» Sun Feb 28, 2010 12:37 pm
Sadly, the Karma meter cannot possibly monitor your motives. Did you kill that fiend because you want to make the wastes a safer place? Good karma. Or did you kill him to steal his drugs and guns?
How about the Coyotes roaming around, especially the ones with pups? Even though they show red on your radar, they actually won't attack unless you get close. Even then they'll just growl first. If you kill tem, did you kill them because you were hungry and needed the meat? Or because you were hungry for XP? Or because you're an evil jerk who kick puppies for fun? No karma loss, regardless.
How about killing someone in cold blood (no karma loss) loot their dead body (no karma loss) and take the piece of scrap metal they used to own, back when they still had a head (negative karma, YOU EVIL JERK)
When the game can figure all that out, the Karma meter will mean something. As it stands, I'm almost always in good karma, by doing simple quests and playing normally. I tried to make an evil character once, and I had to get the cannibal perk, just so I could keep the karma down.