In this step, we will install and configure Mod Organizer 2, the best mod manager for any Bethesda game.
If you do know what is meant by "default Windows folders", read the Installation Location section from the Initial Setup page.
Initial Setup
If you have MO2 installed on an SSD or a HDD with little space, you can check the Show advanced options box and change the Downloads file path to a different drive with more space. This will not effect download/game performance, and the downloads can be deleted after the mods have been installed.
If at any point you get a pop-up called INI file is read-only, select Remember my choice from the drop-down at the bottom then click Clear the read-only flag
Ordering Plugins
The translation plugin must be deleted because it directly edits 1000s of records to change the language, which will cause many incompatibilities with most mods.
Configuring Settings
Mod Organizer 2's "Profiles" feature allows for easy switching between different mod configurations. In this step, we will setup a testing profile and a main profile. The default profile will stay completely untouched and act as a backup. The testing profile will be configured the same as the main profile for the guide, but will have all mods unchecked, allowing you to only activate certain mods for easy testing/troubleshooting. And finally, the main profile is where we will install and enable all of our mods. Profiles can be selected via the drop-down menu above the left pane
Tweaking FalloutCustom.ini
In this step, we will configure the game's INI files to increase performance/stability. We will take advantage of JIP LN NVSE's FalloutCustom.ini feature to make our changes, which allows for INI changes to be made safely without editing the default INIs. Because of this, these changes will not take affect until you install JIP LN NVSE in the Utilities step.
[General]
bUseThreadedAI=1
iNumHWThreads=4
bPreemptivelyUnloadCells=1
[BackgroundLoad]
bSelectivePurgeUnusedOnFastTravel=1
[Water]
bAutoWaterSilhouetteReflections=1
bForceHighDetailReflections=0
[Controls]
fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0
[Audio]
iAudioCacheSize=8192
iMaxSizeForCachedSound=1024
Notes
It is highly recommended to avoid changing any other INI settings not in the guide, and to avoid using INI "optimization" tools like BethINI. The changes these will make are placebo at best and dangerous at worst. You will realistically not need any other tweaks than the ones already in the guide.
If you are completely unfamiliar with Mod Organizer 2, I recommended watching GamerPoet's video about mod installation in MO2. As it was made for Skyrim, it has some information that does not apply to New Vegas, such as the Steam Workshop part which you can just ignore. However, the rest of the information about downloading/installing mods from Nexus still applies.
When the guide says to install a mod, it will be formatted as follows: Main File - Example Mod 1.5. This is referring to the mod's category on Nexus, the file name, and the file version.
Unless instructed otherwise, simply download the listed file using the Mod Manager Download button and install it normally through MO2.
If you do not know how to install mods through MO2, please watch the video linked above. Sometimes, a mod will not have a Mod Manager Download, or
will be hosted on a site other than Nexus. If that is the case, do the following:
When downloading multiple files from the same page, you will be prompted with a box in Mod Organizer 2 with the options Merge, Replace, and Rename. You should select the Rename option and rename the mod to its respective file name. This will make MO2 install them as separate files for easier management. If you are updating from an old version of a mod, you should select Replace. This will delete all the files from the old version of the mod and replace them,with the ones from the new version. This is the only time you should use the Replace option, otherwise always use Rename.