Preface

A Tale of Two Commonwealths is an experience based around the concept of transforming the look and feel of Fallout 4 into that of Fallout 3 and New Vegas, respectively.  We have compiled nearly every known and publicly available Fallout 3/New Vegas-inspired mod out there and brought them all together through the use of two profiles that allow you to seamlessly transition between the experiences of Fallout 3 and New Vegas with a couple clicks.  Everything from equipment to gameplay and visuals (including custom ENB presets for both profiles) has been overhauled to match the feel and aesthetics of classic Fallout's.  This is as close as one could possibly reach to playing Fallout 3/New Vegas in the Fallout 4 engine until such a time that the Fallout 4 Capital Wasteland and Fallout 4 New Vegas teams are able to release their full recreations of those games.  Until then, we hope this experience provides you with some much-needed nostalgia and excitement in seeing your favorite guns, creatures, NPC's, and even entire locations brought back to life in stunning detail thanks to the hard work of the Fallout 4 modding community.  We're playing on the concept of the Tale of Two Wastelands project which uses the Fallout New Vegas engine to allow you to travel between Fallout 3's Capital Wasteland and Fallout New Vegas's Mojave Desert on the same playthrough in offering two vastly different interpretations of the Commonwealth fueled by a carefully selected combination of mods unique to either profile.

 Even though Fallout 4 isa 5 year old game, it can still be very intensive on CPU and GPU resources,especially when heavily modded. Take this into account before starting toensure your system is strong enough to handle everything being thrown at itwith this setup. Also take note of the fact that no matter what mods you use,Downtown Boston will always suffer heavy FPS drops due to poor optimization ofthe base game. This occurs no matter how good your hardware is and how solidyour modded setup is. There will be performance options detailed later in theinstructions on how to run this experience for those on less powerful hardware.

This experience requires all Fallout 4 DLC (except the high resolution texture DLC which you should disable if you have installed).

Before You Install

As with any modlist, it is recommended you start with a clean install. Uninstall Fallout 4 through Steam if it's already installed (yes even if you already have a modded setup this is the safest approach) then proceed to Documents/My Games/Fallout 4 in File Explorer and delete everything inside that folder. Then navigate to wherever you have installed Fallout 4 (steam/steamapps/common/Fallout 4) and delete everything left inside that folder. Now you must install Fallout 4 in a non-Windows Protected folder (NOT within Program Files, Program Files x86, Documents, Desktop, or any other other protected folders on the OS/C Drive). The default install location for Steam games is in a Windows-protected folder Program Files (x86) which we do NOT want as it can cause many issues with permissions and read/write access to your game files. If you already have a Steam Library set outside this default location, you can simply install Fallout 4 there. If you currently only have a Steam Library created with games being installed to the default Windows-protected folder on your C drive, please follow the steps below based on whether or not you have a separate hard drive from your OS drive.If you have another hard drive in addition to your OS drive:*   Open Steam and click on Steam in the top left corner then click on Settings. Go to the downloads tab listed on the left panel that opens and select the Steam Library Folders option. When the popup appears, click on the plus button to the right of any listed drives and then create a NEW FOLDER on any of the other drives (not your native C Drive where steam default installs to) and click select. A new steam library folder will be created on your other drive in this new folder (reference image https://imgur.com/KiuYDe2/).*   Navigate to the Library section of Steam where all of your games are listed and click Fallout 4 then choose to Install Fallout 4 as per usual, but when prompted to choose an install location, specify the new SteamLibrary folder you just created on a separate hard drive instead of the default location on your OS drive and proceed to install as per usual.If you only have one hard drive for your computer (the OS drive) and your Steam games install to the default location in a Windows-protected folder:*    Use this tool (https://github.com/LostDragonist/steam-library-setup-tool/wiki/Usage-Guide) to create a new Steam library in a non-protected location on the same drive as your current library. By default, Steam only allows you to have one Steam library instance to install games to on a single drive so this is the only safe way to create a new library outside protected folders for those who only have a single hard drive. After the new Steam library is created, install Fallout 4 from the Library section of Steam where all your games are listed and specify this new library folder as the install location.In either case, make sure you LAUNCH Fallout 4 through steam when installation is finished to allow the game to set registry keys and create the initial game configuration ini's. You should see a popup notifying you that the launcher is configuring your settings based on a preset that matches your hardware. After clicking OK to the popup, launch the game to the main menu and exit.Lastly, right-click on the listing for Fallout 4 in the Library tab of Steam and select Properties... Under the opening General tab UNCHECK the box next to enabling Steam Overlay in-game. Under the Updates tab set the first drop-down for update method from Automatic Updates to "Only update this game when I launch it" so that any potential game updates don't mess with your modded setup.

