Blogs - TrickyTrack00

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #89 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: Arlington House Restoration

Mod Type: Location/Weapon

Original Creator: Sinuev2

Original Links: Arlington House Restoration

To be honest my knowledge of original history of United States and about its most important "faces" is pretty low. And from this perspective revisiting Arlington House with so many additional features and actual historical references was a pleasant surprise and new way to engage myself in this period of time.

Even though you won't find any new quest or special features from this mod, the original creator succeeded in his goal of bringing Arlington House in its "real life glory". By this I want you to approach "Arlington House Restoration" project not only from gameplay perspective, but also to experience it as a very good interactive part of the museum.

It's really hard to choose the best aspect in this mod since all parts of it was done by a very passionate person who put his interest and love in this project. From little clutter to the actual interactive notes and historical entries, everything feels amazing.
The interiors design and decoration of the place is another point of how you can immerse player in this period of time and fully make him invested in this part of history.
Of course, it wouldn't work as just "out of place" interactive museum, that's why the original author put good work in decorating and making it feel like this place was invaded by the gang of raiders and by putting some notes about the last owners of this house.

Also I should mention that every thing added is absolutely lore-friendly and won't bring any suspension of disbelief in you while exploring this place.
To read all the entries and visit every new section of this house, you will need at least 20-30 minutes. The most passionate gamers will get around 1 hour of additional content.
After visiting "restored" Arlington House you can also bring many little "souvenirs" like oil lamps, ancient globes and new melee weapon in the form of an ancient saber.

From technical side of things, I would suggest to use "cleaned" Arlington House Restoration esp. But aside from a few deleted NavMeshes, everything else worked well in this mod without any bugs or problems.

So, should you try this mod in 2024? Yes, it can be a good experience even for those of you who don't really want to invest yourself in the USA history and have a desire to explore new location.
Endorsement from me.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #88 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: The Carfort with Quests

Mod Type: Quest/Location

Original Creator: iamr***rd

Original Links: The Carfort with Quests

Finally it's time to visit and review this old location/quest mod which has some genuinely good sides, enormous potential and very critical flaws.
I want to start by pointing out objectively positive aspects of this Carfort. The idea behind "reviving" vanilla location is a good starting point for future improvements and enhancements. And from landscape/location's design perspective, the original creator nailed it.

The "abandoned" Carfort looks amazingly beautiful (by Fallout's exteriors standards). It is nice to see the use of different cars and vehicles as an actual structure for the building of this fort. Even though, the Carfort still is a bit small (if we compare it to some other settlements and wasteland camps), it has its charm. While using different clutter and objects from the base game, author of this mod succeeded in creating a feeling of the "real place". By that I mean that you can really see how this fort was built and decorated by wastelanders in order to provide a safe place for themselves and some strangers (like your main character, for example). Not every new location/town mod has the same level of design as in this Car Fort.

But the negative sides of this mod start to appear as soon as you will try to finally "interact" with this location or it's inhabitants. Mostly it's a very buggy experience even if you are going to install additional Carfort Bugfix file.
To list a few:
1) To actually enter the fort, new NPC will give you first quest to obtain some kind of hat from Shrapnel. You need to get it through dialogue options with him, but also you can find duplicate of this hat floating somewhere in the middle section of Rivet City. Clearly it's bug since if you will pick it up, you won't have any chance of getting rid of it since this hat marked as a "quest object".
2) After getting into the fort, you can complete a few optional side quests for NPCs who live in this fort. You can get fetch quest from local "repairman" named Mitch, but only if you will choose the right dialogue topic upon meeting him for the first time. If you are going to choose "Can you repair my equipment" topic, dialogue topic about quest won't ever appear again and you will find yourself "softlocked" with this quest.

3) As already been mentioned by other users, navmesh and path-finding if NPCs isn't working correctly in this location, so sometimes they can appear out of nowhere or even decide to wander around the fort without any actual reason to do so (from scripting perspective, of course).
4) I couldn't retrieve the new rifle for female NPC since there wasn't any new dialogue option even when I already had all the necessary objects in my inventory.
5) Sometimes you can fall through textures, so don't forget TCL command for such "accidents".
Also there were many more minor bugs like incorrect positions of NPC, floating objects and etc.

