trashgarbage666 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Killing Malcolm Holmes doesn't lower your Karma, despite him being Very Good. I've looked through everything he's involved in, the result scripts for his AI packages, his dialogue, his actor effects tab, the quest script for Legend of the Star, everything, and still no answers. I could easily give him an OnDeath script that checks if you're his killer and punishes you appropriately, and that's probably what I will do, but then I wouldn't learn what's causing the problem. Anyone have any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dubiousintent Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Suspect it's intentional: a morality "freebie" for the first timers who are desperate for anything in the beginning. Sets the "moral tone" of their character, suckering them into "bad karma" behavior the next time as a result of the apparent lack of consequence. After all, he only shows up after you collect two "star caps", so killing him and being informed you have taken a karma hit immediately invites a "reload and try differently" approach, whereas a lack of consequences seduces the player into "trespassing" and "stealing" without the blatant warning until they are into it deeply. Malcom's role is to introduce the player to the quest (period). It's not like karma is an effective punishment in this game. -Dubious- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trashgarbage666 Posted February 4, 2020 Author Share Posted February 4, 2020 Oh, I completely agree. They're intentionally baiting you into robbing or killing Malcolm, encouraging you to consider your character's morality early on -- which I like! But because killing him really is a moral freebie, to me, it muddies the theme a little. In the mod I'm making, there are no karmic rewards for killing evil people, and killing Good and Very Good people nets you -250 and -500 karma respectively. And since karma titles serve no function, they default into a sort of record of your actions up to that point. My hope is that these "severe" karma punishments for murder will put you into a certain headspace when you're making decisions. Maybe after taking every advantage the game offers, like killing Malcolm for his caps, you decide to turn over a new leaf and start the long, uphill process of redeeming yourself. Or maybe you're playing a good character who slips up once or twice, you come to the conclusion that you "can't be saved", and decide to turn evil. Of course, most people are probably just going to make whatever choice benefits them the most, and then get upset when they lose karma. But whatever. In either case, I think I'm just going to write that script I mentioned in the original post. But if anyone figures out how the devs made Malcolm a penalty-free kill, I'd still like to know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts