Help me understand stealing

[-$ilver-]

I understand it is a negative action to steal, even though you can loot dead bodies just fine, even those you just killed as a good karma action, but then can not steal from off their night stand without receiving bad karma... o_O

When you steal from chests and you take all or a few items at a time, are you being "charged" separate bad karma points or only once? If you take 100 bottle caps from a chest for instance, since they are in bulk, do you get 100 bad karma points or only one? And if you stole each individual bottle cap from off a table, all 100 of them, that for sure would give you 100 negative karma points correct?

I know they do not show points in game, but I am curious how the mechanics work if something is worth stealing or not. Thank you.

[Vex Hilarius]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥...

[wicked lester]

Look, you've been pointed at the Fallout wiki 3 or 4 times in the last day or so. It's a gold mine of info. Everything you ask is in there under Karma so maybe stop being so lazy and read something.

[talgaby]

You get a karma hit for every steal action. Initiating pickpocket and opening the screen is one action, opening an owned chest is another one, picking up a world item is also.
This means you get penalised for opening the chest, but not taking the items. You can take as many items as you want from the loot screens. You get penalised for all world items individually though.

[Jack Jester]

Im sure, he needs instructions if he has to go to the toilet

[zaphodikus]

What does not make sense is why it's called stealing, when clearly according to ancient rules it's called spoils of war, some audiences might not get that. How on earth would you get caught, there's seemingly nobody left standing for miles around, is my logic. Just accept it's the rule of the game. The short answer?
Type
player.getav Karma
to get your current karma level.

The only faction you can steal from is one that has you marked as "vilified" apparently, although that's not been my experience yet.

[-$ilver-]

Originally posted by wicked lester:

Look, you've been pointed at the Fallout wiki 3 or 4 times in the last day or so. It's a gold mine of info. Everything you ask is in there under Karma so maybe stop being so lazy and read something.

I've been to the wiki. It did not answer my specific questions, hence why I am here. If you can not actually answer it either, why bother opening your mouth? It's not going to deter me from asking more.

Originally posted by Jack Jester:

Im sure, he needs instructions if he has to go to the toilet

You can go to the toilet in this game too? How!? The wiki did not cover that either...

[-$ilver-]

Originally posted by talgaby:

You get a karma hit for every steal action. Initiating pickpocket and opening the screen is one action, opening an owned chest is another one, picking up a world item is also.
This means you get penalised for opening the chest, but not taking the items. You can take as many items as you want from the loot screens. You get penalised for all world items individually though.

So if I lock pick a box open, I only get negative karma from that? I do not get negative karma from also taking said items from the previously locked box? Or that is extra from each item taken from the previously locked box? The reason why I asked was because there was like 150 caps as I recall in one of the boxes I just opened. I was not sure if it was going to charge me 150 negative karma points for that (If the game counts each individual bottle cap as an item, even though it is stacked in a pile of 150.) or only once, minus the one for obviously opening the box. I understand the bad karma only flashes once, but I am not familiar with the game to know if it just groups it all at once instead of flashing it half a dozen times. If the wiki explained that I must of missed it. But I don't think it did.

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

What does not make sense is why it's called stealing, when clearly according to ancient rules it's called spoils of war, some audiences might not get that. How on earth would you get caught, there's seemingly nobody left standing for miles around, is my logic. Just accept it's the rule of the game. The short answer?
Type
player.getav Karma
to get your current karma level.

The only faction you can steal from is one that has you marked as "vilified" apparently, although that's not been my experience yet.

My thing is you can kill the enemy and gain fame, because these guys were supposedly bad. You can loot their dead corpses with no repercussions. But if you were to take a single pack of cigs from their night stand all of a sudden you are looked at as a bad guy. That is just odd. But if that is how the game plays, that is how it is. I just wanted clarification. Thanks for those that honestly tried to help. Much appreciated.

[MannsOverMeta]

Ok so this was your question:

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

When you steal from chests and you take all or a few items at a time, are you being "charged" separate bad karma points or only once? If you take 100 bottle caps from a chest for instance, since they are in bulk, do you get 100 bad karma points or only one? And if you stole each individual bottle cap from off a table, all 100 of them, that for sure would give you 100 negative karma points correct?

Basically the entirety of your middle paragraph in the original post.

You say this:

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

I've been to the wiki. It did not answer my specific questions, hence why I am here.

Yet in the wiki, it says this:

"Stealing from a non-evil character or faction: -5 Karma per instance (note that when when stealing from owned (red text) containers, such as cabinets or lockers, the Karma change applies once per activation of that container. Meaning, if you open a container once and steal two items, you lose 5 Karma, but if you open the same container twice, stealing one item each time, you will lose 5 Karma each time, which means you lose 10 Karma)."
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Karma_(Fallout:_New_Vegas)
It's in the "Obtaining Karma Points" section, first bullet point in the "Negative section".

hmm

[-$ilver-]

Originally posted by MannsOverMeta:

Ok so this was your question:

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

When you steal from chests and you take all or a few items at a time, are you being "charged" separate bad karma points or only once? If you take 100 bottle caps from a chest for instance, since they are in bulk, do you get 100 bad karma points or only one? And if you stole each individual bottle cap from off a table, all 100 of them, that for sure would give you 100 negative karma points correct?

Basically the entirety of your middle paragraph in the original post.

You say this:

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

I've been to the wiki. It did not answer my specific questions, hence why I am here.

Yet in the wiki, it says this:

"Stealing from a non-evil character or faction: -5 Karma per instance (note that when when stealing from owned (red text) containers, such as cabinets or lockers, the Karma change applies once per activation of that container. Meaning, if you open a container once and steal two items, you lose 5 Karma, but if you open the same container twice, stealing one item each time, you will lose 5 Karma each time, which means you lose 10 Karma)."
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Karma_(Fallout:_New_Vegas)
It's in the "Obtaining Karma Points" section, first bullet point in the "Negative section".

hmm

Interesting, I am not getting any of that. It gives me a very brief intro.

