1st real playthru I maintained entirely high Karma all the way thru level 30. Lots of perks. Curent playthru I'm trying extremely bad Karma. I nuked Megaton, killed Burke, I steal stuff constantly, murder scavers, highjack caravaans, act like a cold hearted jerk to everyone, and I'm finding it pretty hard to act entirely mercenary and still work thru quests. Seems the evil player gets the short end of the stick here and finishing the main quest is going to be a challenge.

Yeah, for a lot of quests it seems like the "evil option" is to refuse the quest entirely. Or just kill everyone and loot the corpses.

I always wanted to join the enclave.

That's not evil. That's psychotic. Evil is a whole another thing. Evil has long-term goals and is very intentional and very planned. It might not always even include karma-wise evil deeds, if its long-term effects might not be fruitful. Evil is manipulative, invisible and egoistic.

Of course it's just my opinion, but an evil character in Fallout 3 should not be a jerk and randomly kill people just for fun. Evil player should remain mainly polite (and cover himself by giving a good image of himself) and shoot random scavengers only if the target actually has something valuable and something the player needs (but can't afford).

Some actions I would do as an evil character:

I completely agree with Pistolero. There's a difference between being evil and being psychotic.

Not really psychotic here. Just self serving. I nuked Megaton to get into Ten Penny. I murdered Burke for his glasses. I raided caravaans during levels 1-3 as a matter of survival. I don't kill people I need.

I have never ever had a problem keeping my karma at -1000. Evil requires creativity which is why I prefer evil karma. Almost every single quest has an evil way to finish it. Of coarse its hard to remain evil if you do quests the good karma way. Why would an evil person do quests the good way anyhow? Unless the rewards are better there is no reason to do it the good way for an evil person. Perhaps you should look for other ways to resolve quests without using the normal/good way of finishing it.

I find it hard because you seem to get better stuff and more caps if you're good. And having decent speech doesn't hurt :3 I found it really difficult staying evil as well, since when you do something good it seems to send your karma soaring, and it seems a lot harder to get it down.

Arachne has no problems maintaining very evil karma ever since she nuked Megaton and she's not really a psycho (most of the time). I just try to complete every quest in the mot selfish way possible and it just works out. She also does plenty of doublecrossing. For example she completed the Replicated Man quest in a way that got her both the perk and the weapon. Or in the Pitt she convinced this guy to give up and leave town (normally the peaceful resolution of the questline), then as he was running for the door she shot him in the back for a sneak attack.

One effective way of maintaining evil karma is enslaving people with the Mesmetron. Every time you enslave someone you get -100 karma, regardless of whether they were good or evil. And you even get paid for it, how cool is that. The only thing you need to be careful about is that most people you enslave will disappear from the game. So it's best not to enslave people you still need (such as traders).

HA! being an "evil" character has got me more wealth 1/2 million caps, power (you name it, I prolly got it), and respect (or is that fear?) then being good ever has.
this is the wastes baby... good gets you a bullit between the eyes. bad put the bullit there..

I don't get people who say Good Karma has all the best rewards. I find plenty of evil karma quests to have better or equal rewards to the good karma routes. For example:

SPOILER WARNING

Power of the Atom: You get a nice apartment in Tenpenny Tower, in a settlement with more shops.

The Replicated Man: You get a perk that increases your action points. I always perfer that over the laser weapon Harkness gives you because I don't like energy weapon combat.

Super Hero Gambit: You get either a unique laser weapon or a unique knife with poison damage.

Tenpenny Tower: The merchants don't get eaten by the ghouls, which is a reward in itself if you live in Tenpenny Tower.

