Option to Disable Karma in the City and Any Punishment Related to Ghosts

[Bill Bearusu]

I know the karma system is still just an idea, which will be complemented by the arrival of ghosts. However, based on the description we have so far, I really don’t want to have to deal with this feature.

I think the idea of having ghosts is cool, but will they all exist only because the person was bad in life? I don’t like this concept. Also, if you don’t resolve these ghosts' issues, the city will eventually have no living Zois left, only ghosts, turning it into a ghost town—this sounds like frustration to me.

From what has been implemented so far, the system is extremely annoying; we have to micro-manage multiple families just to keep this meter positive. I think micro-managing families makes the game boring and overly repetitive. This option should be entirely optional (or maybe not even exist at all).

I have much more fun managing Zois that I actually like and care about—those I created, decided to control, and evolve their stories. Meanwhile, for the rest of the city, I want them to be alive and autonomous. They can be good or bad, but they shouldn’t interfere with my story or force me to control them just to keep my gameplay enjoyable.

I don’t like extremes—I don’t want a completely evil city, but I also don’t want a perfect and shiny one. Balance is the best approach, along with a system that doesn’t force you to do what you don’t want to.

[mirta000]

I don't think that on normal settings your town will ever turn into a full ghost town, even if you're not managing it (my town is on normal settings, I have like 20% negative zois, 70% normal zois and 10% positive zois and I'm not managing them).

If your actions are starting to fall into too negative of a town, fiddle with the zoi goodness setting at like 5% at a time, see what percentage is the town at a comfortable balance without it turning into a complete utopia.

As for ghosts only existing from bad people, I imagine it is a cultural difference and I doubt that will change.

[Tantalus]

I can't remember where I found it exactly, but there are settings for your city where you can adjust how often bad karma actions happen vs good karma actions, how many Zois are in your city, how many relationships form, how many friendships form, crime rate, health rate, cleanliness, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

By default, almost all of it is set to medium. So, if you tweak the positive karma setting up one tick and the negative karma down one tick, that might create a self-balancing city so you don't have to do daily interventions and such.

[Bill Bearusu]

Originally posted by mirta000:

I don't think that on normal settings your town will ever turn into a full ghost town, even if you're not managing it (my town is on normal settings, I have like 20% negative zois, 70% normal zois and 10% positive zois and I'm not managing them).

If your actions are starting to fall into too negative of a town, fiddle with the zoi goodness setting at like 5% at a time, see what percentage is the town at a comfortable balance without it turning into a complete utopia.

As for ghosts only existing from bad people, I imagine it is a cultural difference and I doubt that will change.

My city is on alert, extremely negative. The karma action bars are 50/50 for good or bad, but it seems like my entire city loves being mean. I was literally walking down the street, and a guy raised his hand at my Zoi—it was weird.

Anyway, my feedback is to make this optional or ensure it doesn't impact my Zois' daily life so drastically.

[mirta000]

Originally posted by Bill Bearusu:

My city is on alert, extremely negative. The karma action bars are 50/50 for good or bad, but it seems like my entire city loves being mean. I was literally walking down the street, and a guy raised his hand at my Zoi—it was weird.

Anyway, my feedback is to make this optional or ensure it doesn't impact my Zois' daily life so drastically.

Fiddle with that setting.

Consider 100% Utopian setting as karma being entirely off.

[Rabble]

remember people, farting silently is a sin.

[Ericsbane]

Use the sliders.

[Bill Bearusu]

Originally posted by Ericsbane:

Use the sliders.

Guys, my feedback is based on game knowledge. I'm not just saying something based on guesswork—I tested the feature, I used the sliders, and even with the positive karma slider at max and the negative one at minimum, after 5 in-game days, the karma was still negative. I don't know if it's a bug, but I don't like the system. I gave the same feedback in the Discord group, and people understood my point better there.

I'm not saying to remove the mechanic. If you like it, that's fine. If it works for you, great! But this is my feedback based on my gameplay.