- The Sleep of Death - A Fallout 3 Modlist for Wabbajack
- THIS IS IMPORTANT!
- IF YOU DO NOT READ AND DO ALL OF THIS YOUR GAME WILL NOT WORK
So you just installed Fallout 3. I bet you never expected to do that ever again. But you did! That's great.
Please remember that this modlist will not work if Fallout 3 is in C:\Program Files, C:\Program Files (x86), on the Desktop (you madman), in the Downloads directory, Documents, maybe even C:\ itself -- anywhere that Windows 10 thinks is "protected." So move your Fallout 3 if this is the case.
First launch the Fallout 3 Launcher. This will generate required files for Wabbajack.
Next set your resolution, click the "High" preset ("Ultra" slows stuff down a lot for unnoticeable crap), then click "Advanced" and uncheck "Shadows."
Fallout 3 shadows are fake. They don't do anything and they make the game slower. Turn them on anyway if you want to stick it to the man.
Then run Wabbajack.
Inside the folder where you installed The Sleep of Death, you will find a "game folder files" folder.
All of files inside this folder need to be copied to your Fallout 3 directory, wherever that might be.
Backup your vorbis file(s) before doing so and allow all overwrites.
If it's the Steam version, they are in /steamapps/common/fallout 3 goty/ inside your Steam folder. Yes, you must have the goty version. No, it will not work otherwise.
If its the GOG version, it will be whatever folder you picked.
Next you need to launch FO3 via the official launcher and NOT from within MO2. This finalizes the necessary initializaation of files.
If you have the GOG version, ignore the paragraph below.
If you have the Steam version, you need to run some files inside the Fallout 3 directory (described above). First double-click the Games For Windows Live Disabler. It's self-explanatory but I'll explain it anyway. Launch it and click Disable GFWL. You can also turn off the GFWL menu in FO3 if you want. Next launch the 4GB Patch. A little thingie will pop up asking you which file you want, double click Fallout3.exe. A message will say "Executable Patched!" now close the 4GB Patch.exe
You should be okay to play now, but keep in mind once you get out of Vault 101 and watch the little newly-added [SPOILER] scene there, you will need to CHANGE FALLOUT WANDERER'S TERRIBLE TIMESCALE.
Fallout 3 is weird, it didn't even have a mod configuration menu. So you have to do everything with little items scattered all around your PIPBOY. Annoying, right?
Open your PIPBOY and select apparel. My memory is fuzzy but click something that says Configure FWE, then Immersion Settings, then Set the Timescale to 30:1 - VANILLA. Everything will break if you don't do this!
There are now a couple of changes to make with power armor. Keep in mind, Powered Power Armor makes it so that the armor must be powered up now or otherwise you will suffer severe debuffs from fighting the weight of it! (Imagine driving a car without power steering.) Check that mod's description if you have questions. For now, open the PA Config menu, once again in apparel, and configure the power draw and temperature change to their minimum values of 0.05. This is so you don't run out of power every three seconds on the vanilla timescale. Next, go into general settings and disable power armor scaling. This is so you don't get a bug preventing you from activating certain objects because the game still thinks you're a baby.
Lastly, I'm not gonna tell you what to do with the rest of your life. Play around with all those bullcrap items and get your game the way you think you'll like it. You'll probably want to leave fast travel on, but hey, to each their own.
I will say that a lot of people like adding ENB. Don't. FO3 ENB was never finished by the author. You'll see transparent stuff and giant lakes of water in random spots. It's not worth it.
If you must, pick a ReShade preset instead, but I haven't found a good one for this modlist, so if you manage to do so let me know!
Now get out there in the hell of the wastes and have yourself a ball!
Drop a line in [#unofficial-modlist-support] on the Wabbajack Discord Server if you need help. The list is only available there, so you should be there already. I can't guarantee I can fix your problem but I can damn well try.
Application Load Error X
Some users are unable to launch the Steam version FO3 from MO2 but fine from the main directory, and get an error like this. It seems Win10 still hates FO3 in some cases.
Bear in mind that you will save yourself a lot of potential headache and troubleshooting by simply buying a copy of FO3 from GOG and using that version. It is already ready to go, it's a great game, and you'll be supporting a great company that puts consumer rights near the top of its priorities.
If that's not in the cards for you for whatever reason, I have two confirmed reports of this Steam error's resolution using the steps below exactly as written.
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Uninstall Fallout 3 completely (if you have it installed), including all directories in Documents/My Games, AppData/Local, and ProgramData. If you don't know where these directories are, Google them.
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Install Fallout 3 and launch it from within Steam. Configure all settings as specified above and click PLAY. Exit as soon as you reach the main menu.
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Copy over all the game folder files as specified above.
