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About this mod
A port of Fallout New Vegas Hardcore Mode to Fallout 3.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
"I've been drinking this irradiated shit and... I can't do it. I just throw it up now. I need purified water... please..."
Bethesda games seem to work well with needs mods, such mods usually enhance scavenging making it more interesting. When Fallout New Vegas came out with it's built in Hardcore Mode it was a great look at how a professional developer would do a needs system for Fallout 3. While many people now play Fallout 3 through TTW many of us still prefer the two as separate experiences, now that no longer has to come at the cost of playing with Hardcore Mode.
Features:
- Stimpaks, radaway and every other food and drink item restore health/rads over time. Health/Rads restored are based on vanilla Fallout 3 amounts to maintain game balance. Now that massive stockpile of Simpaks won't do you any good if you're not using them properly.
- Sleeping no longer heals the player or their limb condition meaning doctors and the newly added Doctor's Bags are the only way to heal limbs. Doctor's Bags heal at the same rates as New Vegas, a good chunk of healing for one limb or 1-3 points bringing all limbs back up. Doctors are now actually important not just as a source for healing limbs but also for buying Doctor's Bags.
- Ammo has weight. Weights taken directly from New Vegas Hardcore Mode. Now that your stockpile of 5.56 and 10mm is weighing you down you'll either need to invest in Strength or be more careful with what you loot. Also you won't be carrying around 100 Fatman nukes, in fact I would absolutely recommend Big Guns users now invest in Strength if they weren't already.
- The Player now has thirst, hunger, and sleep needs they must fulfill. Rates and effects are taken directly from New Vegas Hardcore Mode. Looting food and drink items will now be more interesting rather than just a poor alternative to already plentiful stimpaks.
- HUD indicatiors will pop up above the health meter when the player is suffering from negative needs effects. The Player's H2O, FOD, and SLP numbers can be viewed on the condition screen of the pipboy.
- Food and Drink items will restore thirst, hunger, and sometimes even sleep needs.
- The Food Sanitizer now gives bonuses equivelent to 50 points in the Survival skill in New Vegas, namely the effectiveness of food and drink is doubled, however not every item is effected.
- For every hour the player sleeps they take 58 points off their SLP meter.
- The player drinking from water sources will take 200 points off their H20 meter.
- The player using the cannibal perk and eating a corpse will take 25 points off their FOD meter. The cannibal perk has also had it's required level lowered to 4 in line with New Vegas.
- With the Hematophage perk blood packs will take 50 points off the H20 meter.
- Needs system will turn off during childhood in the vault and during the Tranquility Lane simulation.
- Needs system will turn off during Operation Anchorage with the DLC patch.
- Items added by DLC will feature changes listed above where needed when using the DLC patch.
- Needs disabling scripts for quests such as Tranquility Lane and Operation Anchorage will quietly shut themselves off if the player has already passed those points when first loading up the mod.
- DLC has been tested with DLC Needs patch and confirmed survivable even for a character without a stockpile of Food/Water/Nuka-Cola.
This mod does not take any liberties with Fallout 3's original balance, keeping values and rates the same where possible. The goal here isn't to increase Fallout 3 beyond it's intended difficulty, rather this mod attempts to work within the balance of the original game adding in more strategy and thought to the gameplay as well as more depth to surviving in the world. This mod should act the same as turning on Hardcore Mode in Fallout New Vegas, it is a subtle background change that does not aim to fully overhaul your experience, merely add to what's already there.
This mod does not add in more food and drink, so next time someone asks you "What do the people eat in Fallout 3?" you'll be able to tell them, and the answer is a hell of a lot of molerat and mirelurk meat with a nice brahmin steak for dinner.
A big goal of this mod was to fit in to a totally vanilla game, information about the mod is nested in the interface just like in New Vegas and you can even play this mod with a controller no problem. I also won't be adding any items to your inventory to deal with mod menus or anything like that.
Versions:
- Hardcore Mode Complete is all you need if you have all the DLC and want all the features of Hardcore Mode.
- Hardcore Mode Needs is if you just want the needs system without the other changes, it comes with individual files for the DLC for maximum flexibility.