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How to install + requirements

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Watch these instruction videos, they will provide you with all the required info from below!

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Installing a Tale of Two Commonwealths

Download Wabbajack from the homepage (blue download button) https://www.wabbajack.org/#/ Place Wabbjack.exe ina new root folder on one of your drives (e.g. E:/Wabbajack). Run this exe andthen once Wabbajack is fully installed open it and select the big BrowseModlists button on the left. Search for A Tale of Two Commonwealths among theofferings here. You can filter by Fallout 4 at the top to help your search.Then click the download button for the Tale of Two Commonwealths listing. You’llthen have to specify 3 paths for install. Target Modlist: Should automaticallybe specified after selecting this in the UI. Installation Location: Thelocation where this modlist will install to. Create a new root folder ideallyon the same drive as where you have Fallout 4 and Wabbajack installed and pathto this folder here (e.g. E:/TTC) Download Location: Will default to aDownloads subfolder within your installation location path. It is fine to leavethis as is unless you want the downloaded archives to go to anotherfolder/drive where you have more space which you can specify here. Avoid usingWindows-Protected directories for all of the above (Program Files, Desktop,etc.). Click the Play button and if you are a Nexus Premium user it will all automaticallygo through everything for you. Otherwise you will have to click through anddownload for each mod.

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‍After Installing a Tale of Two Commonwealths

Once everything is finished Wabbjack will turn green and say Installation Complete. If you have any issues installing please ping me in the #ttc-support channel on our Discord Server (https://discord.gg/strraNQxEQ) and I will respond ASAP!Now go to the folder where you installed this modlist to and open the folder within called Game Folder Files. Copy ALL of the contents within the folder named Game Folder Files to your game directory (where the game is installed; i.e. steamapps/common/Fallout 4). Make sure you copy all the contents WITHIN the Game Folder Files folder to the ROOT of where the game is installed (where the game’s executable is) (reference image if you are confused https://imgur.com/1Nu9KzL).DO NOT COPY THE ENTIRE MODLIST TO YOUR GAME FOLDER.  DO NOT COPY THE ENTIRE GAME FOLDER FILES FOLDER TO YOUR GAME DIRECTORY!  ONLY COPY THE FILES WITHIN THE GAME FOLDER FILES FOLDER!To actually play a Tale of Two Commonwealths, launch ModOrganizer.exe from within the installation directory for this modlist. It should default to F4SE as the executable in the top-right corner of MO2. Select the Fallout 3 or Fallout New Vegas profile from the profile drop-down depending on which you want to play and then click the Run button next to the F4SE executable listing to play!  But please read the ENB section listed below for important information regarding the ENB presets or you will not receive the intended visuals!