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This is going to seem a bit weird. Choose the option to Manage game... within Steam and verify local game files. If you need assistance with this part, refer to Google.
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Launch Fallout 3 or the Fallout 3 Launcher from _within MO2 not Steam. If the launcher does not appear, copy the fallout.ini and falloutprefs.ini from My Documents/My Games/Fallout 3 to Sleep of Death/profiles/Sleep of Death.
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Close MO2 and perform the relevant steps above regarding the GFWL Disabler and the 4GB Patch for both executables.
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Finally launch MO2 and then the game with FOSE [AKA THE GAME]
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If you are still having issues after all this, try setting MO2 to run in Administrator mode.
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Finally, as a last resort, copy the INI files from Documents/My Games/Fallout 3 to tSoD/profiles/The Sleep of Death. This is not an ideal solution but at this point I am at a loss.
If you get an issue where every third black person has a pasty white face, try adding bLoadFaceGenHeadEGTFiles=1 under the [General] section of all Fallout related INIs on your system, including Fallout_default.ini in your game's folder, all fallout inis in Documents/My Games/Fallout3/ and all fallout inis in tSoD/profiles/The Sleep of Death. This is a weird fix but it sometimes solves the issue. If it does not, I'm afraid I can't help you with this problem further.
Potential spoiler regarding equipment! Later in the game you have access to the Adaptive Combat Rifle. This is an amazing weapons platform that lets you swap out barrels, scopes, magazines, and attachments on the fly to create your own custom rifle based on how you need to use it. Unfortunately based on my research and testing, the mod is horribly broken. Certain combinations of components will render the first person model invisible -- for example, do not attach either the laser pointer or the tripod mount or you will hold an invisible gun. If you build an invisible weapons platform you'll just have to swap things out until you get something visible. Finally, the iron sights mod does not take this weapon into account as it was never designed for it. Iron sights will NOT work... you will either have to hip fire or use one of the scopes. (I am particularly fond of the ACOG.)
I began with the Fallout 3 STEP guide "Clear and Present Danger" from [Kelmych] available here. I removed mods I found to be problematic, such as "20th century weapons" with its nightmare of patches and "RobCo Certified" with compatibility problems. I also took out a couple things not to my taste. Can't remember what, sorry. There were a few remaining items that were left untextured, so for those I filled in details and highlights from the "Fallout 3 Overhaul Guide" available here. All credit goes to those authors, all I did was create an automated installation blending those two approaches. Please don't bother anyone on STEP or the Nexus about this abortion, I'll handle any and all questions because it's my responsibility.
Feature of Fallout Wanderer's Edition. Customize the combat-related settings if you don't like the default, you can change it so your guns skills affect accuracy, damage, both, or neither, in varying amounts. The default, I think, is balanced for an accurate marksman fighting overwhelming odds which are brought about by Martigen's Mutant Mod and its "Increased Spawns" feature (which is also on by default, seriously, there will be about 30 - 50 raiders in Super Duper Mart)
This is a "feature" of Fallout Wanderer's Edition, which I think mainly exists to prevent you from rushing through Operation Anchorage at level 5 and grabbing the Winterized T51b set for smooth sailing through the rest of the game. Basically there are now two levels to power armor training... "Basic" and "Advanced"... and you need both not to gain stat buffs, but to avoid debuffs. Without these perks, your carry weight and agility will be significantly reduced while wearing Power Armor. The only way to get Advanced Power Armor training is to select it at level 18. There are no other requirements. I would prefer not to patch 32 power armor variants to remove a core feature of one of the central mods, so if you don't like these debuffs please just console yourself the advanced training perk.
This mod is kinda a little bit of a nightmare. Not only were there about a dozen deleted navmeshes that I had to manually replace, which would have caused crash after crash if left untouched, the quest descriptions are just bad, the markers are non-existent, and the McGuffins you are tasked to find are almost indistinguishable from the landscape. So I added this section to help.
Go to the quest marker that Mediah directs you to, then search for a pile of bones. You'll see a trail of blood leading to a "door" labeled Abandoned Construction Site. She's in there somewhere.
This was perhaps the most infuriating of all to me. Head east of Arefu and look up at the bridge. Harry's house is the second shack from the right. (The far right one is the northern barricade). Somewhat east-north-east of Harry's house, on the ground below of course, you'll find a small smoking campfire. A note there tells you where one of the tools can be found. The other two are nearby: the hammer on top of a bullshit rock slightly south, and the wrench wedged nearly entirely inside a tree near the rock. I can't get much more specific than that, sorry.
To the right of his display counter is a mattress. Next to that mattress is a small ugly nondescript book that no sane human would ever check. It's called a "clean-looking book." The key is inside.