenger Camps - adds 5 scavenger-type merchants, each in their own small setup (in a diner, trailer, camper, or bunker) scattered across the wasteland.
Infirmary Simplified - I use the "menu replacement" version - replaces all that restore limbs, health and rads etc with one button to cure the lot.
Existence 2.0 - the quest has been too truncated in the latest version, and there's a severe one-time FPS drop entering the radio station, but the moody music is sublime for FO3.
Animated Wasteland - adds very nice animations to several things in the game which are normally static or inactive (eg, working vending machines, tvs etc).
Megaton Home Extension - adds a modest basement (of dining area, bedroom & bathroom) to the Megaton home. Companions will even wander down there and sleep.
Rivet City Merchants 2 - adds some believable merchants to Rivet City Market and gives them a routine (i.e. off duty will go for food or to bed etc).
Merged Sunglasses and Junk Shop - two more Rivet merchants, works very well with the Rivet City Merchants 2 mod above.
Thrift Shop - which is near Rivet City but outside, a repairer & vendor of guns & armour (and sells "gun oil" which are like repair kits for your equipment).
Big Town Mercantile - adds a couple of merchants and other NPCs to Big Town. I activate it after helping Big Town to give the place more life.
Armored Wasteland - upgrades enemies (and enemy variety) in the game with somewhat better armour and weapons, but is not overdone.
Jake's Survival Shop - adds a small shop next door to Moriarty's Saloon. Doesn't sell much but has great backpacks (there's an example of one in my media here).
Red Line North - adds another subway line heading NW out of DC - nicely made and neatly integrated into the main game, feels like vanilla.
Museum Halls of Today - opens up another wing in the museum, with a few enemies - very neatly integrated, it feels like vanilla.
Household Water Purifier - adds the ability to purchase a wall-mounted water purifer machine (to purify dirty water) for your player home in either Megaton or Tenpenny.
Point Lookout Damage Overhaul recommended to fix an over-the-top enemy NPC buff in Point Lookout (I used the first file there, i.e. "Remove NPC Damage Effects" one).
Armored Swamp Folk - no plugin, just meshes and textures to make Swamp folks to look more armored to match their bullet-sponge stats.
Essential Trade Caravans - stops trader caravans from getting killed off by end of the game by setting them as essential (i.e. temporarily unconscious instead of getting killed).
Tougher Cars and Vehicles - makes them a fair bit more resistant to damage before they blow up (which also gives you a bit more warning/time to get away).
Various Map Markers - nicely adds a few extra map markers in useful places - not overdone like some other similar mods.
Ashen's FO3 animated mesh files - no plugin, various mods of meshes animating static objects (eg, makes swings gently sway as if in a slight breeze, etc), just pick ones you like.
Also consider:
Reilly's Ranger - if you fancy a ranger companion, she's basic but functional. She will sandbox a bit but doesn't say much except "ok" and "hello" etc to other NPCs.
Jessi Companion - if you want more company, she's a useful companion with many added functions - also provides a mattress any time you want to sleep.
Animated Portable Bed - if you just like the idea of a bed to use anywhere this is an excellent mod which has a bed which automatically unfolds for use.
The Pittsburgh Expansion Project - adds a bit more to do in that DLC, along with a small player home. I played the original v3.0 just fine but a cleaned version was added in 2023.
Alton Overhaul - some tweaks/fixes of Alton mod in my above list, but also restricts its start until after most of Broken Steel, which I'm undecided about (given orig mod is playable).
Iron Sights Plus - a backport of FNV's ability (when in 1st-person) to look down gunsights when firing - I've yet to try it but if playing FO3 again I'd definitely add it. Note it requires other things to work like FOSE (iirc, it's the only mod I've listed here that does). If that doesn't appeal to you, then you might instead consider copying what I did in my last playthru, which was to simply add a few scoped weapon mods (eg, NS Scoped Hunting Rifle and NS Laser Sniper work well, I used the non-scripted versions). Combined with scoped vanilla weapons they gave me enough down-the-sights look for guns I felt needed it. I suppose you could try both the scoped weapons and Iron Sights Plus together but I've not tested that.
