Re-balancing Mods / Immersive difficulty

[kostisk]

Hi all,

I hope you're safe and well.

I'm about to start my first TTW run. Planning to play on Hard and Hardcore for reasons given below.
I recently finished a New Vegas run using JSawyer Ultimate along BLEED (plus Improved NPC Awareness, didn't make them really aware , and NPCs Can Sprint, I enjoyed that ).
The thing is that after level 15 (which happened just after finishing Dead Money), the game became very easy. Although I had built a beginner's, sniperish, build hoping to rely mostly on Speech and Science, it would be usually much easier to just go guns blazing without even having maxed the according skills. Perks, other than Speech ones, didn't seem really important/necessary. Never needed to switch ammo type.

I'd like a re-balancing mod (or combination of them) to gear the game towards Role Playing and Strategy. To have to plan ahead.

I can find three, modern and updated, re-balancing mods for TTW, correct me if I'm wrong:

• JSawyer Ultimate (with disabling Expired Stimpaks option and using PTWB TTW patch)
• SawyerRatty
• Kenraalis TTW Rebalance Extraordinaire

Does anybody know the differences between them?

I was hoping to also use Uncut Wasteland + NPCs, The Living Desert and anything that would add random encounters and thus dangers to the story. Any ideas on incompatibility?
I like the idea of going up to level 50 and having more Perks, given that the difficulty would be sufficient for the perks to actually make a difference.
Would you suggest any XP reduction mods?

Some notes:

1. I tried the Live Dismemberment thing but made things way too easy.
2. Most annoying things during my first run were:
   • lock-picking becoming very repetitive
   • opening chests taking too much time
   • too much ammo, everywhere, especially Energy Cells, jeez
   • too many guns, is this really the post-apocalypse?
3. I don't care about fancy graphics, I'm old, my laptop is old, and we both enjoy simpler times. And being in a modding forum, well that's the irony!

I'd be happy to test and try out stuff. And maybe, after many plays, try to compile an "immersive/realistic difficulty" mod list/guide.
So any suggestions would be great.

[Eddoursul]

[*]Most annoying things during my first run were:

• lock-picking becoming very repetitive
• opening chests taking too much time
• too much ammo, everywhere, especially Energy Cells, jeez
• too many guns, is this really the post-apocalypse?

[/list]

Shameless plug:
Unfound Loot to reduce ammo and guns.
Auto Unlock Lite to automate lock-picking.

And any of the loot menu mods for faster looting.

[kostisk]

[*]Most annoying things during my first run were:

• lock-picking becoming very repetitive
• opening chests taking too much time
• too much ammo, everywhere, especially Energy Cells, jeez
• too many guns, is this really the post-apocalypse?

[/list]

Shameless plug:
Unfound Loot to reduce ammo and guns.
Auto Unlock Lite to automate lock-picking.

And any of the loot menu mods for faster looting.

Many thanks Eddoursul.
I did install Unfound Loot and will try Auto Unlock Lite too at some point.
Nice mods you have there, well done and many thanks! Off topic but I've also installed your Cyberware port, I understand it works with TTW, right? I feel it can be part of the story, immersion wise, but will uninstall if it makes things too easy

For original post's sake, I eventually went for JSawyer Ultimate mod along its TTW patch and BLEED. There are XP reduction, level cap and perk per level options embedded so it covers most bases.