Fallout 3 - Radical karma rework thoughts.

Something that always bugged me about Fallout 3 is that it feels like the designers/writers have only the very vaguest notions of good and evil. The karma system is so arbitrary that it leads me to believe that that is exactly the way the games creators envision morality itself.

The problems aren't just inherent in the way one receives "good" or "bad" karma, but in the minuscule results. This is one of the ways Knights of the Old Republic shines in contrast: taking good or evil paths forces you to play virtually a different game. The biggest impact of karma in Fallout 3 is who you can recruit.

So I'm envisioning a karma revamp mod that does a lot more than modify the values for certain actions. Here are the basics:

• Quests and plotlines, and by extension equipment, will be available or unavailable to you depending on your karma.
• Quests and plotlines involving angelic good or heinous evil won't be available until you've reached extreme degrees of karma at high levels. "Power of the Atom," in particular, will be relocated to the end of the game.
• Karma will be reorganized around not one but two polarities: good vs. evil on the one hand, and random vs. calculating on the other. Senseless, random murder might endear you to raiders and cannibals, but you won't be considered a useful ally to Mr. Burke or the Talon Company unless you exercise some restraint. Similarly, the Regulators take a decidedly less principled approach to "good" than the relatively pragmatic Brotherhood of Steel.
• Basic rules of engagement apply in dialogue and battle. Lying is wrong but desperate circumstances can be extenuating. Stealth attacks and theft will get a "calculating" point, and whether they are evil or morally neutral depends not on the evil/good nature of the target, but on whether the target is a soldier or civilian. Stealth attacks against civilians, even evil ones, are evil.
• In line with this, the range of non-lethal options would have to be expanded.