As for the quests in this mod, I liked the second quest in which you need to defend Carfort while dealing with big horde of supermutants. It was enjoyable.

And you can get some new weapons (and some buffed type of vanilla combat armor) after finishing several quests. In my case new pistol's textures weren't working correctly, everything else worked as intended.
For the most part, the main problem of this mod, of course, is in technical aspects. It's not very polished, bugged scripts and actual lack of proper play-testing before uploading.

So, should you try this mod in 2024? Sadly, but no. Too much technical problems for the sake of exploring good-looking location. I would really like to see some kind of a remake of this mod, since it deserves second chance, but not in the current state.
Endorsement from me only for good design of the location.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #87 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: Dunwich Expansion - The Necronomicon Ex Mortis

Mod Type: Quest

Original Creator: Satanabusjones

Original Links: Dunwich Expansion - The Necronomicon Ex Mortis

From the start of this review I should mention that this was my first time experiencing this quest mod, so I don't really have any nostalgic feelings towards it (like many other players of modded Fallout 3). So I'm going to judge this project on its own merits.
Since we already saw a lot of magic/supernatural stuff in Fallout universe, it is a good opportunity to expand this topic more with different quest/dungeon mods. And this Dunwich Expansion gets the job done pretty well.
Of course, to fully appreciate some references you have to know at least something about "Lovecraftian" stuff and main characteristics of the Evil Dead franchise. But you can also experience this additional content without background knowledge of other media.

Don't expect grand new story or multi-staged quest in this mod, more like an action-packed addition to vanilla Dunwich Building.
For the most part now you will encounter not only feral ghouls in this dungeon, but also some crazy cultists and "hellish skeletons". Don't forget some extra ammo and weapons before revisiting this place.

After dealing with new undead and skeleton enemies, you will have an opportunity to get different "rewards" , for example, actual copies of Necronomicon and a cursed necklace.

All of the new content from this mod can be experienced within 15-20 minutes. "Short, but sweet" in my opinion.
As for technical side of things, I didn't encounter any bugs, CtDs on other problems while using this mod.
So, should you try this mod in 2024? Yes, especially if you want more supernatural stuff in your Fallout 3 and in need of a new reason to explore Dunwich Building second time.
Endorsement from me.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #86 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: Arms Race 2

Mod Type: Quest/Weapon

Original Creator: wcstorm11

Original Links: Arms Race 2

Arms Race 2 is a good concept of not actually new story with detailed plot, different characters and narrative, but a supplementary option to get new type of weapons through actual quest structure.
So if we are going to view this mod as an intentional way to provide staged adventure with the only mission to obtain guns, yeah, Arms Race succeeded in that goal.

Some of the new weapons you could've already found and downloaded from NexusMods or other modding websites earlier, so consider this project as a compilation material for "all in" experience.
There isn't much to tell about the story since it's clearly intended to be as simple as it could've been made. You meet a stranger, get a new task and move from one location to another in order to find all available weapons while dealing with some enemies.

From technical side of things, there are few guns which don't work properly with Iron Sights mod and other types work mostly fine. The main problem for me appeared in the very end of my playthrough of this quest. After finishing main content and getting all the weapons, I encountered constant CtDs upon trying to load previous save file. And sadly the only way to "fix" my game was to delete Arms Race entirely from my load-out of plugins. It's very disappointing since I actually liked the concept and many guns were very useful in the end-game playthrough (even though the mod was intentionally balanced for FWE).

So, should you try this mod in 2024? Maybe, since I couldn't find a solution to end-quest "CtD problem", and you have a pretty high chance of also stumbling upon this technical problem.
Endorsement for the original idea of this mod, but technical aspects could've been much better and more polished.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #85 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: Project Phoenix

Mod Type: Quest/Location/Dungeon

Original Creator: Tyrann1984

Original Links: Project Phoenix

Project Phoenix is a very unusual beast in a sense of new available mod "quest" content which brought some "love/hate" feelings in me. I will try to better explain why in this review.
So, first unofficial "red flag" for me was the lack of any reviews or impressions on this mod from other users. But after some time I decided that I still should try to play it to fullfil my goal with reviewing most of the forgotten Fallout 3 quest mods.