Strictly Business: You get plenty of caps and access to Paradise Falls

POA: Megaton House is bigger! And moira is ten seconds away, useful for Survival Guide.
Replicated Man: I loooove the plasma rifle. :L I think these cancel each other out though, because with increased power you don't NEED as many action points. Skill dependent, ofc.
Super Hero: That's negative? I never noticed XD I've tried both outcomes... I really didn't know it was negative if you kill them. They are [censored] crazy after all.
TPT: Yeah... this one's a real problem for me, because I'd like to let the residents live, BUT I feel so bad for Micheal Masters. Renegade pointed out to me that he's the only ghoul with 'real' eyes, not half blind or anything like that. It breaks my heart even more, for some reason it makes him seem even more human and more intelligent than most humans. :/
Strictly Business: None of my slaves ever make it anyway. Nuke em, I say. :L

You guys know that you can get both the perk, and the plasma rifle from the Replicated Man quest right?

You just made a distinction between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil... =p

Very possible, although I'm not very familiar with the whole Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic Good/Neutral/Evil pattern.


But regardless, I don't consider "Chaotic Evil" evil at all. That is because serial/spree killers don't do evil for the sake of being the bad guy. They do what they do because they are insane and are unable to comprehend the "evilness" of their actions. Sometimes they even feel they're doing the right thing.

Spoiler alert

Well i think it's hard to disctinct evil from psychotic, somtimes they're deviant, but a lot of timre they're also not. I'd probably define my first character as evil, but that was mainly due to the fact i didn't know the karma results of my actions yet. All of my latter characters have been psychotic but rational of nature, they always take the most inhumane decisions but strive for high profits, through the course of numerous characters i have build up a protocol of action that delivers very high rewards yet retains the commitment of the most disgustingly tracherous and violent acts. I for example aid the BoS a long way through the game, up to the point where the purifier comes into play, i help them beat the enclave to the installation, yet insert the FEV to purify the wasteland and order sarah lyons to enter the control chamber, i also get their tesla coil and fight through adams air force base but leave the crawler intact and instead destroy the citadel with an orbital bombardement. These are just a few examples. In the end i simply strive to dominate the wasteland, the pitt and all other regions of Fallout 3 by murdering all bastions of organised resistance to my rule. :nuke: :nuke: :chaos: :nuke: :nuke:
I let the Enclave run freely of course, and the only other institution i leave intact is paradise falls.

I've never tried it, but I was wondering if it's possible to get dad out of the computer simulation if you humor Braun to the end. I tried the Pint-Sized Slasher thing but it was a pain trying to catch all those people when I had those short kid legs. :meh:

Try playing split personalities... Lawful Good one moment, Chaotic Evil the next....

I've never been able to play as an evil character myself...I could never bring myself to do the bad things lol. But Pistolero made a great point and may have just inspired me to go try something...devious.

There are some quests in which I admit I play the bad boy... sort of.

Replicated Man - I reveal the truth to Harkness, get the rifle, get his permission to kill Zimmer, and do just that. AFTER I reveal the truth to Zimmer. Harkness still isn't enslaved, Zimmer's history, and I have the perk and the gun (and they go grrrreat together, especially combined with Sniper, Finesse, Better Criticals, and a Luck of at least 8 (5, plus Ranger Armor, bobblemead, and Timebomb's 8-ball).

Superhuman Gambit - I admit, sometime I let the Mechanist deal with the Antagonizer. How could anyone not like a laser pistol that fires in five directions at once?

Tenpenny Tower - I kill the ghouls. If XP isn't an issue, I just Shady Sands Shuffle Roy and kill his feral friends. The other two aren't much of a threat on their own.

Rescue From Paradise - I'll skip it entirely by using Child at Heart.

Right Wedding - Made Diego break up with Angela.

Our Little Secret - Used the Cannibal Perk to befriend that sick bunch. But I did steal a bunch of strange meat for the Lamplighters...

Strictly Business - I've enslaved Arkansas to get in, then go around enslaving tons of raiders. Ironically, I didn't do much else that was bad during that play-through, so Three-Dog was calling me horrible names like Wasteland Destroyer and Pirate of the Wastes, and in the same breath telling people all the wonderful things I was doing.

I've occasionally done other bad things: sold Bryan to Eulogy, torched the Temple of the Union for the slavers, and even let the ghouls trash Tenpenny Tower. But it's not a habitual thing.