I except that many people got New Vegas in the recent Steam sale, myself included. So I was wondering which mods are essential for this game? It's been out for quite a while now and there's a ton of mods, but I just don't like the idea of going thru them without knowing if they're any good.

I started playing the game already and I'm impressed by all the things they've improved over Fallout 3, however the game still has those super ugly Oblivionioesque character models in it. So I was wondering if there's a good mod for improving that.

Spill us your mod wisdom, any kind that you think improves the game! :)

Play it vanilla the first time then mod the hell out of it for further playthroughs. That's what I do with TES games at least.

Fallout Mod manager of course.
MTUI. user interface stuff.
Conelrad civil defense radio is a nice touch.
Fook if you want a big overhaul.
Centered 3rd person camera.
Inventory sorters. lifesaver.
unlimited companions if yer into that.
Goodsprings Home/
Better binoculars.
Atomic Mods - Backpacks. they look good and add to the carry weight.
Holster/holster gear. same mod, different look; add a holster.
ambient temperature.
I had another to get rid of pipboy glow; can't remember the name. could be glow be gone! or somethin.

Last but most importantly; Two Bears Highfiving.

Yeah, that's the right idea for the first play through. If nothing else it gives you a much better idea of the kinds of things you want to see in the game yourself rather than the kinds of things that other people consider must-haves.

Once you've played it for a good while take a look at:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/

That said, the DLC are certainly good inclusions...

I think I only used one mod, and that was a one-line script that became redundant after the first set of patches. The game plays fine vanilla.

DarnifiedUI, definitely. The vanilla UI is scaled for consoles and is very ineffective in presenting information. (Or at least that was true for F3. I added this mod to F:NV straight away without even trying the vanilla, so if they improved it for NV, ignore this advice.)

This is my favorite FNV mod, and the only one I really play with. A delightful, compact player home you can move if necessary. And I use FOMM, but mostly just for the graphics tweaks (I can get it down to an ugly but lightning-fast 640x480).

Darnified UI comes to mind.

I'd also suggest one of the Radio station mods. there's a lot out there using public domain music from the 50's or earlier. Helps a lot with the immersion for me, and so you don't have to hear the same five tracks over and over.

Urgle yes. I forgot about that. Can't remember which one I used, but it was probably Conelrad, loved that in FO3. (Strangely enough, now that I'm playing FO3 on my PS3, I think Conelrad and iron sights are the only two mods I really miss).

Project Nevada is an absolute must. It adds a sprint, grenade and mine hotkey and a AP-consuming bullet time, rebalances combat to a much more realistic and tactical direction, adds the option to make hardcore mode actually hard, a handful of well-made new weapons, items and cyberimplants etc. I can't even think about playing NV without it anymore.

If you're playing it for the first time, here's what I would use (and had used):

- Invisible Wall Remover
- Lucky 38 Marker
- Operation Fixed Terrain
- noloadscreentext
- Centered 3rd Person Camera
- MTUI
- Pipware
- Detailed Normals - Texture Pack

Lucky 38 Marker changes gameplay by adding a travel marker outside Lucky 38, and Invisible Wall Remover allows you to jump up certain reasonably jumpable places that you wouldn't have been able to reach in the vanilla game. Other than that, nothing else changes gameplay. These are, IMO, essential for enjoying the game since they fix what Obsidian overlooked, without skipping on anything related to Obsidian's vision.

Project Nevada is great, sprint key alone makes it a must-use. Can't play the game withouti t now.

http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40040

Not that I can think of, sorry. There's only so much that can be accomplished on a shitty engine.

DarNUI < Must for all of the games he has made UI mods for, a little hacky to install [involves manually editing some ini files and making backup copies of the changes]

Primary Needs HUD - if playing hardcore mode this allows you to keep your needs stats on screen rather than having to keep checking your pip boy

For more enhanced Hardcore Mode stuff [if you play Hardcore mode] I would suggest Project Nevada - it is akin to FWE [made by the same team I think] for Fallout 3 [except no new monsters]. It tweaks the primary needs

Not much else comes to mind as "essential", if you want an awesome fully voiced companion check out Willow - A Better Companion Experience [on newvegasnexus.com] - the author put tons of work into that character and it shows [>.> I liked it even before I helped test some bugs on it ;)]

For Radio station variety I suggest:

- CONELRAD [direct port from Fallout 3 mod of the same name]
- RACE [Radio Active Channel Extender - download options include 250 new tracks with the option of having up to a total of 500 custom songs]
- New Vegas Radio Extended is also a good bet if you like Mr. New Vegas jumping in now and then.
- Mojave Radio Extended adds a bunch of songs to the Mojave Radio station [all period or true to the "tone" of the vanilla station]

For your first playthrough you want the buxfixes and DarnUI that's it.

DarnUI
Community Bugfix patch and Operation Fixed Terrain
NV Error Corrections
Obviously the first thing to install will be the mod manager