With this mod in your load-out of plugins you can expect several new decently crafted locations within underground (?) structure below Phoenix Diner. As I understand it, Project Phoenix was another ambitious Enclave project which should've worked as an underground city for US remnants personnel and everyone related to this "evil" organization.

Going from one section to another, you will encounter dozens upon dozens of Enclave soldiers, officers and scientists which you will need to eliminate in order to reach final destination of your "journey" in this mod - Phoenix. Be prepared and bring a lot of ammo/stimpaks/weapons because you will need it. It's not going to be an easy ride.

But also I should want every potential player who prefers (like me) to loot and open any available boxes, cabinets or lockers on the level. The desire to loot everything around you can make your time playing Project Phoenix a bit more tedious since there are a lot of storage rooms with hundreds of boxes and containers for your "looting addiction".

After putting to rest around 50-10 Enclave soldiers, you are going to meet (in my opinion) the most unexpected boss after visiting Phoenix City. In one of the last sequences of this facility you will face "Frank Horrigan" which looked and felt very similar to his previous Fallout 2 iteration. I didn't find any clue or hint about his presence in this facility, so some of you can consider this encounter non-canon or not very lore-friendly. Or maybe let's just say that it is just another super soldier named Frank Horrigan who tried to achieve the same level of respect and fame as the original one.

Even though main author of this mod stated that this mod is unfinished, from the technical side of things the available part of the mod content worked fine with very few hard sequences in which thousands of particles, dozens of npcs and chaotic fight can push game engine to the limit. Also some floating objects/containers here and there but nothing deal breaking in my opinion.

Should you try this mod in 2024? It's a hard question since the combat sequences were fun until all this chaos became very repetitive and "ordinary". But I can't deny great work which was put in designing main underground locations of Phoenix Project. So this time it's a 50/50 case, and you should give it a try if you just really need to test your new weapons in the entire Enclave army and won't expect any good story bits in the process of it. Not a hidden gem, but also not the bad mod in any sense.
No endorsement this time, but maybe someone (huh, maybe) will pick up this decent concept to improve and remake it into something more structured and polished.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #84 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: Battle Hardened

Mod Type: Quest/Location

Original Creator: Wade248

Original Links: Battle Hardened

Another arena type new content in Fallout 3 modding landscape with several interesting gimmicks.
You can find at least 3 similar combat-oriented mods which tried to implement some kind of new battle arena for players. But, after trying them all, I think "Battle Hardened" gets the job done in the best way possible in this department (aside from some minor inconveniences which I will explain later in this review).
The main premise of concept behind this mod works great when you stripped from your favourite gear and I can fully test your build and skills within a circle of new challenging battles.

Major plus for implementing actual "different points per different kill type" system which gives you an opportunity to use very different options in a range of available weapons. Of course it's going to be an easy ride for a fully leveled up character who has many "modded" perks for additional health points and damage resistance buffs. But if you were only using vanilla perks and vanilla level up system, Battle Hardened can be an unusual challenge for you.

By defeating wave upon wave of enemies, you earn "battle" caps which can be spend on new gear, optional turrets and even companions who will help you dealing with your opponents in the next round of this arena. For the most patient players there is an optional objective to "catch" 25 little teddy bears in order to earn extra caps and unlock new perk.

After few stages in the beginning, every battle became more intense and (in some cases) even chaotic. And as a main final reward for your struggles, you will get an opportunity to meet new faction which created this underground arena. To complete main content of this mod you will need at least 1,5 hours of your life (and don't forget to use quick save!).
As a side content you can also do repeatable fetch quest by bringing Deathclaw Hands and Molerat Meat to the leader of this group. Also you can check your progress and kill/caps statistics in one of the terminals within new location.
But for my roleplaying reasons I decided to eliminate this group of freaks entirely.

