For me, the completely unbalanced loot system in Fallout 4 makes the list of top problems in the game. You can change the game difficulty all you want, you're still going to end up with enough Stimpaks to fully heal yourself 50 times over, and so much ammunition that you stopped counting 15 levels ago.

Difficulty should mean more than how much damage you deal/take
I was appalled to find that Fallout 4 Survival Mode didn't make any adjustments to how much loot you find, sure the challenges it presents can be quite fun in the beginning - but after a couple hours of play, you've collected a large amount of any item you could ever need, and none of those challenges hold any weight. You might as well be playing vanilla.

But the normal game faces the same problem, I can set the difficulty as high as I like, I'm still able to un-endingly heal myself, buff myself up with any of the 40 chems I'm carrying, and spray out bullets like I'm playing Wolfenstein.


LootBalance is my effort to answer this problem by introducing the missing challenge of scarcity into Fallout 4, in order to create a more compelling scavenging experience. The useful items that are way to common in the base game will be found considerably less, making them a far more valuable resource to the player. Whether they be Stimpaks, healing items, radiation meds, bobby pins, grenades, ammunition, or other - finding them will incur a moment of gratefulness rather than the automatic response of throwing them onto the pile.

There are a few loot overhaul mods out there that all have their benefits and negatives, with this mod though I have tried to retain as much of the vanilla distribution of loot as possible, just with less of it. You'll feel like you're playing Fallout 4 with the difficulty option that should have been there from the beginning.



(All are optional)

Find Less Items
Affects containers and the Worldspace/Interior cells. Includes:

• Stimpaks, Radaway, and Rad-X and other health items.
• Enhancement Chems.
• Food and drink.
• Grenades.
• Bobby Pins.
• Valuable Junk.
• Ammunition.
  

Additional

• Health Items have been adjusted to complement the reduction of Stimpaks.
• Food takes twice as long to heal you and the HP yield is reduced by a third (generally).
• Some Junk items have had their components and other properties adjusted.
• Some Food items have had their values boosted (like alcohol).
• Some Post-war items no longer spawn in Pre-war locations.
• Extreme mode - It's LootBalance but with a giant middle finger in every First Aid Kit.
• Break down and craft ammunition to account for the reduction.
  

No Fusion Cores in Fours is included with LootBalance, but is still available independently.



The details section got really long so I've made it an article on the mod page here.



This mod has no special requirements other than Fallout 4 version 1.10.163. I have not tested it on the next gen update, but it will probably work unless there’re changes to the plugin loading I’m not aware of (let me know if you’ve tested it on the latest update).



DLC patches are available during installation.

Mod Compatibility Patches are available during installation for:
Armor and Weapon Keywords Community Resource 8.51
Valdacil's Item Sorting 9.0.3
VIS-G Item Sorting 2.7

LootBalance and should not be used in conjunction with any loot overhaul/rebalance mod. It will very likely conflict with any mod which modifies Levelled Lists or World/Interior Cell References for the items detailed above. If you're using mods which modify the same Levelled Lists or Cell references, I recommend they are loaded after LootBalance.

No Fusion Cores in Fours is included with LootBalance, and should not be installed separately.

The Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch is not required for this mod to work, but changes it makes to relevant records are included.

The optional patch LootBalance Survial is incompatible with any mod which changes the stock script HC_Manager. I've checked some of the top Survival mods,
and these include Survival Options and Survival stats widget. Many other mods still work such as Survival Mode Console Enabler or Unlimited Survival Mode - F4SE.



Download and load the file with your chosen mod manager, and the installation process will let you choose your configuration.

If installing manually, instructions are available in the README.txt included with the file.

Load Order
Unless you stall the Comprehensive version, LootBalance will install several modules, a few of which are meant to override eachother, so correctly setting your load order is important.

LootBalance_Health.esp and LootBalance_Extreme.esp must be loaded after basically every other module, but before any patches for other mods.
LootBalance_Extreme.esp must be loaded after LootBalance_Health.esp. Failure to sort your load order properly won't break your game, but might result in unexpected behaviour.

Any patches for other mods must be loaded after their corresponding modules. Any patches for LootBalance_Health.esp (e.g. LootBalance_Patch_VIS_Health.esp) must be loaded after said file *and* any patch for other modules.

Load order rules for other modules aren't really important since there're barely any conflicts (the installer accounts for conflicts that do happen), you can group them together or let your mod manager scatter them across your load order. When conflicting with other mods I'd generally advise loading the modules before the other mod, it depends on what you'd prefer to take priority.

Uninstallation
To uninstall, disable the mod with your mod manager, or read the instructions available in the README.txt file for manual uninstallation.



I've made quite a few updates to this mod, but I don't know if I will be adding any more features. I still make tweaks when I play Fallout, so I may release updates every now and then.

If you have suggestions for changes or additions I could make to LootBalance, please let me know. If they're good ideas that're easy enough to implement, I may add them.

Intended Updates - I intend to make the following feature updates to this mod, however I don't guarantee any of them will be made:

• Vendor item adjustments, aimed at Hardcore mode. Complete, Update 1.4
• "Extreme" mode for the masochists to compliment the current balance. Complete, Update 1.4
• Scrounger and Scrapper perk updates.
• Further work on Ammo, no specifics. Complete, Update 1.5
• World item removal for food items.
• More reduction in valuable junk.
• Reduction in higher level Grenades.
• Reduction in higher level Chems.
• Possible look at Weapons and Armor, depends on feedback.
• Less stupid manual installation. Complete, Update 1.1
• Adjustments and crafting capability to ammunition added by DLC.
• Contraptions Workshop adjusted for ammunition crafting.
  

I'll possibly create a .ba2 supported version if it's requested, but the mod adds so few resources it didn't seem necessary.



The installer won't function properly when using Mod Organiser 2 (and possibly other installers). Instructions to fix this are available in LootBalance\fomod_MO\README.txt, or on the first step of the installer.

Installation may cause the cell reset bug on current saves, putting new items in containers that have been looted, etc. The exact conditions for this aren't very clear and there isn't a fix. Uninstalling can have the same effect. It isn't clear what happens when the mod is updated, I guess it depends on the content. I'm testing each update on old saves to see what the results are.

Uninstalling will cause previously removed items to come back, though really, that's kind of the point.

I haven't seen any circumstances in which items previously taken from the world by the player have respawned.



My other mods currently include:
Blahaj Emotional Support
Blahaj Tactical Support
No Fusion Cores in Fours
Cait Cannibal Indifference
Bullet Sponge - Overpowered Monsters
DefenseGun - Pipe Gun Replacer
Moldy T-51 Helmet



Created by me, Herby.

Special thanks to Wenderer for their FOMOD Creation Tool

a_blind_man for their Levelled List Injection Tool

And to ElminsterAU and the xEdit Team for the brilliant tool FO4Edit, which was used to create this mod.

All assets in this mod belong to me, Herby, or have been modified from the files provided with Fallout 4 by Bethesda. This excludes files from the third-party mods listed above, who at the time of publishing have provided permission for them to be used freely in other projects.

Permissions
I support the modding community being open, and give permission for anyone to use any and all files in this mod in their own projects, subject to the conditions detailed at the top of the page. This excludes the files from the third-party mods listed above, which should be downloaded directly from their hosts (current links provided), and credited appropriatley. I will not consider allowing the files to be used in mods that require payment of any kind.