Scav karma rewarding good behavior is better than punishing people for playing.

May 21, 2021

I doubt my opinion will matter but I figure I would put it out here. Scav karma as it is currently expected to work is a bad idea.

I don't think any gameplay mechanics like gun jams should be tied to karma. There is already so much rng in tarkov and at the end of the day now people will have to hesitate more which means if you have loot worth anything you are more likely to die because you tried to play like a good boy or you try to defend yourself and get punished. How will BSG make it so you can defend yourself from a hostile player scav who starts shooting at you but doesn't land a hit? Now you are punished for being ambushed by a bad player and then simply acting in self defense. This is on top of gun jams making no sense because of muh karma. Gun jams should only be tied to weapon condition.

Instead of adding karma with punishments based around the mechanics under the players control there should be rewards for being good. I do think the boss change is good and that should stay where as long as you wouldn't be negative karma the bosses should be non-hostile. My idea for the karma system would work on a +15 to -15 system and basically reward you with a care package everyday from fence or something like that. If you have positive karma you get better rewards and more rewards from karma 1-10 and from 10-15 is just a buffer. The rewards shouldn't be over powered but maybe something like chainlets, an ak with a grip and red dot, svd no attachments, basically nothing over powered for guns but if you have 10 karma you get an ok weapon every day. There would be a few trade goods or some ok ammo or something mixed in too basically just a small assortment of items. To gain karma you have to survive raids as a scav and every raid you survive with no scav kills gives +0.2 karma and you would recieve an extra bonus of +0.3 for using PMC+scav extracts that's +0.5 total karma if you escape with a pmc. I think as long as you have at least +2 karma then scav bosses should remain non-hostile. Killing a player scav should not reduce karma because there is no way for the game to actually know what players are doing and what could be self defense. Killing a regular scav should be -0.1, killing a scav boss should be -4.0 karma, killing a raider should be -1.5 karma.

Lastly with this system it could affect trader prices when PMC karma exists but maybe your scav karma could affect fence prices by + or - 1% per karma point so if you are the best good boy scav you get 15% cheaper items from fence but if you just kos everything as a scav you have prices from fence that are 15% higher.

I do not think more rng in gunplay is a good idea in tarkov and as it is I think gun jams at all in game are not really a good feature because there are so many things that can go wrong in the game already but ffs please do not start adding the hand of god karma system to push us down for playing an fps that is already very easy to die in. Players will always play as fast, efficient, careful, or wild as they choose because it is a game. In a game people play how it suits them best because we do not lose our life only the items and time we invest and because of that we rarely play like it is real life. Trying to implement game systems to change the way people play that add rng to the game because they didn't play the way someone else envisioned isn't cool. At least make things consistent if you want to change gameplay like adding momentum to the movement system. I may not be a big supported of adding momentum to the movement system but at least I will always move that way and can learn to change based on that unlike with hoping everyone else will not betray me.

1.5k · May 21, 2021

"Karma" is stupid. What "karma" should really be is "reputation".

No magic "you did bad, so now God will punish you lmao". Instead there should be realistic consequences. If you're known in the "scav world" as someone who ruthlessly kills anyone they meet, then they'll be more likely to do the same towards you. If you're known instead to avoid needless murder, you will be looked at less often as a hostile.

Magic "karma" that makes "God" have your weapon jam even though you cleaned and maintained it better than anyone else is pure bullshit.

May 21, 2021

I still think bounties are a good idea.

If a 'bad' scav joins the game every player is alerted with an image of them and gets a bounty for killing them.

At least, that could be something that BSG can work towards as more unique player models are added.

Players should not be punished for attacking a player with with a bounty on them.

Edited May 21, 2021 by jockmcplop

May 21, 2021

Scav karma isn’t what I’m worried about. It’s the planned PMC karma that truly sounds like a awful idea.

May 21, 2021

Karma as a whole sounds unappealing in every way. What a shame.

1.5k · May 22, 2021

10 hours ago, Overkill_Reaper said:

Scav karma isn’t what I’m worried about. It’s the planned PMC karma that truly sounds like a awful idea.

PMC karma wont work. I'm on the east coast of the US. 99% of the players play as USEC. I never run into Bears. Just like I'm sure in Russia most of the players play as a Bear and rarely run into a USEC. So how the hell is karma going to work if the only pmc's you run into are in your faction.

May 24, 2021

Personally I think they should add it for scav immediately. Something needs to be done to stop all these players that are scaving in only to waste time and ruin another player's day. I literally just played a scav and was shot with 1 minute left on the timer trying to jump the fence by new gas on customs to make it to my extract at warehouse 4. The other player scav obviously did not want to actually get out with any loot as he shot me from the armored truck on the road and wouldn't have had time to even dump his gear, grab mine and make it to the extract. As to the PMC karma, just make it so that if you tk a teammate it goes against your karma. That would help with dishonest randoms that shoot you to take your gear.