From the technical side of things, I encountered only one CtD after another Enclave soldiers wave when the game just couldn't handle so many particles, explosions and action simultaneously. Aside from that, no bugs or game-breaking moments were encountered in my playthrough, everything worked well. And, yes, I should warn you that some elements in this mod clearly aren't very lore-friendly (just a little warning for those of you who want to have 100% immersive lore-friendly playthrough).

So, should you try this mod in 2024? Yes, if you want to challenge yourself and really have a desire to mindlessly shoot/punch another pack of enemies with restricted conditions of the arena.
Endorsement from me and thanks to original creator for bringing more fun with his project.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #83 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: The Coalition

Mod Type: Quest/Location/Faction

Original Creator: omegaspectre (Omegaspectre and Jamo12)

Original Links: The Coalition

The Coalition should be considered as another quest mod in unofficial subgroup of "faction type" projects for Fallout 3 like Mothership Zeta Crew, MERC 2, Rebuild The Capital and etc.
But in case of this mod, main chunk of the available content can be described as unfinished slice of what could've been another amazing additional experience in Fallout universe.
From the get go, I want to mention that the biggest difference between The Coalition and already mentioned "faction" mods is that primary plot of this project starts a bit "unmotivational". By this statement I need to compare three different "starting points" of MZC, MERC 2 and The Coalition.
In the Mothership Zeta Crew you begin as a commander of new organization, launching a new age of advancement and building upon ruined worlds with the help of perfect alien technology.
In MERC 2 you start your new chapter of "life-journey" by helping former Enclave lieutenant discovering and preserving weapons of great power which shouldn't be obtained by remnants of the US government.
And in The Coalition your "career path" starts with...capturing you (after your failed attempt to enter their base of operations) and using you as a cannon fodder in order to do some dirty work.
It's understandable that many players won't find any internal conflict in this situation of "proving your worth" to some unknown organization. But for me it was a deal breaker from the beginning. How can I work for the faction which use the same methods of "gaining trust" as some uneducated wasteland raiders?

Also the main goal and agendas of this group are way too similar to original BoS intentions of "preserving technology and knowledge at any cost". Working with another group of technological fanatics is a bit boring for my taste.
So even after finishing all of the available quests for this group and earning my freedom and "respect", the only reasonable decision that I made is to deploy some TSC troopers to wipe out the entire Coalition base. Roleplaying reasons, you know :)

But if we forget for a second about "proving your worth" start, all other aspects of this mod worked pretty well. You can expect some scripted combat sequences, some well-known elements of "establishing" connections with traiders, escorting missions and etc.

Also you can get new armor and weapon types from the Coalition which will become especially useful for "combat armor/energy weapons" character.
To finish all available quests you will need at least 2-3 hours and it's enough to not get bored by the same routine of jumping from one FT point to another. Also you can do some optional repeatable fetch quests for CST staff.

As for the dialogues and main plot, some parts of it could be improved a lot and some parts are decently written.
In technical aspects, as I already mentioned, this mod worked well without any annoying CtDs, bugged quest stages or incorrect quest markers. The most obvious bug for me was floating "MQ08Vault87Overseers-TerminalDossier01" holotape which you can find in the sub-level area of the Coalition base.

But, again, the main problem (or should I say "disappointment"?) of The Coalition is that mostly unfinished story (even if compared to unfinished states of MZC and MERC 2). And it's a shame because the main core of this mod could be improved and advanced on the same level as already mentioned "faction" type mods. All of the necessary elements are already available in this alpha version, but, of course, aside from the "capturing" beginning (which I would really love to re-write to a more decent and motivational start).
Also, as a major plus I want to mention optional document with detailed description of all The Coalition units and classes which you will eventually meet while playing this mod.

So, should you try this mod in 2024? Yes, if you really want to experience and start to expand new organization in the Capital Wasteland. But don't expect much, especially if you have already played the biggest quest mods in subgroup of "factions".
Endorsement from me.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #82 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: OverMightyGold - Gold Coins and Bars

Mod Type: Unmarked Quest

Original Creator: xoovermindox (Overmind and MJY)

Original Links: OverMightyGold

It's going to be shorter than usual this time - good new addition for currency and loot, one of the most bad "unmarked quest" type of mods. Just look at Geck screenshot, where this note (which you need for finding location of secret treasure) is located.