[Karma is the reflection of all good and evil choices you make during the game and how they are perceived by the inhabitants of the wasteland in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout Tactics.

Karma is, philosophically, the principle of cause and effect, with not only the effects of your actions but also your intentions that are taken into account measured in "Karma points". The stronger an intention or action has, the more Karma points you gain or lose.
It is classified by three types: good, neutral, and evil. Players always start a new game with 0 Karma points (neutral Karma). People will behave differently toward you depending on your Karma, and it's also a factor to unlock certain dialogue options or being able to do something specific.

In Fallout, Karma is simply named "general reputation" (but have the same function as Karma in other Fallout games) and reputation titles appeared.
In Fallout 2, what was originally called "general reputation" is renamed to Karma, reputation titles are kept and a new stat called "Reputation" is added, acting as a measurement of how you are perceived in various places.
In Fallout Tactics, reputation titles and reputation are removed, only Karma is kept. Also, a new specific stat called "rank" is added, indicating your rank in the Brotherhood of Steel.
In Fallout 3, although Karma is measured in points, the player never gets to see a numerical karmic value, only the status and the title.
In Fallout: New Vegas, Karma is kept (like Fallout 3, the player never gets to see a numerical karmic value) and reputation returned, and acting now as a measurement of how you are perceived by various factions and towns.
In Fallout 4, Karma is not present but rather an approval rating with companions which works on a similar level.]

[-$ilver-]

omg... There are subsections to these things... My apologies to those who have tried to point me in the right direction. I have honestly tried to look for the info before coming here and asking so many questions, but apparently was only seeing the "general" info and not the full layout, so I was in need of more help and asking here. I even clicked on the New Vegas link and all it did was take me to it's main game page that talked about development history of said game. I was not aware there was more to it than that... Again my apologies and thank you to those who have put up with it.

[zaphodikus]

Each time you open the box, you get a hit, which is kinda fair in terms of real life.

[-$ilver-]

There is no real life karma. Only if you are seen by someone would it make a difference. ^^!

But I get it now. Unlock a box it give you five negative karma points away even if you take nothing. (Opening a box with no lock does nothing.) Take stuff from the now unlocked (or already opened) box and it adds an extra negative five on top of the initial five. Open the box again and nothing happens, because it was already unlocked. Take from the box again however and another five negative karma points are given to you. The interesting thing is, there could be a dozen separate items in the box and you take it all at once, but you are still only being charged the five for opening and the five for the act of taking, it does not matter how much you take at once.

Of course killing an enemy that is considered evil will give you an instant thirty good karma points so you can very quickly gain it all back. ^^!

[wicked lester]

Originally posted by -$ilver-:

omg... There are subsections to these things... :lunar2019deadpanpig: My apologies to those who have tried to point me in the right direction. I have honestly tried to look for the info before coming here and asking so many questions, but apparently was only seeing the "general" info and not the full layout, so I was in need of more help and asking here. I even clicked on the New Vegas link and all it did was take me to it's main game page that talked about development history of said game. I was not aware there was more to it than that... Again my apologies and thank you to those who have put up with it.

Well, as long as you're sorry:

All I did is go to the wiki and search "Karma" and then click the link that came up for New Vegas. That gave me everything you asked for.

You can also learn some cool stuff from just hitting "random page".

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Originally posted by wicked lester:

Look, you've been pointed at the Fallout wiki 3 or 4 times in the last day or so. It's a gold mine of info. Everything you ask is in there under Karma so maybe stop being so lazy and read something.

Look
The wiki ia pretty vague and hard to comprehend on certain things.
Some of us would rather hear from the players who sunk in an insane amount of money.
Why ask a local for directions?
JuSt Go To YoUr LoCaL lIbRaRy

[Fumo Bnnuy n Frends]

Stealing is tricky

First off karma is e masses based on how much you steal. You cannot steal just 100 caps 1 at a time. You can however steal 100 caps, exit, and resteal other items 1 at a time to get karma (like turning in help / asked for items 1 at a time for more fame vs all at once).

You get bad karma for:
-stealing from red txt (default color) containers or storage units.
-this includes pickpocketing people
-also stealing red txt items in the open like a magazine or cigarette
-you get bad karma for opening locked red txt doors and containers
-you get bad karma if you have either cannibal perks and eat people/feral ghouls/super mutants
-you get bad karma if you kill people while detected (your rep still goes down on factions just they don't turn hostile against you if you stealth kill them). Crouch to see if youre hidden, detected, caution (they see one of their own die but don't see you) and danger (you're exposed).
-if you place any items im a red container then loot=stealing
-if you drop any stolen items and grab them it's stealing (had a whole thread asking about the chinese suits but no one really helped as i dropped them they were still red and an NCR person saw me stealing and took both suits with them). Also theres always that one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who goes JuSt UsE cOnSoLe CoMmAnDs

Karma system in-game is really vague. You can see your status (1st button on the pip boy far right screen where it says rep for each faction and press R to swutch screens) but not so much your karma pts. I think theres a limit stopper nor do they keep collecting karma after you gained the max good/bad karma (like you get bad karma 100 X but after like 10 good karma pts you become a true neutral).

in other words you can massacre everyone in a faction or group (cept legion and BoS you dont get good or bad karma just faction infamy) but if you gain good karma by killing say 20 ghouls, the rest of the mojave will still trust you lmao.


Lastly you cannot sell stolen items back to the original owner(s) if it's say in a shop. That and i also think you can't sell to any factiom associated with them.