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ENB

When you copied over the files fromthe Game Folder Files folder in the previous section, this carried over twofolders titled Fallout 3 ENB and Fallout New Vegas ENB. This experience doesnot come pre-configured with one preset or the other so you have to choosewhich profile you're going to play and then extract the contents of that ENBpreset's archive to your game folder. So for example if you want to play theFallout New Vegas profile, extract the contents of the archive in the FalloutNew Vegas ENB folder to the game folder (where the game's executable is) justlike any other ENB preset. If you want to switch to the Fallout 3 profile, you mustdelete the ENBSeries folder, enblocal.ini, and enbseries.ini from the FalloutNew Vegas ENB preset and then extract the contents of the archive from theFallout 3 ENB folder into the game folder like shown here (reference imagehttps://imgur.com/zDkLXPf). Important Note: Either preset will lock your FPS to60 max by default. This is intended as the game runs into issues running above60 FPS even with High FPS Physics Fix. If you want to disable this, open theenblocal.ini in your game's root folder and change the line EnableFPSLimit=under the [Limiter] section from true to false. In order for this preset tolook as intended for you and for the game to look as visually striking aspossible, I highly recommend your calibrate your monitor both through the NVIDIA/AMDControl Panel (right-click Desktop and the option should appear, then forNVIDIA in the left side panel click Adjust desktop color settings under theDisplay header, and I'm not familiar with how to do this for AMD) and throughWindows display calibration (reference image https://imgur.com/a/BYf4BC2;search for Calibrate Display Color in your Windows search bar or Windowssettings panel).

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MCM Configuration

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After starting a new game andexiting the vault, open the Mod Configuration Menu (MCM) by pausing andclicking the Mod Config option at the top. After opening the MCM, open the topMCM Settings Manager listing and you will see a listing in the right pane underthe Presets section titled TTC MCM Settings with an option next to it to applywhich you should click now (reference image from Lost World but same idea herehttps://imgur.com/RS696Ra). Click yes on the prompt to apply the preset thenreload the MCM when prompted on the left and now everything will go intoeffect! You can change any MCM settings per mod to your liking afterwards herebut everything has already been set to provide the ideal, intended experience.Take the time to read through all the settings options in each MCM entry asmany features can be configured here. After you're done with MCM settings,save, exit the game, then relaunch Fallout 4 via F4SE in MO2 as per usual andthen reload your save. You're now ready to play, but feel free to read throughthe important tips below before starting!

Important Information About a Tale of Two Commonwealths
(Optional, But Highly Recommended)

Performance Tips

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This is not a very intensive setup and should be able to run above 60 FPS on most modern hardware. My hardware is listed at the top of this page for which I am able to maintain a constant 60+ FPS at almost all times without any distracting FPS drops or extended stutters. If you are on older hardware (the kind that struggles to run any modded setup or even the game in vanilla) you may want to consider the options below.General tips for saving performance on EITHER profile:*    In the MO2 INI editor, set fshadowdistance= and fdirshadowdistance= to 5000 for both in fallout4prefs.ini*    In the ENB GUI (open with the END key), under the Effects tab on the left, click the checkmark next to Enable SSAO so that it is unchecked and thereby disabled. The lack of AO is hardly noticeable in this setup, and it drains a lot of FPS having it on.*    Simply disable the ENB preset altogether while you play by pressing the F12 key on your keyboard. More meant as a last resort as you will not receive the intended visual experience but FPS cap and other fixes from ENBseries will remain intact.*    Set the game resolution to 1080p instead of the default 1440p. Open MO2’s INI editor and switch the isizeH and isizeW values to 1920 and 1080 respectively under the [Display] section of the fallout4prefs.ini tab (reference image https://imgur.com/f64WmSQ)

Buffout and Crash Logs

If at any time you crash while playing this setup, a crash log will be produced by Buffout in your Documents\My Games\Fallout4\F4SE folder and will be named something along the lines of crash-2020-12-04-23-32-30.log. Please share these with me in our Discord server (https://discord.gg/strraNQxEQ) and I will attempt to troubleshoot the cause. I haven’t come across any repeatable, avoidable crashes yet in the latest version of this experience!

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ECO Workbench Patcher

For whatever mods you install over thisexperience, you do so at your own risk/discretion as our support is limitedonly to what is available in the experience already. Do not expect support ifyou haven't read through this entire page of documentation or if you havemodified the experience in any way.  Check out our Resources Hub if you want to learn moreabout creating your own experiences!

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