So, if you, like me or hundreds of other players, use some kind of Flora Overhaul or terrain overhaul, there is around 5-10% of actually finding this note on your own, without looking at Geck for "cheat". Also, it can potentially "clip" through terrain even without any environmental overhaul.
But, as I wrote in the beginning, gold bars and coins are pretty and have enough details to store them in your player house.

Also, in my case, aside from "note quest", full bug-free experience. And I didn't encounter strange bug with leveled lists like jakx1245 stated in this comment section.
Should you try this mod in 2024? Yes, but forget about this weird note, just go right to the Capitol Building and get your gold. This kind of "unmarked quest" doesn't worth your energy or time to do "pixel-hunting".
Endorsement from me for gold bars and coins, but not for "quest" (it's really shouldn't be in this category at all, huh).

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #81 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: Set The World A-Blaze

Mod Type: Unmarked Quest

Original Creator: cruzship5 (DUBAN)

Original Links: Set The World A-Blaze

Well, despite several of other users mentioning CtDs even before loading main menu, I didn't encounter CtDs within my playthrough while using more than 260 mods together and this quest mod.
By looking through FO3Edit, there's really nothing game breaking or unchangeable that could potentially break your load out. So, in my case, no technical problems.
As for the quest itself, it's pretty short and simple. Find notes, find location, kill another madman from the Wasteland.

Background story of main "character" that you need to find isn't very deep or unusual, and the same thing can be said about his "evil motivation".
So, it's really a 2-3 minutes of additional notes and one enemy to get around Megaton.

Should you try this mod in 2024? Sadly, it has no proper story or content to actually re-visit this project. It's stable and simple, but way too small compared to other mods even from 2009 period of modding. It's not a critique in any way, and you can enjoy this little project if you need another unmarked activity and like to kill "bad guys".
Endorsement from me.

Fallout 3 Quest Mods Review #80 by TrickyTrack00

Mod Name: D6 Wasteland Boss Pack

Mod Type: Unmarked Quest

Original Creator: deliverance6

Original Links: D6 Wasteland Boss Pack

Yeah, now it's time to write down my impressions about this interesting quest mod which brings several new boss type enemies in vanilla worldspace.
So, as you could've already seen, every new "boss" enemy appears to be some kind of retextured and very "buffed" version of usual creature type. And by "buffed", I mean, way too overpowered and "spongy" even for a level 50 character with modded gear and weapons.

Some of them are very "standard" and boring to look at, for example - Irradiated Ant Queen and Irradiated Radscorpion which have "glowing" effect all around their models.
But I liked other types of bosses like "Firelurk" and, of course, the amazing Old Furry.
As already've been mentioned by original creator of this mod quest, by eliminating these creatures you can acquire big amount of caps and ammo (too much for balanced playthrough). And, yes, "4000-5000 caps" is way too much even for endgame stage of your playthrough.
Also there's a problem with several locations and bosses spawn points. Many players have already reported their difficulties in trying to save many vanilla NPCs which can be killed by these new bosses in a few seconds. Again, for example, Deathclaw Boss is right next to Republic of Dave, Old Furry is located near Agatha's House and another boss (can't remember exact name) can go on a killing spree right near Fort Independence.

So, yes, activating this mod in your early stage of playthrough should be considered as a death sentence to several important vanilla NPCs.
As for technical side of things, I should advise you to download important fixed .esp by gnejs420. Without it, you will encounter CtDs upon CtDs right after launching the game.
And it would be better to tell you about some problems with AI packages of these new bosses. In my playthrough, for some obscure reason, Mr. Nasty and Deranged Brahmin were "neutral" and non-hostile to my main character until I started to shoot at them.

So, should you try this mod in 2024? Maybe, if you have a desire to finally spend your preciously saved ammo on bullet-spongy enemies and test your most powerful weapons.
Very old, but at least playable mod from 2009 with some interesting ideas, but cheap implementation and bad technical aspects.
No endorsement this time.