And don't forget to check out more mods listed in the comments below!
DC Interiors Combo Edition - adds many enterable interiors and items to buildings which in the vanilla game are boarded up - no mod list should be without it.
A World of Pain - adds more interiors of varying complexity and some unmarked quest-like stories with challenging enemies (some might be a bit too challenging for newbies).
(I would put "GNR Building Redux" next but sadly it's now gone from Nexus - you could try GNR Shop instead but I've not tried it).
Alton, IL - DLC sized world space and neat story, slightly janky in some spots, minor bits unfinished(?), but a worthy mod (also note an overhaul in my "also consider" section below).
Metro Carriage Interiors (fixed) - adds enterable interiors to most of the metro carriages (requires assets from the original mod Metro Carriage Interiors).
Another Interior Mod - complements the DC Interiors mod with more similar interiors.
Dupont Circle Interiors - complements the DC Interiors & Another Interior mods with even more similar interiors.
Shadows and Dust - adds some places, skeletons & stories about DC in the war and its aftermath (there's also a "Volume 2" mod but I didn't like it - see my sticky comments below).
Georgetown Expansion - I use the v1.2 esp version (the top file), not the esm one (and load after Shadows and Dust, especially if using that mod's volume 2).
Scavenger Camps - adds 5 scavenger-type merchants, each in their own small setup (in a diner, trailer, camper, or bunker) scattered across the wasteland.
Infirmary Simplified - I use the "menu replacement" version - replaces all that restore limbs, health and rads etc with one button to cure the lot.
Existence 2.0 - the quest has been too truncated in the latest version, and there's a severe one-time FPS drop entering the radio station, but the moody music is sublime for FO3.
Animated Wasteland - adds very nice animations to several things in the game which are normally static or inactive (eg, working vending machines, tvs etc).
Megaton Home Extension - adds a modest basement (of dining area, bedroom & bathroom) to the Megaton home. Companions will even wander down there and sleep.
Rivet City Merchants 2 - adds some believable merchants to Rivet City Market and gives them a routine (i.e. off duty will go for food or to bed etc).
Merged Sunglasses and Junk Shop - two more Rivet merchants, works very well with the Rivet City Merchants 2 mod above.
Thrift Shop - which is near Rivet City but outside, a repairer & vendor of guns & armour (and sells "gun oil" which are like repair kits for your equipment).
Big Town Mercantile - adds a couple of merchants and other NPCs to Big Town. I activate it after helping Big Town to give the place more life.
Armored Wasteland - upgrades enemies (and enemy variety) in the game with somewhat better armour and weapons, but is not overdone.
Jake's Survival Shop - adds a small shop next door to Moriarty's Saloon. Doesn't sell much but has great backpacks (there's an example of one in my media here).
Red Line North - adds another subway line heading NW out of DC - nicely made and neatly integrated into the main game, feels like vanilla.
Museum Halls of Today - opens up another wing in the museum, with a few enemies - very neatly integrated, it feels like vanilla.
Household Water Purifier - adds the ability to purchase a wall-mounted water purifer machine (to purify dirty water) for your player home in either Megaton or Tenpenny.
Point Lookout Damage Overhaul recommended to fix an over-the-top enemy NPC buff in Point Lookout (I used the first file there, i.e. "Remove NPC Damage Effects" one).
Armored Swamp Folk - no plugin, just meshes and textures to make Swamp folks to look more armored to match their bullet-sponge stats.
Essential Trade Caravans - stops trader caravans from getting killed off by end of the game by setting them as essential (i.e. temporarily unconscious instead of getting killed).
Tougher Cars and Vehicles - makes them a fair bit more resistant to damage before they blow up (which also gives you a bit more warning/time to get away).
Various Map Markers - nicely adds a few extra map markers in useful places - not overdone like some other similar mods.
