As the title says this is about the karma system in NV ans (at least for me) the difficulties of staying good. Now in FO3 I was always very good karna but now in NV, im level 8 with neutral karma and im trying to be good. Is anybody else finding it hard to get good karma?

Its extremely easy to keep your karma high just kill Fiends, and Powder Gangers then the good karma points should be rolling in.

There's a lot of quests that give good karma for doing them the 'good' way. You probably haven't encountered many of them yet or something. Plus, yeah, the way the game is designed, certain groups give good karma for killing them, regardless of what roleplaying attitude you may try to do with them.

But if you don't like killing wantonly for karma all the time, it's the quests and ... er ... well, don't steal a lot. Some is no big deal, but if you steal everything in sight, you gotta make up for it somewhere. Me, I don't steal anything that isn't vital (like skill books or quest/unique items). There's little need to steal a stimpack, cans of beans, and a tire iron out of someone's shack, for instance.

Your having a hard time BEING Good?

I have a hard time being neutral and evil!

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

I think that karma is kind of arbitrary anyway. Even in F3 it was just a marker showing your alignment respective to other characters, rather than anything tangible and useful. In FNV karma matters even less, its all about faction reputation, which is a big improvement. I notice that very few of my actions in FNV actually affect karma balance, in fact I'm not even sure of checking what it is. It just doesn't seem like the most important thing anymore. :shrug:

I still steal stuff, though.

I know, its weird, but I guess the combination of being a stealthy thief character and trying to be good doesnt go well together. And i havent gotten to far in the game yet

The only thing I notice re: Karma is it seems to dictate what title you have. eg "Paragon of Selflessness" or whatever. But yeah, I don't think that affects anything, or if it does, it's something so minor as to not matter.

And I steal, I just don't steal a lot. Even without stealing (and no gambling either), by mid-game I'm rolling in enough caps to do everything I want, anyway. Most of the time there's nothing good to steal anyway, it's just more junk.

You mean your reputation? I'm still figuring this out but when you do something for a faction, say the Boomers, it flashes up on the screen 1/5. Then the next thing is 2/5. I think your reputation progresses to Idolized when you reach 5/5? Is this right...can anyone else clear this up?

And if you meant Karma, where do you see a rating for that? Am I missing this?

Added: Oh, you mean that rating above Messiah that says "Very Good." my bad.

Its kinda stupid, you loose karma for stealing from the legion.
Karma dosnt really mater in Fallout NV anyway, its factions reputation that you have to watch

Honestly, if you're trying to be good, it isn't hard, it's littered all over. Do a few charitable things, when a quest presents an option saying you dont need a reward, boom, good karma. Kill a few fiends and ghouls, boom, good karma.

Ghouls, the ammount of times my evil, selfish, horrible, disgusting morally and ethically loathsome characters have become saints by defending themselves from ghouls ughhh.

Level eight? you should be just by the Mojave outpost if at that level, if this is your first playthrough, head north to the police station then west a bunch of lowish level ghouls there.
Also powder ganger respawns near Goodsprings, donate to the followers at the mormon fort at later levels, and generally be nice to people.



The 1 -5 mark is just a mini achievment thing, for every 5 quests / achievements you complete you get 80? XP as a reward.

Faction gain is unmarked as far as I can tell, just pop ups occur if enough is gained or lost.

Oh, no. More XP? I try to avoid XP so I don't level too quickly. I'm always seeing the ticker go up and up and up though because Boone and ED-E are out there shooting things I can't even see. Thank you muchly.

Me too.

The irony is so satisfying.

Come back later when you want to be evil.

I agree, I don't think it should be considered stealing if they are your enemy. The Legion and the Powder Gangers hate me, I get "good" karma for killing them, yet loose karma if I take their Brahmin steak after killing off the camp? It makes no sense. Also, I think it is dumb that it is still considered stealing from a NPC if that NPC is dead. For example, I had Boone kill Jeannie May, yet if I go to her home, it is still considered stealing. Does anyone else find this dumb?

I looted her house after Boone killed her, too. Though taking her stuff in true D&D fashion ("kill 'em and take their stuff") was listed as stealing, I don't believe I lost any Karma doing it. Don't forget to snag the caps stash in the fridge.

I think it's because from what I've gathered it is karmically bad to steal things hence why you loose karma for stealing regardless of from whom you have stolen. Basically what I think they have done with karma is actions such as stealing, 'breaking' into someone's house/safe/terminal are deemed to be 'bad'. Although Killing depending on who you kill can either be good, bad or neutral due I think to how the person/ghoul you have just killed has acted, if they were basically akin to a homicidal maniac (aka Fiend or Feral Ghoul) then you would gain karma for making the wastes slightly safer for everyone else, if they were a generous spirit (I think likes of a Follower of the Apocalypse) then that would (I think, not having killed any of them myself yet) loose karma by making the wastes slightly harsher for everyone else.

Taking/utilizing gear from enemies after defeating an enemy camp is spoils of war. Shouldn't lose karma for it.
Now if I was [censored] & killing unarmed civilians after a battle, or setting fire to the town & farms, that might be something else - depending on one's 'all's fair/anything to win in war' morality - but looting enemies gear, footlockers. tents, and fridges for ammo/gear I might need/could use? No, I don't agree.

I also think it's silly for it to be 'stealing' from a faction's soda machines when I'm Liked/Idolized by them. They should turn 'blue' at that point or something. It's a vending machine, if I'm thirsty I should be able to get a soda by sticking an NCR dollar in there or something. Haha.

Werid. I found NV to be more lenient in terms of morality than F3. In F3 I found myself to be Neutral most of the times and in NV I'm always Very Good.

Karma's just weird, man. Check it out--
My friend's 7 year (yeah, yeah) old loves running around New Vegas killing everything and everybody. Not kidding -- everything & everybody. Jason Vorhees on steroids and Sugar Bombs. He is villified and attacked on sight by every faction except Novac, where he's tolerated.
The kid's karma is Very Good. He's a wasteland messiah.
Crazy.

I did the three-card bounty quest in McCarran. I went from the biggest bastard alive to Jesus Christ incarnate.

Yeah, its stupid that auto-hostile (Fiends, Ghouls, Raiders) give good karma, we cant NOT kill them.

Very true, what is strange though that not all kills give you karma;
It seems single shots and sneak criticals are more likely to do so however.

I just take this as a sign of complete abolishment of the karma meter in NV.
In that it seems to no effect on speech check difficulty unlike FO3 had, but they could not remove it in game completely.


Cass, white glove society and the closing epilogue's seem the few if not only exceptions to karma having zero impact beyond a almost hidden picture screen on the pip boy.

Depending on who produces the next FO or at least the engine it's run on, karma may cease to exist from no on in FO titles.

Wouldn't bother me a bit.

Bwahahahahahhaha!! im an evil SOB, i kill any one and every one dumb enough to talk smack to me or get in my way from my own objectives. Which is often just walking the waste land, some times i get NCR talking smack and i just blow them away, i get powder gangers starting trouble and i blow them away.. But my character "Carmine" Has no human emotions at all, hes just a killer. He was trained that way by the military, however. After being betrayed by his superiors hes out for vengeance, the only thing he doesn't kill is the little kids (Non combatant) plus the game won't allow that anyway, but if you ever watched the movie SOLDIER with kurt russle you would get the general idea about carmine.