Comitting a single, or just the occasional (stealth) murder? karma etc.

[Urban Predator]

Is karma affected when for example, one is wandering close to bunker alpha to stock up on stimpaks and shotgun shells (currently using flechette shells a lot, especially for those moments where one needs a couple of stealthy shooters to crawl down low below line of sight where there are multiple enemies behind say, a counter top, table etc. and then have the gunners pop up and loose off with a pair of double-barreled shotguns loaded with flechette rounds, pretty much guaranteed early on in game to tear the unlucky recipients to something resembling that kind of raspberry jam that has the little whitish pip bits still in it, before ducking down, reloading, if there is anybody left alive then give them the same treatment from near point blank range...result...messily reincarnated enemies left to a new existence as a 'decorative' wall hanging.) but having to stock up by stealing regular shotgun shells. and save the flechette rounds for the buggers that really have it coming and need to be put down fast, hard and permanently. Preferably in the form of a meat jigsaw puzzle)

And karma-wise, well, lets say for example, figured that a single such murder wouldn't screw my entire game, especially early on. One of my current squad (4 members currently) has the awareness perk, and happened to notice that during a civilian random encounter, one of the civilians was packing a neostead combat shotgun, a significant improvement over the pump-action versions, so, sneaking up behind, and staying concealed throughout, had my best stealth squad member creep up behind the civilian in question, set his cattle-prod baton to 'overload' and (I've a significant number of small energy cells already, liberated, along with a load of laser pistols to sell to the base quartermaster, from various brotherhood scribes, elders etc. Figured that since the fourth man in the team, a new recruit, has a decently high skill in energy weapons as well as both the kamikaze and fast-shot traits, he's able to squeeze off a laser pistol round for just 2 AP. Not bad when your up to your arse in radscorpions looking to rip off your face )

And said civilian...they met a very, very messy end, with an 'overload' cattle-prod strike to the eyes, pretty much bursting the poor unfortunate devil like a rotten tomato that just got stepped on by a very large boot. Split in half and plenty red juicy fog. All the time, remaining undetected.

Do such stealth-kills of innocents affect karma? (didn't want to do it, but they had the combat shotgun and it was needed to replace the pump-action variety of the trooper who most often ends up sneaking up close to enemies then charging in like a rampaging rhino, wiping out those close with shotgun blasts and anybody a bit further away with burst fire from her AK-47.)

Bit of a nasty job, but it had to be done. I've less problem with just nicking stuff from the civilians, indeed I'm currently hanging out around bunker alpha, just for that reason, civilian encounters, since they often carry a few stimpaks and goodies like 9mm armor piercing rounds, shotgun shells (question-do the civvies ever carry flechette rounds? love those things for their..ahem...'crowd control'..capacity, leaving multiple piles of human marmalade with extra shreddy bits with every pull of the trigger) but that unfortunate sod with the combat shotgun was carrying it, so pickpocketing it was not possible and they had to die.

 

[Goyito366]

It is not worth killing a civilian just for a combat shotgun, that weapon you get after only some missions, and also is useless to get to the fight with super mutants is a thousand times better to grab heavy weapons that are much better than others weapons, for me they are the best weapons of the game because the last weapon of the heavy weapons is the gauss minigun the most powerful weapon of the game so it is not worth killing it, besides I think that takes away karma although I'm not sure but I assure you that karma does not recover anything as easy as in fallout 2 that you simply pass some missions and here is nothing like it

 

[Urban Predator]

Well at the time, this is a game just starting out, have (including personal starting character) a 4-unit squad, equipped with relatively light weapons, shotguns were limited to pump-action and the beretta silverhawk double-barreled shotty for stealth assaults taking out the outliers where there are a group close by (like rock falls, taking down the last raider leader, where one can go in from the top, after taking out the snipers patrolling the walkways, there being two or three shooters on the outside upper floor walkway, sneak up close, hit them with both barrels before switching to a pistol to finish them off if by chance they are left alive)

Otherwise, best weapons are a laser pistol for the one guy competent with energy weapons, after pinching everything worth pinching from bunker alpha aside from Barnaky's minigun, which is probably un-stealable), filching every last laser pistol from scribes, elders etc. and then selling them back to the quartermaster for some better weapons, ammo etc. along with a few incendiary grenades and bits and pieces), a cattle-prod for those moments where it gets into close quarters and nasty territory, along with AK47 and hunting rifles.

Just finished the first three missions, right now, even a sizeable pack of radscorpions can pose a threat, in any case, reputation hasn't visibly decreased, only killed the one civillian.

Does karma decrease if the kill was done silently, and the team member was never detected and never came out of stealth? because this particular civilian met their unfortunate and rather messy end just that way-stealth approach and overload cattle-prod to the eyes critical hit from behind. Although there IS the matter of somebody lying on the ground in two (ish) pieces surrounded by a spray of human smoothie

At this time, capability for shotgun burst fire, for the close support role is very, very useful. Especially as an alternate weapon for the squad member with kamikaze and fast shot. Since it has no aimed shot role anyway, the ability to get off all the more shots for fewer AP really counts atm, in keeping the team with all their bodyparts in the places they were when they were born.

Surely, even if a stealth-kill of a 'good' NPC does affect karma, a one-off isn't a complete disaster?

 

[Goyito366]

Well at the time, this is a game just starting out, have (including personal starting character) a 4-unit squad, equipped with relatively light weapons, shotguns were limited to pump-action and the beretta silverhawk double-barreled shotty for stealth assaults taking out the outliers where there are a group close by (like rock falls, taking down the last raider leader, where one can go in from the top, after taking out the snipers patrolling the walkways, there being two or three shooters on the outside upper floor walkway, sneak up close, hit them with both barrels before switching to a pistol to finish them off if by chance they are left alive)

Otherwise, best weapons are a laser pistol for the one guy competent with energy weapons, after pinching everything worth pinching from bunker alpha aside from Barnaky's minigun, which is probably un-stealable), filching every last laser pistol from scribes, elders etc. and then selling them back to the quartermaster for some better weapons, ammo etc. along with a few incendiary grenades and bits and pieces), a cattle-prod for those moments where it gets into close quarters and nasty territory, along with AK47 and hunting rifles.

Just finished the first three missions, right now, even a sizeable pack of radscorpions can pose a threat, in any case, reputation hasn't visibly decreased, only killed the one civillian.

Does karma decrease if the kill was done silently, and the team member was never detected and never came out of stealth? because this particular civilian met their unfortunate and rather messy end just that way-stealth approach and overload cattle-prod to the eyes critical hit from behind. Although there IS the matter of somebody lying on the ground in two (ish) pieces surrounded by a spray of human smoothie

At this time, capability for shotgun burst fire, for the close support role is very, very useful. Especially as an alternate weapon for the squad member with kamikaze and fast shot. Since it has no aimed shot role anyway, the ability to get off all the more shots for fewer AP really counts atm, in keeping the team with all their bodyparts in the places they were when they were born.

Surely, even if a stealth-kill of a 'good' NPC does affect karma, a one-off isn't a complete disaster?

 

[Goyito366]

let's see a single one is not a problem even if it does lower karma or not if it is only one will not matter, but just make sure to meet all the objectives of all missions without failing also keep in mind that in the end of the game destroying the brains to be able to advance and destroy the calculator is necessary to destroy them with explosives since what I have seen is what removes more karma from the game leaving it even if it has the high reputation can even get to take away all the karma and leave it negative karma, the other I've seen if it fails some mission objectives it will also take away karma but luckily the karma is recoverable only by not missing any objective