My Fallout 3 Karma

[Knight Templar]

You might need the correct frame of mind to really enjoy it. You don't enjoy being evil? Then don't be evil, if it doesn't suit you.

I can never play as evil because of that, but I did blow up megaton this play-through. Wonder if it will brake the ending.

 

[Zersy]

Me? I loved being evil, the gore, the slaughter, the torture and wanton destruction fuelled my dark side.

we're still talking about Fallout 3 right ??

Oh most definitely. It was the first game to ever truly bring out the killer in me!

Yes. Now put it back in the box.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA that made my day

 

[Zersy]

Me? I loved being evil, the gore, the slaughter, the torture and wanton destruction fuelled my dark side.

we're still talking about Fallout 3 right ??

Seriously, I haven't had more fun being evil in a game in a long time. Most good/evil games, ten minutes out of the starter area, be it moon base or space base or something, your first big good/evil choice is something small like two thugs picking on a hobo. Do you leap in and help him for the good of it or do you try to extort money afterwards or do you tell him to sod off as it is his own problem?

Meanwhile Fallout 3 puts this moral dilemma to me:
You enter Megaton, a town built round a live atom bomb. The sheriff wants you to disable it for 100 credits, shadowy guy Mr Burke wants you to detonate it from a safe distance for 500 credits. Which would you prefer?

My choice was of course to finish the quests I was given in the town then detonate it. I went back after completing the game to play through with good karma, and disarmed the bomb. Instantly not as satisfying. The house sucks compared to tenpenny tower and saving the town just wasnt as fun or cool.(Nothing quite like seeing a mushroom cloud on the horizon and thinking to yourself, "I did that? Cool."

Perhaps its more a matter of whether or not you like to be evil in games or not. Do your decisions in the game genuinely bother you? Or do you, to paraphrase Michael Caine, just like to watch the virtual world burn?

the reason i didn't like being evil was mianly because i didn't feel that my actions had much of a impact but if i played good then i felt the oppisote although your idea of finishing the quest first does make me wanna think about other ways to be evil

 

[Chilango2]

Honestly, most 'evil' choices in games, even if they are genuinly evil, are a bit.. shallow, in ways that are hard to describe.

Take the Megaton example. The corporate guy wants to pay you to blow the city up.. why? Because its ugly? This is a post nuclear apocalyptic wasteland! *everything* is ugly!

Basically, its cartoon evil.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Ok now i was playing Fallout 3.. enjoyed it ... while i was playing did the average you know find dog meat diffuse the
bomb kill mr burke
the sheriff dies oo and the useal play around with corpes.

but some how my save file gets deleted so i had to start all over again not much of a problem since i only had about 3 or 4 hours of playing time. but the next time i started to play i was smart i made one "good" file and one "evil" file so i decided to see whats it like being evil and ya i basically blow up megaton kill lots of innocent people and steall lots of stuff and you know What ?????


BEING EVIL IS BORING!!!! seriously when i was playing good it was fun i got lots of stuff and was really immersed but when i played evil it just got more and more boring

i really tried to have fun being evil but it never help anyone else got the same thing ??

i skipped the details on purpose so i can ansewer questions (not sure if that makes much sense though)

Um, grammar, dude, grammar....I couldn't understand what the hell you were saying.

 

[maffro]

I understand the Paradise Lane thing.

Spoiler

Morally it's better to commit euthanasia on the inhabitants then leave them at mercy of a demented torturer.

Never ending, immortal torture, robbed of all control over your destiny is basically Hell & (for all intents & purposes) you're the only chance they have of escaping that, properly die-ing & moving onto a proper afterlife.

Anyway if you do it properly & activate the fail-safe, you're not murdering them, the program is.

Even in our times, it's seen as the morally good choice to switch off the life support of someone who's brain dead, and they're not even suffering a horrendously prolonged life & being tormented on a daily basis by a psychopath.

Spoiler

The first point I can understand, the rest is a matter of debate.

Yes, letting Dr. Braun get away with tormenting these poor souls isn't fair. He's a powermad Psychologist who used his influence in the Vault project to get to play God when the apocolypse came.

These individuals were completely unaware of the torment that befell them, and probably spent the majority of the time plodding around in bliss while Braun built up conditions to be right for a vindictive ending. Saying they're essentially in Hell is like saying you're essentially in Hell because you might get a splinter now and then. These guys can't even remember what happened to them.