Ashen's FO3 animated mesh files - no plugin, various mods of meshes animating static objects (eg, makes swings gently sway as if in a slight breeze, etc), just pick ones you like.
Also consider:
Reilly's Ranger - if you fancy a ranger companion, she's basic but functional. She will sandbox a bit but doesn't say much except "ok" and "hello" etc to other NPCs.
Jessi Companion - if you want more company, she's a useful companion with many added functions - also provides a mattress any time you want to sleep.
Animated Portable Bed - if you just like the idea of a bed to use anywhere this is an excellent mod which has a bed which automatically unfolds for use.
The Pittsburgh Expansion Project - adds a bit more to do in that DLC, along with a small player home. I played the original v3.0 just fine but a cleaned version was added in 2023.
Alton Overhaul - some tweaks/fixes of Alton mod in my above list, but also restricts its start until after most of Broken Steel, which I'm undecided about (given orig mod is playable).
Iron Sights Plus - a backport of FNV's ability (when in 1st-person) to look down gunsights when firing - I've yet to try it but if playing FO3 again I'd definitely add it. Note it requires other things to work like FOSE (iirc, it's the only mod I've listed here that does). If that doesn't appeal to you, then you might instead consider copying what I did in my last playthru, which was to simply add a few scoped weapon mods (eg, NS Scoped Hunting Rifle and NS Laser Sniper work well, I used the non-scripted versions). Combined with scoped vanilla weapons they gave me enough down-the-sights look for guns I felt needed it. I suppose you could try both the scoped weapons and Iron Sights Plus together but I've not tested that.
And don't forget to check out more mods listed in the comments below!
Hope that helps. Happy gaming!
Cheers,
10 comments
A list-in-progress of great mods I'd recommend for at least one playthru, but maybe not for newbies on a very first playthru (and why):
1) Crimson Caravan (and a fixes patch). See my comments at that mod. The quests are janky in places and it's not quite complete - after finishing them all and setting up the caravan, they work ok (doing their own circuit like FO3's vanilla caravan merchants), but none of the extra trade jobs you can take on for yourself with your own brahmin will work (at least not for me). Prob too challenging for newbies but interesting with several quests, player home (and a fab secret home) - and it completely overhauls Arefu into a much bigger township.
2) The Librarian - huge! New lands & outer space (and sub-mods which are all on Nexus - just search FO3 mods for the word: Librarian).
3) Point Lookout Reborn - adds places & things to do in that DLC. Nearly put on my "keepers" list. It is a little bit janky & enemy-spawny in spots - but more importantly it isn't in my main list as I feel Point Lookout should always be played vanilla on a first playthru.
4) A Note Easily Missed - another interesting quest & location mod I'm very tempted to put on my main list. Worth at least one playthru.
5) The Pittsburgh Expansion Project - decided to move this to my main keepers list under the "also consider" section.
6) A Quest for Heaven - impressive mod series on Moddb (part 1 and part 2 and part 3), with a few sub-mods on Nexus if you search. Each part is self-contained. In Part 1 you find an underground base hinting at secrets that are expanded upon in Parts 2 and 3. Part 1 is ok for newbies - it has a bit of semi-difficult room puzzle solving but iirc isn't notably bugged. Part 2 onwards isn't for newbies, it requires the Nexus mod Abbreviated Effects and, as with any huge mod, is a bit janky in places. Part 2 is also a bit buggy, overly long and enemy spawning toward the end. I've not yet played Part 3. If you use FO3edit, I've a fix for one of the Part 2 bugs, with more info in this tab:
The other issue is basically, after I returned to the DC wasteland, I noticed deathclaw & robot health bars' actual health levels sometimes don't show up when you attack or in VATS. They clearly have health as they're still hard to kill, and the health bars themselves show but the health level on them is empty. I haven't been able to pin down the cause. Could be a mere conflict except moving the mod around in my load order makes no difference. Maybe it's UUF3P, or a bug associated with the Abbreviated Effects mod (which AQFH2 onwards requires), or some unique AQFH2 weapon or armour effect but that's pure guesswork - the only thing that seems to work is removing AQFH2 and make a clean save. If anyone reads this in the future and has a fix (or finds something else is to blame), please post!
