I’ll have to admit, I’m a bit of a fan (a huge fan) of Bethesda’s Fallout 3. Not only is the world they constructed full of meticulous details that just make a post-apocalyptic Capitol Wasteland come alive, but the engine they used to power it is incredibly flexible, if lacking in certain departments (*cough*ANIMATIONS*hackwheeze*). Years ago, I’d played their previous work, the Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind because at the time I couldn’t run Oblivion yet. I was aware of their data files plugin system, and had used it in fact to put in some mods that really changed the world of Morrowind, from adding new magic spells and weapons to whole new creatures, to one mod that improved the texture resolutions on every NPC in the game, making them appear far more lifelike than the stiff papier-mache models of the original. Although up until the very release day of Fallout 3 I hadn’t known Bethesda would use the similar Gamebryo engine, once I found out by taking looks at the screenshots online and reading the rave reviews from outlets across the Internet, I knew that this incredibly mod-friendly feature would result in some phenomenal community additions to the game so many already know and love. Since acquiring Fallout 3 in late December of 2008, I’ve been treated to the many incredible talents that the rabid modding community wells up with, and I’ve never looked back at vanilla Fallout since.

Today, I’m starting things off by posting two of my undoubted favorite mods from Fallout3Nexus that I deem pretty much necessary for the transition from a Wasteland survival game to full-on Wasteland domination– the Enclave Commander Mod and Mart’s Mutant Mod; real game-changers if I ever saw them. 😉

(note: any links to these mods will be at the end of the article.)

Enclave Commander, now version 0.9, this long-running and constantly improving mod features first and foremost the ability to command a squad-level unit from Fallout’s FPS perspective. You can call down different types of squads armed with everything from standard assault rifles to miniguns, missile launchers and Fat Men from four different factions (and possibly more as the mod expands): the Brotherhood of Steel, the Brotherhood Outcasts, the Enclave and the American Army from the Operation: Anchorage DLC. Call down air support from Vertibird transports in the form of reinforcements or just plain American air power with airstrikes, carpet bombing runs, or even tap into some of that lost Enclave technology and drop a satellite orbital strike on top of your unsuspecting foe.

Or I could just let the trailer explain most everything for you right here.

Now you may be thinking that with all those reinforcements and fire support abilities, Fallout 3’s Wasteland creatures are hopelessly outmatched, that the game won’t be fun anymore since everything dies within a couple seconds of running into you and your absurdly large squad/army.

Mmm-mmm. This is where Mart’s Mutant Mod comes in.

You see, MMM (now in RC 4.1) is a compilation of new scripts, models and textures related to anything and everything that’s alive in Fallout 3. Of course, the biggest reason you’ll be downloading this is for the scads of new creatures that this mod introduces. Most notable additions are the Wanamingo and Floater creatures that were present in previous Fallout titles but were for some people conspicuously missing from FO3; and there’s a special surprise waiting for adventurers wandering around the Evergreen Mills area… 😉

Additionally, every NPC you encounter now is no longer the same height and build as every other NPC– MMM introduces variable NPC size scaling. Not every Brotherhood knight will be the same height as the other, nor will every Super Mutant look the same height or for that matter have the same skin tone or the same scrap armor pattern. Every creature in Fallout 3 gets a variety of different new textures and patterns so that no one enemy looks quite exactly like another. This is especially true for the Feral Ghouls– every Feral Ghoul gets a different texture and different facial and body features. Some are missing eyeballs and are a sickly green instead of the fleshy pink/peach, while others will spawn missing an arm or both arms and be charred black, so it looks like you’re facing a creature that’s been in a pitched battle before but risen again. In fact, MMM *does* introduce new scripts that raises dead Ghouls… they just have to have a head and both legs in order to function properly.

And if you’re thinking that new creatures and oh-so-scary ghouls that can resurrect right in front of you to gnaw at your shoulders again aren’t enough challenge, MMM allows you to check off two data files that can either increase your spawns by 1-3 for every spawn point (Increased Spawns) or by 2-5 for every spawn point (Increased Increased Spawns). Try facing down around twice as many Raiders or Giant Radscorpions as you normally would and tell me that’s not at least somewhat more difficult.

Lastly, for the frothing zombie-killer in all of us, you can check off the Feral Ghoul Rampage file, which increases the Feral Ghoul count by 2-5 for every spawn point. Yes, this does stack with Increased/Increased Increased Spawns, so like they say, pack a Fat Man and plenty of mini-nukes if you’re planning on going to an area thick with ghouls.

Or, you can combine this with Enclave Commander 0.9 and call down that Orbital Strike on top of them. It’s quite satisfying.

Get Enclave Commander 0.9 from here!

See the forum topic for Mart’s Mutant Mod here.

Get Mart’s Mutant Mod here!