Saying activating the failsafe that kills them is the program that does it and not you is like saying pulling the trigger at a gun already pointing at someone's head is having the gun kill them and not you. Setting in motion the actions that kill people, having read ahead of time in the very console that kills them that the failsafe would, should have clarified that you chose to kill them just as wantonly as if you strangled them yourself.

These people aren't brain dead, their brains were very much alive, so that example doesn't work. It's sort of the other way around - it's not their brains that are dead, it's their bodies, which are too old to survive outside the pod anymore. Saying you should kill somebody because their body doesn't allow them to survive in reality is sort of like saying you should kill somebody because they're doomed to age anyway.

If it were a viable option, I'd see about talking Dr. Braun into creating a beneficial scenario. Failing that, disconnect his pod or reprogram the VR or something. Either option provided by Fallout 3's Paradise Lane scenario is not morally perfect by any means.

Spoiler

Now, here's the thing. They ARE aware. In a sense. Although they think they're not.
When you're outside the pods, read every last status report on the people inside. Apart from your Father and Braun, they're all at a level of critical or extreme stress. The time they've been in cannot be blamed as Braun is fine, so the only conclusion is that somehow the events they suffer are causing them intense stress.

 

[Riicek]

I agree with a lot of people here. I haven't enjoyed being evil in a game in a long time. A lot of games with morality themes I end up playing the good guy because it seems to progress the story along in a more cohesive way. But Fallout 3 I wasn't even trying to take the evil route and my karma is way, way evil. And I've just been doing what I want. I steal everything, slaughter most everyone who I don't see as necessary to my goals. At one point I was approached by some slavers in the wasteland who asked me to help find some of their escaped slaves. I found them, then murdered both the slaves and the slavers.

Yesterday Jericho and I waltzed into Paradise Falls and murdered every living soul in town. Jericho didn't make it, and I got a load of good karma for killing all those guys, but it was all done with malicious intent. And it definitely wasn't enough good karma to bring my to the "light side".

 

[geldonyetich]

Spoiler

Now, here's the thing. They ARE aware. In a sense. Although they think they're not.
When you're outside the pods, read every last status report on the people inside. Apart from your Father and Braun, they're all at a level of critical or extreme stress. The time they've been in cannot be blamed as Braun is fine, so the only conclusion is that somehow the events they suffer are causing them intense stress.

Spoiler

So, what you're saying is, if somebody is extremely stressed it's good karma to unleash a failsafe program that simulates a Chinese commando invasion to kill them all off because it's better that than deal with an unidentified subconscious feeling somebody is dangling you as their personal plaything?

If so, upper management had better start shopping for replacements.

 

[Conqueror Kenny]

Perhaps its more a matter of whether or not you like to be evil in games or not. Do your decisions in the game genuinely bother you? Or do you, to paraphrase Michael Caine, just like to watch the virtual world burn?

I felt the fire inside, and it burned with a righteous fury. The screams were to be heard, and the blood was to be spilled. The world crumbled beneath the blade, the fist and the iron will of my eternal evil. The bodies littered the world, and all was good. Not a sound was to be heard, nor a sight to be seen after I cleansed humanity of all things good or evil.

The purging was glorious, and the dreams vivid. It begun, and there was a ripple throughout the world. I came, I saw, and I most definitely.... destroyed.

Do.... Do I have a problem?

Yes, the only cure is a bullet to the brain.

 

[Zersy]

Ok now i was playing Fallout 3.. enjoyed it ... while i was playing did the average you know find dog meat diffuse the
bomb kill mr burke
the sheriff dies oo and the useal play around with corpes.

but some how my save file gets deleted so i had to start all over again not much of a problem since i only had about 3 or 4 hours of playing time. but the next time i started to play i was smart i made one "good" file and one "evil" file so i decided to see whats it like being evil and ya i basically blow up megaton kill lots of innocent people and steall lots of stuff and you know What ?????


BEING EVIL IS BORING!!!! seriously when i was playing good it was fun i got lots of stuff and was really immersed but when i played evil it just got more and more boring

i really tried to have fun being evil but it never help anyone else got the same thing ??

i skipped the details on purpose so i can ansewer questions (not sure if that makes much sense though)

Um, grammar, dude, grammar....I couldn't understand what the hell you were saying.

hmmm get your eyes checked just in case

 

[maffro]

Spoiler

Now, here's the thing. They ARE aware. In a sense. Although they think they're not.
When you're outside the pods, read every last status report on the people inside. Apart from your Father and Braun, they're all at a level of critical or extreme stress. The time they've been in cannot be blamed as Braun is fine, so the only conclusion is that somehow the events they suffer are causing them intense stress.