Mini-update, Dec 2024 - so, I had a PM from a gamer who didn't find this bug - so maybe it was indeed some conflict/glitch at my end, or else maybe AQFH3 (which they also installed but I've never tried), overwrites whatever the cause was in AQFH2 (or maybe they just have a better-sorted load order!). Anyway, just keep an eye out for the issue.
Note there's other minor bugs in AQFH2 too, btw, like the quest stage telling you to explore the historian's base stays in the uncompleted list on your pipboy, but it didn't stop me actually completing the quest.
Here I discuss missing/deleted mods - only mention two so far:
Two examples are GNR Building Redux and Reilly's Rangers Compound Redux. And in 2024 their TTW conversions got removed as "obsolete" too, probably because TTW keeps overhaulling and each time around not all conversions work with each newer TTW version.
Anyway, if anyone knows of those two mods or others gone from Nexus but available elsewhere, please post. But never give pirate links. I'm aware of some sites and, having been a victim of pirate uploads myself, I'll remove them (and report you). If unsure - ask!
Marts Mutant Mod and gameplay overhauls like CALIBR (Community Ammuniton Library), FOOK2 and FWE (Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition):
Shadows & Dust Volume 2, imho, is sadly too silly/disappointing, for reasons I'll hide in a spoiler in case you still want to play it anyway:
Rebuild the Capital - a Brotherhood of Steel Expansion Mod - I played quite a lot of this mod but later uninstalled it for various reasons:
But I won't be loading up TTW just for this either. For Rebuild the Capital is way too easy in some parts - the amounts of money required are unrealistically tiny and yet you also get big dollops of taxes to spend! And then don't have to cover any wages or overheads!! And the squad you can call on of course makes fights far too easy and pointless so I left them behind. And yet some other aspects are overly difficult - eg, I had 100 speech and boosted my charm to 10 and yet I still failed a speech check with Casdin on the mission to gain a truce with the Outcasts. I also suffered some glitches and crashes. And there were other oddities, such as way back in the early game (i.e., long before starting Rebuild), the very first time I ever got to Paradise Falls, a Rebuild the Capital field medic was already there!
It would've been far more realistic/gritty to just work through Lyons to do missions, investments & upgrades over time, with you having the difficult challenge to raise most of the resources yourself - after all, the BoS was already very stretched and hard pressed, and gaining two destroyed Enclave bases won't change that metric any time soon, let alone instantly (a "3 months later" message) as the mod puts it.
Then there's too much lore tweaking - i.e. the option to make BoS friendly to ghouls but without any creative leaps to make it potentially even half-believable. For example, one could've added helping Underworld's doc to recover Enclave FEV stuff so if reverse/re-engineered it might one day stop feral-stage, then convince BoS to a temporary truce (not kill non-ferals) to allow the doc time to do the research. But no, all we get is "hey, can we be part of the BoS rebuild?" Yes/No - and then (yawn) an enemy spawner to fight folks who are against this.
But some gamers of course don't care too much about all that and like the mod - anyway here is a 13-part FO3 walkthru on youtube.
