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Introduction

The Mojave Express Wabbajack (MEW) is a modlist for Fallout: New Vegas with the goal of creating a modernised and improved version of the base game, with a strong focus on balance and immersion. It takes a heavily curated "less is more" approach, only including highly polished mods that seamlessly integrate into the vanilla game and will ensure a cohesive vision throughout the entire experience, adding some much needed depth and additional elements that feel like were supposed to be there from the very beginning. See the full modlist here.

MEW is constantly getting updated with the latest and greatest mods, and includes innumerable amounts of bug fixes, performance & stability improvements, and engine enhancements to provide you with the smoothest experience possible. There are many custom patches and configurations exclusive to the list that tie the whole experience together in a way you won't be able to get anywhere else, ensuring a fun and challenging playthrough from beginning to end.

Whether you're a veteran who's played the game countless times, someone who's coming back to the game after many years, or even a first time player who's looking for the definitive way to experience this classic title, this list could be ideal for you.

MEW is a reincarnation of my previous Mojave Express Guide (MEG) which was a Viva New Vegas additions guide. This time it's an independant Wabbajack which allows me unrestricted mod choice and gives you a semi-automated mod downloading process (a Nexus Premium account is needed for fully automated downloading).

Note

There are very few "texture mods" in the guide, the visual mods included mainly consist of weather and improved VFX. The short reason for this is that there are currently no large scale texture packs for FNV that are completely vanilla in style and have consistent quality and coverage. The best option is to mix and match dozens of mods from various authors which vary in quality and art direction which I do not want to do.

Important!

This list is NOT designed to be a stable base for you to add your own mods, as everything has been designed to work together as is! Unless you have a good general understanding of modding, the mods used, and xEdit, you should not try to add anything! If you are looking for something vanilla focused that is more suitable to be modified then try out Viva New Vegas.

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Overview​

Bug Fixes & Performance:​

  • Thousands of bug fixes, stability improvements, and script optimisations using the latest up to date mods.
  • Tons of mesh fixes including visual and collision enhancements, allowing you to actually shoot through gaps.
  • Many textures and meshes have been packed into uncompressed BSAs for maximum performance.
  • A collection of tweaks for certain audio files to fix popping issues and other annoyances.

User Interface:​

  • Various basic modernisations; including dynamic crosshairs, hit markers, visual quest markers, and a Quick Loot menu.
  • Simplified FO4 style HUD display.
  • Higher resolution HUD and icons.
  • Text size and style adjustments.
  • Visibility tweaks and display modernisations from the newer games.
  • Power Armor exclusive Pip-Boy holographic panel.
  • Cleaner and more readable world map.
  • All items have an icon in menus to make them more readable and help with organisation.
  • Consumables will display a dedicated HUD widget after use showing how long it'll take until they wear off.

Gameplay Overhauls:​

  • Tons of Quality of Life tweaks.
  • Many aspects of the game have been rebalanced from top to bottom courtesy of Dead Hand. Tweaking character progression, health, carry weight, loot distribution, item stats, and more.
  • Vanilla level cap of 50 is preserved, but you get 2 less skill points per level, and levelling speed is 33% slower.
  • Perks have been completely overhauled. See PerkOut for more info.
  • You can now sprint, with custom animations and sounds. Higher Endurance allows you to sprint for longer before getting tired.
  • Your Agility scales your movement speed, including walking, running, and sprinting. Every point above 5 AGL increases your speed by 3%, and every point below that decreases it by the same amount.
  • Weapons now have recoil, increasing or decreasing based on your character's stats.
  • The game's economy has been entirely revamped. Item values are much more logical and less inflated across the board, repairs are actually affordable, the Barter skill affects buying and selling prices significantly more, casinos are harder, the credit check for getting into the Strip is doubled, and much more.
  • GRA custom weapons are seamlessly merged with their vanilla counterparts, so you don't have to worry about having the correct version to attach mods to.
  • Weapon mods can be found rarely on NPC's weapons.
  • Weapon requirements actually matter now and will have a much greater impact on their handling.
  • Weapon condition now affects the spread of the weapon rather than the damage.
  • Low condition weapons can jam while being fired.
  • Bullet sponges at higher difficulty have been noticeably reduced.
  • Head DT/DR is now separated from the body, meaning helmets are necessary for head protection.
  • Power Armor is now big and bulky with custom animations and sounds.
  • You can use your Pip-Boy as a real-time immersive minimap by holding "Q".
  • Some dialogue checks have been changed from Speech to Charisma where logically applicable, giving the once useless SPECIAL stat more of a reason to exist.

Difficulty Overhauls:​

These can all be safely disabled ⮯

  • Radiation is actually dangerous, reducing your max HP the more irradiated you get. In hardcore mode, your max AP will also be reduced based on how thirsty, hungry, and tired you are.
  • Ghouls, Centaurs, Spore Carriers, Tunnelers, Mantis, Radroaches, and Molerats inflict radiation damage.
  • Water radiation is ramped up based upon depth.
  • Food heals less.
  • Weapons & armour have a lower condition when found.
  • Weapons & armour under 25% condition will be worth nothing, so you have to do some repairing before being able to sell them.
  • FO3-style item repair is back. The max repair amount of equipment will be capped based on the player's Repair skill. Formula: (Repair Skill * 0.6) + 40.
  • NPCs may attack you if they see you looting the corpses of their fallen allies unless you are liked by the faction.
  • Sneak attack damage scales with your Sneak skill.

