Fallout: New Vegas has a lot of dlcs which add new items to the game, but only puts them in merchants, or in the new worldspaces, or directly into the player inventory at the start of the game. Here are some mods I personally use to improve the feeling of this.
Rewarding Exploring
Created by phoenix0113, and updated by Panzermann11, Rewarding Exploring removes Gun Runners’ Arsenal’s unique weapons from merchants, and places them in the world as collectibles. Very reminicent of how unique weapons were distributed in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. This mod helps make the Mojave Wasteland worldspace more fun to explore. One of my favorite things from this mod is how the mod distributes the Mantis King gauntlet.
Download
Improved edition: (most recommended)
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/72373
Original version:
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/62006
JSawyer
Created by Joshua Sawyer, the lead director of Fallout: New Vegas, JSawyer is his personal mod for the game which rebalances the game but also fixes bugs and tweaks other things. Most notably, it “integrates” Gun Runners’ Arsenal more by merging the weapon mods into the base game weapons and removing GRA tags. In addition, it places the Courier’s Stash packs physically into the world in a few secret locations, and stops the game from adding them to the player at the start of a run.
This may sound all good and dandy, but the mod was created as a personal modification without any compatibility concerns and the balance changes may not be everyone’s cup of tea. Personally, I think some of the changes are interesting and helps provide some insight into the development of the game, but I don’t personally enjoy playing with all the changes with every run.
Mods exist which contain only specific features from or inspired by the JSawyer mod, which I recommend the most and personally use. I created a stripped down version of JSawyer specifically for the Courier’s Stash changes which I recommend. I will get more into GRA distribution in the next section.
Download
JSawyer Scattered Pre-Order Items: (most recommended)
https://piber.me/mods/scatteredpreorder/
Ultimate edition: (by PushTheWinButton)
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/61592/
Original version:
http://twofoldsilence.diogenes-lamp.info/2012/09/jsawyeresp-v51.html
Gun Runners’ Arsenal Merged
Created by slippyguy, this mod integrates Gun Runners’ Arsenal into the game better by removing the GRA tags, changing weapon mods to work with vanilla weapons, and removing GRA versions of vanilla weapons from the game. This combined with Rewarding Exploring makes the dlc feel more like it’s part of the game.