- Hardcore Mode Basic is if you don't want the needs system and only want the other changes, it comes with individual files for the DLC for maximum flexibility.
Requirements:
The core esm files "Hardcore Mode" and "Hardcore Mode Needs" only require Fallout 3 as a base and FOSE, the DLC files obviously support the DLC and require them.
Installation Instructions:
Just drop the contents of the 7zip file in your Fallout 3 directory and activate the esms/esps in your launcher/load order manager, or install with your favorite mod organizer.
Updates:
- 1.1.12: Update only for the Complete and Needs versions, fixes error in Operation Anchorage that would stop the needs system from deactivating.
- 1.1.11: For the main Hardcore Mode.esm update includes Doctor's Bags for limb healing as well as distributes them to leveled lists so they show up throughout the game. For the Hardcore Mode Needs.esm Hemetophage perk now allows blood packs to restore thirst needs and waters were added to vendor leveled lists so eating establishments will actually carry water now instead of just liquor. Also includes a bugfix for Doctors refusing to restoring limb condition when you're at full health. Upon further testing it looks like updating from the previous version should be just fine.
Conflicts and Patches:
Most of this mod is running off it's own fresh scripts and quests so there should be few conflicts. The Needs part of this mod will conflict with anything that changes the food items in the game, and will likely require a merged patch. The core file of this mod changes stimpaks and radaway so any file that changes those will require a merged patch. This mod changes a few leveled lists so anything changing those lists will require a merged patch (which can easily be made in xEdit), I played with the idea of adding to the leveled lists with scripts but that would make removing my mod from an existing game difficult.
For HUD changing mods that change the stats menu or main HUD: They will need a patch to display the needs values and disable limb healing (though stimpak limb healing won't work even if used from the stats menu, it will just apply a stimpak to your main health). I would suggest contacting the creator of the menu/hud changing mods to get them to make a patch as they'll likely be able to do something fancy, however if they can't be reached drop me a message and I'll see what I can do.
Simple Realism patch created by YuMMz, if you use it consider going by his page and leaving a kudos to show your thanks.
Making/Requesting Patches:
Since most of what could cause a conflict between this mod and other mods are ingestible and actor effect entries most problems can be solved with a simple merged patch made in xEdit. To do this simply open up my mod and the mod you want to use with it and compare the entries in my mod looking for entries colored red by the filter (to indicate they are being overwritten), create an override of the entry in a new esp and then look through both mods copying elements as need be to make sure you get all the effects in the end. If this is all over your head, feel free to ask me for a patch, I can't promise I'll make a merged patch for every little mod but I'll do what I can.
The one thing that can't be patched with xEdit is if something changes the cannibal perk's script. That will of course require a scripting solution, if you know scripting feel free to have at it but otherwise feel free to come to me.
As for making patches for this mod and posting them on the nexus: you're welcome to do so. I won't get offended. I may even contact you to put it in to the main file at some point if you figure out a major flaw or just a nice feature. The more people who make patches the less I have to make!
Known Issues:
I've been personally play testing for 110+ hours and haven't had any glitches or serious issues. Please inform me if you encounter any bugs or even minor glitches.
Permissions and Thanks:
I give full permission to use this mod in other works. I'd like some kind of note of where it came from, but even that isn't required. Use the mod however you want with my blessing. The only thing I don't want is for this mod to be reuploaded without any changes unless for some reason my official releases are no longer available. The only thing I can't give permission for is the 3d model for the Doctor's Bags which I paid a licensing fee for, that said if you pay the same licensing fee to NevermoreGraphics you are more than welcome to use my nif & dds conversion of the model and textures.
Thanks to NevermoreGraphics on CGTrader for making such a great 3d model for the Doctor's Bag. Thanks to Bethesda for Fallout 3 and Obsidian for New Vegas. Thanks to YuMMz for the Simple Realism patch.
My Other Mods:
DLC AdBlocker - Prevents annoying pop-ups just outside of the vault from DLC.
Burke's Love - Makes it so Mister Burke doesn't send hitmen if he's in love with the player.
Megaton Morality - Increases the difficulty of disarming the Megaton bomb.