This post is not about mods per se but dives into the wider issue of FO3 vs TTW and the impact on mods, and I've no better place to put it. Here I present my argument as to why TTW has on balance not been a good thing - and yes I have a completed a playthru of TTW (v3.3.2):
I'd go one step further and say the arrival of TTW did a little damage to the FO3 mod library in that in the heyday of TTW's promise (say, around v2.9 to v3.2) some FO3 modders converted to it (partly because FNV is a bit better/easier for mod-making) and, thinking FO3 would henceforth die out, even sometimes (pointlessly) deleted their FO3 mod versions. Maybe they thought this could help force-convert other gamers by doing so - for there seems almost cult-like aspects to adherents of TTW at times. You still see some TTW-cultists (mostly new converts, drawn by TTW's promise), via random comments in FO3 mods, pointing out which would be great if converted and dismissively asking why the hell people still play the original FO3 (apparently not realising the obvious answer in their own question). Just two of many examples of great mods which seemingly suffered the "death by conversion fate" were GNR Building Redux and Reilly's Rangers Compound Redux. And yet, ironically, by 2024 even their TTW conversions got removed as being "obsolete" - i.e., presumably, incompatible with the latest TTW overhaul. So sad. [There's also other underlying issues with the TTW scene I could get into here, but frankly that would be going too much into the attitudes/clique of some of the TTW team and I don't want to make this rant personal.]
Anyway, back to TTW itself: even the name is misleading for it has no "tale" but is essentially just two completely different games bolted together, which also means by the time you reach Goodsprings you're a high-level character so the carefully crafted FNV game balance is all wrong. And even just using TTW for its FO3 portion means having to use FNV stuff like timed food health, the gimmicky companion wheel (FO3's simple menu is easier, and FO4 returned to FO3's style), and subtle balance issues like FNV's different way of calculating damage to the way FO3 was built and FNV's ridiculous ammo types & crafting (again, FO4 dropped all that nonsense and returned to FO3's style). Against that I will admit TTW used to have the benefit of true ironsights, but that has since been backported to FO3. And when Windows 10 first came out in 2015 some felt they had fewer issues/stutter running FO3 via FNV-TTW than just FO3 itself, but that ceased to be an issue by 2017 when GOG's version came out (and since sorted in Steam too, or so I've read, at least with tweaks/fixes).
And what further saddens me about it all is, well, the lost potential I suppose - the "what might've been" if all the FO3 collective modding effort hadn't been split in two by TTW's arrival but stayed focused on just improving, expanding and updating FO3 itself. Oh well.
One of the main arguements for modders is that now you have access to NVSE and all of the fixes that allows for, like honestly the patched NVSE Fallout New Vegas Geck is much more stablem, for the obvious reasons that people put time into fixing it.
In fact the Script Extender team are at fault Fallout 3's stagnation lStewiel wanted to create xFOSE like what the xNVSE did for NVSE, but unlike NVSE where the original creators allowed xNVSE, they just straight up refused for FOSE. This also contributed to NVSE plugins like JIP to never port anything to Fallout 3, and lStewiel attempt with command extender, stopped after people kept telling them "what's the point just use TTW with NVSE" "what your doing is useless." One of the only people who who knew how to makes FOSE plugins and update FOSE, was told no at every turn.
Not to mention the people who make NVSE plugins are super secretive of everything, I tried to learn, ask for some help or maybe them to just create basic guide for other to maybe take shot at it, but they just said no, christ if you want to make a plugin you have to ask the NVSE to give you a unique slot number for your plugin so that your plugin can work and be recognized by the script extender.
However I will give one thing to TTW though, it does fix A LOT of bugs in Fallout 3 in terms of geometry and meshes, quests, AI, navmeshes etc. But those things could easily be backported to Fallout 3 which they have thanks to Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch.
You know I plan to make a guide for Fallout 3 exactly like Viva New Vegas, Fallout 3 deserves one.
As for TTW, yes, of course, it does have some advantages - I just think overall the pros don't outweigh the cons. As for those TTW fixes you mention, over the years sporadic FO3 mods have tackled some of the things you mention (i.e. better collision/meshes, navmeshes and quest fix mods) but aye, aside from UF3P, such efforts would be more piecemeal and less complete than TTW.
Anyways, thanks for visiting and the info. And hey, a Viva New Vegas-like guide for FO3 would I'm sure be a widely welcomed guide!
I keep stumbling upon your comments all throughout the Nexus, from Fallout 3 to Fallout 4 and honestly your input is always appreciated!
Thanks for your mod-list, there are many little gems in there that I will add to my list.
