Completely lost regarding New Vegas modding

YUP (Yuckingi unofficial patch) works fine for what you are looking for iirc. Been a while since I played NV though.

For restoration, check out moburma's mods. There's also someone else working on a restoration mod, but I don't remember much about that. I know it's not released yet, though.

 

From what I heard YUP just fixes bugs. Missions Mojave makes changes to the game you might not like.

 

How about the J Sawyer mod?
Dunno exact links, but should be easy enough to google up.

NV has a "hardcore mode" which is, in truth, not very hardcore at all. In fact, I find the name completely misleading. It simply means your character will need sleep, hydration and food, every now and then, as thirst, sleep and hunger builds. In theory you should be frantically looking for sustenance when things look slim, but in practice, it never really becomes a problem. You'll be swimming in water and food, and the sleep-meter lets you run around for days before even becoming a bit drowsey.

The J Sawyer mod tightens these factors a bit, making you hungry, thirsty and sleepy a bit more frequent - in my opinion, still not enough, but better than in vanilla game.
It also makes ammunition weigh again, as it did in the classic games.
There are other minor fixes too, but dunno the details, a download page would probably provide more info

 

Cut content restored
Animated prostitution
J. sawyer mod

That's all you need to have a good time with NV

But in all seriousness, Mission Mojave is pretty good.

 

Both should be similar, just that YUP is pure fixing, while MM tweaks some things that are not broken (blood sausage gets a health boost boost, characters are modified, etc) and can conflict badly with other mods.

 

If you are looking for an ENB, i reccoment this one: http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/55076/?

Rudy's ENB

 

Man, Jsaweyr's mods if you want to stick as much as possible to the Original but still greatly improve, AWN's if you want to completely upgrade it, and DUST's if you want a completely new take on the game

 

Don't know if you're still around but i feel exactly like you and for me these are the essentials ( improving or restoring without adding stuff ) :




1. YUP ( sticks to fixing bugs without getting carried away )
2. JSawyer

http://fallout.gamepedia.com/JSawyer#Download

( does many things right , think of it as a director's cut )
3. NV strip open ( might make the game a little unstable , but for me it's worth it )
4. Freeside open
5. YUP - Jsawyer patch ( so they don't contradict . Warning , the " ultimate edition" of JSawyer changes stuff so if you wanna stay true to the original you'll need this and the yup patch )
6. Primm Reputation restored
7, Uncut Wasteland ( restores things that were pached out for consoles to handle , essential ! )

other cool little stuff include

ownless trash
negative karma for grave digging
classic dialogue options


and some little gameplay changes

Fallout 4 Quickloot for New Vegas
Collision Meshes ( might qualify as bugfixing - improvement mod )




to make all this work while having a stable game you'll probably need

nexus mod manager
4gb patch
fake fullscreen ( optionally )
new vegas anticrash ( optionally )
NVSE and any plug-ins that the above mods may require . Generally check the mods' descriptions for anything they might need .



Another awesome mod which you'll definitely want on your second playthrough ( because certain elements might feel off and/or it may introduce bugs ) is outside bets