Spoiler

So, what you're saying is, if somebody is extremely stressed it's good karma to unleash a failsafe program that simulates a Chinese commando invasion to kill them all off because it's better that than deal with an unidentified subconscious feeling somebody is dangling you as their personal plaything?

If so, upper management had better start shopping for replacements.

I feel this is slightly unfair. It's all a matter of opinion, and personal morality.

The people in the pods are essentially infants, they are able to comprehend the pain they experience, yet they are unable to recall it afterwards. The one woman (forgotten her name) who has a vague semlance of recollection feels that they are in hell. It's the equivalent to beating an amnesiac. If you were to witness it, you would certainly awknowledge that the act was unacceptable and must be stopped. Within the context of the pods the Failsafe was the only way to ensure that it was.

But let's be honest for a second. Simulating a Chinese Commando Invasion is ALWAYS the right solution, and no-one shall convince me otherwise.

 

[Solytus]

Personally, I have a pretty moral conscience, so I always stick to good characters when i can, but at one point, I had to switch to evil on a pretty high level character (It involves an accident involving a ripper and Megaton, don't ask), and I have to say, while being good was a far more involving experience, being evil was more instant gratification fun. From killing everything and stealing anything that wasn't welded and nailed down, I amassed and absolutely unbalanced amount of weapons, money, armor, items, and ammo, and well, that was just plain fun to mess around with. [My conscience won out in the end tho, and I went back to a different, good character ]

 

[pantsoffdanceoff]

I played as a good character to put some challenge in the game, even when you crank up the difficulty, if your evil the game is a breeze. It's really quite difficult considering the Merchants only have 100 caps ever.

 

[TopHatTim]

well i was good till about 1/2 way through the game. and when i finally got pissed off at how you do something good you get 1 karma then when you do something bad you get -5 karma...i just said "fuck this" and went evil...and it was fucking awesome you get better weapons faster, better armor and things like free schematics so i was unstopable.

 

[Bored Tomatoe]

Me? I loved being evil, the gore, the slaughter, the torture and wanton destruction fuelled my dark side.

we're still talking about Fallout 3 right ??

Oh most definitely. It was the first game to ever truly bring out the killer in me!

Yes. Now put it back in the box.

No! Let the hatred consume you Carl!! Give in to the dark side!!
In any RPG with choices, I always play a psychopathic, heartless, puppy strangling bastard.

 

[Amarand]

I played as a good character to put some challenge in the game, even when you crank up the difficulty, if your evil the game is a breeze. It's really quite difficult considering the Merchants only have 100 caps ever.

100 caps ever? Well, I mean, if you kill them right out of the gate, I guess? One of the benefits of being a good player is that you help infuse the overall economy with the stuff you find while you're out searching. I'm currently a level 17 "Paragon", am extremely careful with my ammo expenditure (lots of VATS usage versus run and gun - sneak, keeping weapons repaired, sniper), have well over 12,000 caps, thousands of rounds of each major small arms weapon type (5.56mm and .308 cal are my favorites - although I do use the 10mm for radroaches) and only become seriously injured when I get stupid. I find it hard to play evil characters because I have actual empathy for the "Good Fight" side in any RPG game. It's hard to like people who enslave and murder people randomly without cause. I guess that's the whole point of a role playing game - to role play - but if I had to choose between practicing being good, and practicing being evil, I'd probably choose the latter. Finding caps (regardless of your alignment) is as simple as searching every container, picking up every item you find, and selling those items to as many different merchants as you can find (and there are a lot of them!) - not to mention things like the Pre-War Books, Quantum and other game collectibles. Heck, I don't even have the perk where I find more caps in containers - although I do have the one where you find more ammo. I can imagine, if you choose to kill off as many people as you can, that limits your options overall. I can tell you that all of my merchants, which I frequently run down close to zero caps on my selling runs, will always get more money and goods over time. Killing them clearly stops this cycle for the merchants you kill.

well i was good till about 1/2 way through the game. and when i finally got pissed off at how you do something good you get 1 karma then when you do something bad you get -5 karma...i just said "fuck this" and went evil...and it was fucking awesome you get better weapons faster, better armor and things like free schematics so i was unstopable.

Ahh, okay, so there's obviously there's a ledger behind the scenes, but is there a documented list of good and bad karma events? If I go outside and give a bottle of purified water to a sick homeless guy, do I get +5 karma? Do I get the same each time? If I then go in and pick Lucas Simms house to take his strength bobblehead, how many points do I lose? Do people treat me lesser than? Lucas calls me "friend," will he be less cordial? Anyone have any experience with this?