I whole-heartedly agree with the points you make about TTW. Most great TTW mods already have a Fallout 3 alternative, and as you say, there's a lot of hidden gem and niche Fallout 3 mods that I don't want to play without. It's annoying to think that a fine-tuned and carefully curated mod-list made for TTW can become obsolete at any time, because of the way they update their mod.
I'm sorry to see about your health. I hope you get better!
Yes, TTW's original idea wasn't bad but, apart from bugfixes & balance, they should've just left it as a canvas to let mods build on. And when I suggested an existing FNV mod as a possible levelling fix I was dismissively told by Batty it "breaks something" in TTW, without explaining what (and despite my having completed a playthru using it). I later found the real reason seems Batty planned to put out his own similar idea! And they kept repeatedly toyng with TTW, which is up to them of course but, as you appreciate, each overhaul actually makes it less & less useful to other gamers and existing mod lists as older TTW mods & conversions get obsoleted.
UUF3P took a not dissimilar path - it long ago dealt with all major bugs, then most minor ones - job done. But no, they couldn't leave it alone, later backporting TTW ideas, then un-backporting them! And then making other tweaks to the game (such as, iirc, Burke's house or how the cola fridge works). Not fixing but more changing FO3 to how they wanted it - and each time risking more conflicts.
As for my health, sadly I'm not getting better. My rare, aggressive cancer is incurable. But for as long as I can cope with the chemo (and its potentially damaging side-effects), I might be able to extend my time a year or two, and maybe new drugs will come by then.
"Firstly, TTW will never get around to converting even a quarter of all the good FO3 mods out there (let alone the hidden gems and niche mods)."
honestly, i very much agree. ive voraciously explored the ttw mods for fnv and the mod lineup is rather shallow. unfortunately, most of the best and most supported mods that are exclusively fnv, and few are backported to f3.
ive seen so many cool fallout 3 mods and plenty of quest mods, but most are abandoned or deleted , usually in favor of fnv and ttw. def suck pretty bad trying to mod fallout 3 cause it has 10000x less well documented mod guides like fnv has. (guides like the best of times and such). nobody really cares about supporting fallout 3
"Anyway, back to TTW itself: even the name is a lie for it doesn't have a "tale" at all but is essentially just two completely different games barely bolted together, "
yea i still agree with this to this day. ttw does add allot to fallout 3 from fnv, but does almost nothing in regards towards dc to Mojave travel in regards to progression. dont even get me started on the almost non existent mods that take advantage of having both games combined.
"[There's also other underlying/core issues with the TTW scene I could get into here, but frankly that would be going too much into the attitudes of some of the TTW team and I don't want to make this rant personal.]"
I'm interested in this, but i assume its more closer to airing dirty laundry and stuff you disagree with personally and not worth stirring up beef.
As for "abandoned" FO3 mods, of course many old ones are still fine to use if they work and are complete. The only thing they might otherwise fall foul of is UUF3P's unfortunate habit of later tinkering and doing subjective changes rather than just bug fixes (most of which it sorted long ago). In a way, TTW negatively impacted here too in that UUF3P started backporting TTW changes to FO3, only to find this wasn't always a good idea and unported some again in yet later changes. And recently UUF3P tinkered with things like re-imagining the use of Burke's house in Megaton - i.e. not bug fixing at all (and it'd clash with any good old FO3 mod using Burke's).
Yes, TTW's mod library is very shallow compared to FO3. And regards rare TTW mods linking FO3 & FNV, I think the only one I used was Watch Station A.E.G.I.S. which effectively is just a fun way of travelling between the two wastelands - yet I've read even that no longer works properly with the latest TTW version! FO3 and FNV will prob always be better off played with mods as separate games.
P.S. I wouldn't concur that FO3's mod scene is "mostly dead". Sure it's no hotbed - but that's normal for an old game with thousands of mods already published. And for example 15 mods came out in the past week, which is pretty decent for a game released in 2008.