I'm also having a good time in survival, although I am not playing iron man mode by any stretch of the imagination. I also installed the mod that enables saving, because damn it, I don't want to go to bed until I'm tired! So I just save when in sight of a bed, or in a safe area, or if real life interrupts.
I do wish the respawning was a little faster, or there were more wandering enemies, because I've really cleared out the outdoor areas around Diamond City and the surrounding locales, so it gets a little tedious walking between quest areas. I suppose if it starts to annoy me enough I'll just get another mod to fix it and invent some house rules to make it not too silly. Why can't we just have morrowind style fast travel for hire? Or ideally, fast travel where you can get interrupted and thrown into combat on the way.
My character is level 30, running around with the two shot combat rifle from
. It's a bit powerful though...
I also have a nice decked out combat shotgun with a silencer, good for clearing interiors semi-stealthily. Early on I realized that in survival mode, you want to always have a shotgun, because they help so much against the fast bugs and ghouls that kill you so fast early on. Too bad shells are so heavy...
I'm actually considering taking strong back, which I've never done before, but carry weight is at a premium now. It's not like I'm going to
stop hoarding or something crazy...