Fallout 3: Gathering Good Karma

[thefalloutfan]

Karma and reputation are different. Reputation is how you're perceived in the world by others, karma is what you actually are. So if you stole something, yes your karma should be affected negatively, even if no one saw you, but your reputation should not be affected, since no one saw you.

I wanted karma and reputation to both be implemented in the game, argh.

 

[Ausir]

In Fallout 2, "Karma" was just a fancy name for what was meant to be reputation (even if not implemented perfectly). In Fallout 1, it was *called* reputation. There is no "objective" karma in previous Fallouts.

 

[thefalloutfan]

It feels like writing the same thing in two different places

 

[mandrake776]

In Fallout 2, "Karma" was just a fancy name for what was meant to be reputation (even if not implemented perfectly). In Fallout 1, it was *called* reputation. There is no "objective" karma in previous Fallouts.

Enough things give you good or bad karma that no one should be able to see that it doesn't work well as a reputation stat, which is probably why they renamed it.

 

[Ausir]

Enough things give you good or bad karma that no one should be able to see that it doesn't work well as a reputation stat, which is probably why they renamed it.

It was still meant to be a general reputation with a fancy, tongue-in-cheek name, as evidenced by the in-game description.

 

[Brother None]

Enough things give you good or bad karma that no one should be able to see that it doesn't work well as a reputation stat, which is probably why they renamed it.

Examples?

 

[mandrake776]

Enough things give you good or bad karma that no one should be able to see that it doesn't work well as a reputation stat, which is probably why they renamed it.

Examples?

Grave robbing. Taking the money from the well in Modoc. Obviously killings where people don't know you did it, or leave anyone left alive afterward (this is especially egregious when it gives you positive karma). Blackmailing the doctor in Vault City (obviously, he knows what you're doing but he's not going to tell anyone). Looting the donation box (should be possible to steal from it without anyone noticing). Killing the intelligent deathclaws in Vault 13.

 

[Ausir]

Any examples from Fallout 1?

Obviously killings where people don't know you did it, or leave anyone left alive afterward (this is especially egregious when it gives you positive karma).

Kiling whole towns with no survivors reducing your reputation I don't really have issues with. The town sizes in Fallout games were very much symbollic, with the actual locations often being much bigger, with a population of thousands, than their in-game representation. So you could assume that there might always be some unseen survivors that managed to flee the town and tell others.

 

[mandrake776]

Kiling whole towns with no survivors reducing your reputation I don't really have issues with. The town sizes in Fallout games were very much symbollic, with the actual locations often being much bigger, with a population of thousands, than their in-game representation. So you could assume that there might always be some unseen survivors that managed to flee the town and tell others.

I meant more along the lines of raiders/traveling merchants and assassinations. Killing whole towns should reduce karma based on any system.

 

[Ausir]

So, the only thing from your list that applies to Fallout 1 is killing without being noticed, which was caused more by a technical limitation than anything else. Yes, it was more flawed in Fallout 2, no one here will dispute it.

 

[mandrake776]

So, the only thing from your list that applies to Fallout 1 is killing without being noticed, which was caused more by a technical limitation than anything else. Yes, it was more flawed in Fallout 2, no one here will dispute it.

Not so much, I didn't have time to compile a list of everything, so I started with the game I'm more familiar with.

 

[Ausir]

Aren't you arguing that it was renamed to Karma in Fallout 2 because it didn't work properly as Reputation in Fallout 1 (even thouhg it's still described as reputation in the in-game description)? If so, only Fallout 1 examples are relevant here.

 

[Aero]

This is so stupid. How the hell could that woman know if you lied to him. This is not how Fallout works. In Fallout, you would still get the food sanitizer, but lose some Karma.

Maybe she's smarter and more intuitive so kinda thinks your lying but has no way to prove it. On the other hand Because she has this intuition she like the good non lying character enough to give him/her a little extra something that will help them.

As to the Karma system When I first watched the video and they mentioned the repeatable quest for karma it totally reminded me of Everquest. Now There were a few times in everquest where I killed good characters because they just made me mad or I had to because they attacked first due to an action I did that they didn't like. (IE. Holy Windstalker in Qeynos hills. After killing an animal around her.) You could do faction kills or quests after that to fix the hit you got for killing Holy. I both Like that and dislike it.

I would prefer a faction/reputation/karma system that was based on cities/towns as well.

 

[mandrake776]

Aren't you arguing that it was renamed to Karma in Fallout 2 because it didn't work properly as Reputation in Fallout 1 (even thouhg it's still described as reputation in the in-game description)? If so, only Fallout 1 examples are relevant here.

Well, I haven't looked up the Fallout 1 examples yet, but it seems with the things they made give bad karma, they may have intended to make it a karma score more than a reputation score.

 

[Ausir]

Well, I haven't looked up the Fallout 1 examples yet, but it seems with the things they made give bad karma, they may have intended to make it a karma score more than a reputation score.

Isn't the in-game description of the stat a good reflection of what they intended?

 

[Brother None]

Not if the execution contradicts the description, in which case the intent would probably have changed during development.

But that doesn't seem to be the case.