Karma System

[joyfuljj]

Hello! Personally, I’m a huge fan of the karma system but I think it needs some changes.

The system is kind of jank and just needs to go away.

It’s really frustrating having to click intervene on every single zoi with bad karma. I m don’t care what the ‘souls’ of other zois are and it helps to have a society of mixed personalities.
Punishing people for playing ‘bad’ characters is poor design and also limits storytelling — I like the karma system however I wish that it was focused more like bitlife so you could simply see your karma when you died or something.

I’d prefer to be able to do my storylines with morally grey Zois finding a good path without possible consequences of them dying of bad karma before I can turn the story around — like someone else online states. I also kind of find it too limiting and to me at least, whether intended or not, it feels like you’re encouraged to only play as “hyper good” Zois. A real society has and always will have a mix of morality, and morality is not always black and white.

Finally I want to say there was a post asking for more darkness in the game which I whole heartedly agree with but the karma system limits that.

[MTani]

True. Karma is the mix of good/bad and it’s useless when there’s only good. I think that devs maybe don’t want to add some questionable things, maybe because of law or smth. But even bad things can be made in a way when they are not that bad Like in crime you don’t have to deal with drugs or such things, but there can be a black market of rare gems or coins.
Also would be cool if when zoi dies with good or bad karma kids would get some good or bad mood by remembering, or people would think of a family good or bad depending on the whole karma of it’s members or smth like that. Not punishing for a bad one but making things different.

[theboynub]

I sincerely believe that the karma system, their culture in the form of aidals and smart zoi, is one of those features that can really set the game apart. I really hope that the karma system will not be forgotten

[LennyOgg]

The Karma system should be an option or come with a few additional settings that allow to not have to do stuff manually for those players who prefer to not wanting to micromanage the whole city, I have enough to do with my own zois ^^’

[joyfuljj]

I personally don’t dislike the feature itself and don’t want it removed, I just don’t like it in my gameplay as it limits the game a bit for me being punished for having bad karma. I like a cinematic gameplay and one that reflects reality, and in real life not everyone is very good of people.. and usually it goes unpunished too.

[joyfuljj]

^^ Personally it is a bit bothersome and I’m not a fan, karma is not very prevalent where I’m from and so it becomes more unrealistic than anything. An option would be nice

[Molly]

I’m one of the players that would prefer to have a toggle for it.

While my typical play style is often made up of positive or neutral actions, I’m not really interested in managing karma for the whole region. I care about what my household is doing, not what other households are doing.

I’m all for the karma system being improved and fleshed out for those that want it, but I hope to see an option to disable it altogether too.

[Dattgal]

I believe the karma system will feel more robust once ghost gameplay is fully implemented. From what I remember, Zois with bad karma become ghosts and will need to build it up in order to properly “pass on.”

[theboynub]

It seems to me that it should definitely be like this: a switch and setting up functions, I agree with that

[joyfuljj]

thank you! 100% agree

[joyfuljj]

Hopefully, we’ll see!

[cesss]

I really like that the game rewards being good. It can have the educational purpose of showing how better life could be if we were good. It’s also realistic because there’s research evidence in the good effects in health for people who sincerely forgive others (and conversely, the bad health consequences for people who don’t forgive and keep the resentment in their lives).

That said, the more flexible the game is, the better, so, even if I would keep as default a karma system that rewards being good, I wouldn’t oppose that it can be disabled as an option (the same I always disable aging, for example).

[joyfuljj]

Yeah, I’m not asking to remove but I’m asking for it to have some settings. Yea, it feels nice to encourage people to be good, but it also feels restrictive and unrealistic because in real life not everyone is good and a life sim should lore accurately affect that in my opinion

[baddestinnaroom]

I really hope they consider this. It takes the focus away from true simulation and enjoyment, even when you play like me and try to avoid using the karma feature.

[GDfromRivendell]

Honestly, I don’t quite understand the developers’ intention behind adding so many tracked residents (active agents) to the Karma system.

Before v.0.3, there were only 150–155 of them, and they were just wandering pedestrians, while all service workers and visitors were regenerated with each restart.
After v.0.3, all workers and visitors are included (up to ~255 which makes the city feel empty once roles are assigned), and on top of that, residents were added.

Someone said it’s amusing, but to be honest, I don’t care (they’re all homeless anyway). So I would change the system like this:
– let us add to the Karma system (active agents) only followed Zois (some people play with family rotations, so that makes sense)
– for the rest, just leave global sliders, but make them more impactful. For example, a city with bad karma would be filled with crime, and one with good karma — with mutual aid and charity. It would also be better to zone this a bit, but later.
– the remaining Zois in the city should simply be spawned without any active simulations, just to keep the streets, parks, and venues sufficiently populated.

This way, the player would simply configure the city to their liking, with a toggle for dynamic karma changes — so that shifts would happen or not happen allowing multiple gameplay scenarios to coexist within a single city.

A kind of local Twitter triggered in response to Karma drops — similar to Chirper from Cities: Skylines / II.

[joyfuljj]

That part!!

[joyfuljj]

I do like the city skylines sort of neighborhood chat thing you just showed — an app like that as like a feed on inzoi to get a glimpse into lives of others, gossip, ups and downs would be cool. And more impactful sliders would be amazing as well.

However what I was trying to say is that personally, I don’t enjoy having to manage the karma system, and the game reportedly punishes you if your zois or the ones in the city have too low of karma. I personally don’t like that aspect much, however a more subtle version of it would be nice, like in city skylines sort of fashion.

[GDfromRivendell]

That’s exactly where I saw the problem — the game hands you responsibility for simulating 250 residents on your CPU, but they might serve no real purpose other than background noise. And you’re absolutely right: it would be way more interesting if those residents gossiped with each other. With a karma system, you could get things like, “Damn, I got robbed again on my way home — where’s the police?” or “How great that everyone’s so cheerful around here, I think I’ll head out again.” And with the Fame system, it’d be like a local Twitter feed that never shuts up — way more realistic and fun as a game scenario.

[joyfuljj]

Yesss, it could just use a rework and instead of being something to force you to play morally good characters, it could simply be more of a basis for what NPC characters do, feel, and experience in their day to day life!!

[GDfromRivendell]

Done, quickly added it to the Smartphone UI