Karmic Balance - Karma Consequences

Karmic Balance

Requirements:

JIP NVSE Plugin

Description

The karma system in New Vegas is lacklustre—even the help screen tells you it means nothing. This mod aims to change that by adding consequences to your karma alignment, in the form of karma-specific perks and Fallout 3-style hit squads. I recommend you use this mod alongside a mod which corrects the game's karma distribution. My mod, JSawyer Ultimate Edition, is the most comprehensive in my opinion but I'm sure there are other alternatives.

My intention is for this mod to fit in seamlessly with the vanilla game. I've gone for a Vegas/Wild West theme, but the writing is ambiguous enough to still be relevant to the Capital Wasteland if you're using Tale of Two Wastelands (in which case no patch is required).

With this mod, you will be awarded perks depending on your karma level, starting from level 2. There are five different perks, one for each of the alignments: neutral, good, evil, very good, very evil. The good and evil spectrum perks are cumulative - so being very good nets you the good and very good perks, for example. The first time you receive a perk, a message box will display telling you of its effects; after that you will receive un-intrusive corner messages to notify you which perks are gained and lost. The Perks are:

• []Neutral: "Drifter" - bonus movement speed and reduced weapon spread;

  []Good: "Protector" - bonus to Speech and Barter, large discount on small items from merchants;

  []Very Good: "Lawman" - bonus to damage resistance, slowly lose infamy if you're the friend of a faction;

  []Evil: "Desperado" - chance of additional money on civilians you kill;

• Very Evil: "Crimelord" - damage bonus and moderate discount from merchants.

  One interesting feature of the "Lawman" perk is that you now have a route to redemption with the Mojave's major factions. Previously, there was no way to remove infamy except in a few scripted instances (such as Vulpes' invitation or paying off James Garrett), meaning you could be permanently locked out of some aspects of gameplay. Now if you want to work your way back into a faction's good books, you can simply maintain a very good karma alignment and they'll slowly forget about that time you accidentally capped one of their guys.

  Much like in Fallout 3, straying from neutral gains the attention of certain parties. They will only attack after level 4, and you will receive a notificati