Endless Void said:
I mean, I think almost all the communication systems are on breakdown (as the radios could be found rare outside military bases). So only thing people are getting to communicate is the spread rumors by brahmin caravans from other towns. But how would people in Hub know that I'm the evil-doer in Junktown who killed Killian. I mean, some witnesses might give basic descriptions of what I look like. But how would that affect "my" profile in any way. There's not a f**king way they would know that's me.
Uh...police or soldiers of many sorts have been able to catch criminals before
Cops, and there was communication before the telegraph. Yes, it would take time, but how else do you think word of notorious people was spread? There WAS life before TV, and returning to primitive roots is kind of the point of a post-apocalyptic universe. They did manage to capture cattle rustlers and other thieves before cars were invented, and they didn't even have the advantage of visual communication at all then to convey a description of the individuals.
After all, at the time of Fallout 1, people were surviving despite raiders and other human elements, ever since the Great War 80 years before.
In Arcanum there were newspapers and telegraphs. So your reputation could went before you to an even farther town. That made the alignment meter more logical.
In Fallout, it stands to reason that if there are caravans, there is an established communications line. There is also radio communication, at least in part, in the Fallout universe. That brings up the point as to whether they talked regularly to each other, the parts to build the items, and the ability to power them. If someone started wildly murdering people, then perhaps an emergency message or warning would be sent out.
But in FO really, just like PsychoSniper said, how would people know that you killed an innocent person on a random encounter... This also makes the "taking of Childkiller Karma on a random encounter" illogical...
Agreed. Unless there were survivors that could prove that you did the crime, nobody should be the wiser to what you have done.
A good take on Choice and Consequences; as what cannot be traced back to you, who cares? It brings up another facet that Fo2 started to touch upon. Local, public reputations are one thing, how good of a person you really are (Karma, and killing a child in a random encounter
would count) should be a factor in deciding some other effects. Nobody would publicly know that you have killed children, but there would be something about you that someone with high perception or conversation skills wouldn't like.
Or maybe you could come across a certain way to someone who can recognize the look of a hard killer in your eye, or someone who is scoundrel enough to dig up the dead, and who would then offer you different opportunities than were available before.