As an aside, I'm also surprised that this thread died back in December. Am I the only one still playing this game in February?

 

[Yegargeburble]

Perhaps its more a matter of whether or not you like to be evil in games or not. Do your decisions in the game genuinely bother you? Or do you, to paraphrase Michael Caine, just like to watch the virtual world burn?

I felt the fire inside, and it burned with a righteous fury. The screams were to be heard, and the blood was to be spilled. The world crumbled beneath the blade, the fist and the iron will of my eternal evil. The bodies littered the world, and all was good. Not a sound was to be heard, nor a sight to be seen after I cleansed humanity of all things good or evil.

The purging was glorious, and the dreams vivid. It begun, and there was a ripple throughout the world. I came, I saw, and I most definitely.... destroyed.

Do.... Do I have a problem?

You may have a problem, but I don't think it is something you should fix.

 

[MoganFreeman]

I played good to lvl 20. Fawkes is an awesome companion. Plus it feels like the all the good options one can pick in a quest add more of a challenge to the overall gameplay.

Of course it is. Doing the right thing is doing the hard thing nine times out of ten.

 

[TopHatTim]

I played as a good character to put some challenge in the game, even when you crank up the difficulty, if your evil the game is a breeze. It's really quite difficult considering the Merchants only have 100 caps ever.

100 caps ever? Well, I mean, if you kill them right out of the gate, I guess? One of the benefits of being a good player is that you help infuse the overall economy with the stuff you find while you're out searching. I'm currently a level 17 "Paragon", am extremely careful with my ammo expenditure (lots of VATS usage versus run and gun - sneak, keeping weapons repaired, sniper), have well over 12,000 caps, thousands of rounds of each major small arms weapon type (5.56mm and .308 cal are my favorites - although I do use the 10mm for radroaches) and only become seriously injured when I get stupid. I find it hard to play evil characters because I have actual empathy for the "Good Fight" side in any RPG game. It's hard to like people who enslave and murder people randomly without cause. I guess that's the whole point of a role playing game - to role play - but if I had to choose between practicing being good, and practicing being evil, I'd probably choose the latter. Finding caps (regardless of your alignment) is as simple as searching every container, picking up every item you find, and selling those items to as many different merchants as you can find (and there are a lot of them!) - not to mention things like the Pre-War Books, Quantum and other game collectibles. Heck, I don't even have the perk where I find more caps in containers - although I do have the one where you find more ammo. I can imagine, if you choose to kill off as many people as you can, that limits your options overall. I can tell you that all of my merchants, which I frequently run down close to zero caps on my selling runs, will always get more money and goods over time. Killing them clearly stops this cycle for the merchants you kill.

well i was good till about 1/2 way through the game. and when i finally got pissed off at how you do something good you get 1 karma then when you do something bad you get -5 karma...i just said "fuck this" and went evil...and it was fucking awesome you get better weapons faster, better armor and things like free schematics so i was unstopable.

Ahh, okay, so there's obviously there's a ledger behind the scenes, but is there a documented list of good and bad karma events? If I go outside and give a bottle of purified water to a sick homeless guy, do I get +5 karma? Do I get the same each time? If I then go in and pick Lucas Simms house to take his strength bobblehead, how many points do I lose? Do people treat me lesser than? Lucas calls me "friend," will he be less cordial? Anyone have any experience with this?

As an aside, I'm also surprised that this thread died back in December. Am I the only one still playing this game in February?

Well i helped the ghouls with the tenpenny tower. i got around +3 karma. i went a stole a fucking bottle of water. negative 5 karma. thats why i went bad. it was too hard untill you got the sheriff perk that allows you to take the fingers of evil characters then i became neutral.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I can never bring myself to take the evil murderous path, I just feel too damn bad. I even felt bad for killing the raider merchant to get the Terrible Shotgun.. ok so he was an evil raping pillaging ************ but he was kinda friendly to me...

Although for some reason the freeform quests where you can make kids cry are all a hoot to me... I relished bullying princess and telling that scut in rivet city his mum was a filthy drunk. So maybe I'm secretly just as evil as everyone else

By the way it is easy to load up on caps and equipment if you have a good character. Just put points into your repair skill and you'll be cleaning out the merchants in no time with your raider armour and radscorpion glands. My character is level 20 with very good karma, 33000 caps and around 500 stimpaks.