Forum:Evil Character

I've played through the game a few times (just recently finished my first "perfect" character, all 10s on SPECIAL, all 100s on skills), but each time I was good. I decided to play as an evil character. In preparation I put STR and INT to 9, and Charisma to 1. STR to 9 because, obviously, I was planning on blowing up Megaton and had to steal the STR bobblehead before doing so, and INT because of skills.

Some observations/problems about being evil.

1) The Regulators are much weaker than TALON company goons. Same weapons, but much weaker armor. Granted I'm still low level (11), but the Talon guys seem much tougher. As an additional point, usually the TALON armor is the best I have access to until I get Ranger Armor or Power Armor. The Regulators don't drop good armor. As an evil guy of low level the best armor I can get are Combat Armor or Metal Armor, and Metal Armor is rare. The bad thing about Combat Armor is since I'm not getting Talon armor off Talon goons, I have to use Combat Armor to repair, and it's far more rare than I thought. I usually end up wearing Raider armor of some sort because not enough Combat Armor drops to keep it repaired to good condition.

2) Being evil makes it a hassle to complete the Wasteland Survivor Guide. Case in point, Moira moved to Underworld after I nuked Megaton. Generally I don't make it to the Mall area until I finish the Guide as it takes until level 12+ to get good enough skills/weapons to survive in the area (note: I play fairly aggressively and dislike slinking around the Mall). Therefore it's best to finish the guide before nuking Megaton...which leads to observation #3.

3) No 10% rested EXP bonus for a long time. Get used to it if you want to complete the Megaton missions (Survival Guide and Blood Ties) before nuking Megaton. You could rent a bed, but it's cost prohibitive for poor/new toons.

4) Load screens increase in number if you blow up Megaton. Fast travelling back to Megaton then only one load screen further and I'm home. To get "home" at Tenpenny Tower I have to endure more load screens to get to my apartment, and I HATE load screens.

5) It's more of a hassle to trade if Megaton is nuked. For starters you lose out on several traders (2 bars, the noodle shack, and Doc). I usually hang onto my "sellable" items until I need caps, then sell a ton of stuff at one time while buying a ton of ammo, stimpacks, etc. Bombing Megaton destroys several resources for trading.

6) I'm "very evil" even though I'm not real evil. I complete the missions for positive karma, usually, but am still evil because I steal like crazy. The only really evil things I've done are killing Lesko after accepting the perk and jacket, and then ratting out the android to Zimmer after accepting the rifle. "Very Evil" seems a bit harsh inasmuch as I reloaded to a time before bombing Megaton (the hassle after bombing it was too much).

My suggestion when playing as an evil toon: whatever you do, don't bomb Megaton. It's simply not worth the hassle. What IS worth the hassle of being evil is the ability to steal whatever isn't nailed down.

Well ... No rest for the wicked !