NPC Overhauls:​

  • Thousands of small character face edits with subtle improvements.
  • They will show more emotion during conversations and their lip-syncing will match their dialogue much more closely.
  • Their loot distribution has been overhauled and should be more balanced.
  • Humanoids can sprint the same way you can.
  • Both humanoid and creature NPCs have had their AI and abilities enhanced and are now much more effective in combat.
  • NPC accuracy changes based on their faction and class.
  • The Legion have received a vanilla-plus overhaul to their equipment. Legionaries will get stronger armour as the player progresses through the game.
  • Securitron faces look more detailed and will change when they enter combat mode.
  • NPCs will immersively react to guns being pointed at them.

Content:​

  • A plethora of restored content, consistency fixes, integrated content, and "grey area" bug fixes thanks to Goodies.
  • A collection of small vanilla-friendly gameplay improvements from EVEM and EDEM.
  • DLCs get delayed until you reach their appropriate level or until you visit their respective starting locations, instead of all being dumped into your quest log at the start of the game.
  • New dungeons to explore and loot to be found.
  • Balanced backpacks have been added to the game, providing you a choice for more carrying capacity at the cost of mobility.
  • Many new pieces of armour and clothes have been added and distributed, greatly increasing equipment variety and making some unique NPCs stand out more.
  • A small, curated collection of new weapons has been added to fill some gaps present in the vanilla arsenal, and some of the vanilla weapons have been revised and rebalanced.
  • Unique equipment that used to be vendor exclusive has been hand-placed in various locations across the Mojave, incentivising exploration. If you want spoilers, you can find their locations here.
  • Mojave Express Dropboxes have been overhauled to be much more useful, and now serve as an expanding upgradable universal storage system.
  • NPCs will patrol the roads, travelling between towns, occupying locations, exploring the desert, and reacting dynamically to your choices throughout the game.
  • Hundreds of hand-placed and vanilla-friendly enemy spawn points in appropriate locations throughout the whole Mojave.
  • Ghoul variety has been expanded with more outfits and armour.

Location Overhauls:​

  • Significantly more detailed environments. Locations that were previously lackluster and forgettable have been enhanced.
  • Various settlements and urban areas across the Mojave have been massively overhauled. The areas surrounding Vegas have received special attention, making them feel much more fitting to a major pre-war population centre.
  • Freeside has been visually spiced up and has new enterable interiors, helping the location feel more organic.
  • The Strip is now open and has been overhauled to be much cleaner, more detailed, and more secure, with improved lighting throughout.
  • Many more NPCs can be found inside the Strip and in the casinos.
  • Many interiors have been overhauled to be more useful, cluttered, atmospheric, unique, and lived-in.
  • Neon signs around the Mojave are now illuminated.

Visuals:​

  • Brand new weathers, with a much more naturalistic tone compared to the yellow color filter of vanilla, including 360 panoramic cloud textures, and greatly improved lighting and tonemapping.
  • Overhauls to interior lighting to give them a more dynamic and atmospheric look.
  • Ambient Occlusion has been implemented, giving the visuals more depth.
  • Parallax effects have been added to all terrain/landscape textures, which gives them a much more 3D look.
  • Dual-Render Scopes with variable zoom levels and night vision toggle on supported scopes.
  • Most energy weapons have built-in iron sights.
  • Redesigned blood, particle effects, and gore textures that fit within the New Vegas art style.
  • New and improved ballistic impact effects.
  • Bullet holes and casings match ammo.
  • Bullet trails and tracer effects.
  • Radiation and drowning visuals.
  • Various vanilla-plus tweaks to textures.
  • High quality LODs.

Animations:​

  • Almost all guns, melee weapons, and throwables have had their animations completely remade.
  • First-person weapon inertia when moving the camera and improved weapon locomotion animations when walking.
  • Improved third-person movement animations for the player character and all NPCs.
  • Your player character can move diagonally in third-person.
  • Various chems, food, and aid items have animations when consumed.
  • Many new immersive first-person interaction animations.
  • Turning on the Pip-Boy light has a dedicated animation.
  • A subtle camera shake effect has been added for certain actions like moving and getting hit.

Audio:​

  • Ambient music tracks have been seamlessly and tastefully rescored, bringing a darker and more somber atmosphere that feels closer to the classic Fallout games.
  • Full radio remaster from lossless sources, improving quality and fixing bugs.
  • Higher quality main menu music and Fallout 1 & 2 songs.
  • Atmospheric ambient sounds have been added to many environments across the Mojave.
  • Full replacement of all ballistic, explosive, and energy weapon sounds.
  • Subtle, immersive equip and ADS sounds.
  • Custom pickup sounds for item looting.
  • More realistic sounding footsteps with over 60 additional sounds.
  • A handful of fresh UI sounds.