inconsistent results of randomly killing backer NPC

[Madscientist]

When I kill those chars, sometimes I get a reputation loss and sometimes not.

 

In the area with the destroyed bridge near defiance bay there are 2 groups of backer NPC.

If I kill one of them, I loose reputation and I I kill the other one I do not. They are so close to each other that they are on the same screen, but they do not react if I kill the other one.

 

In defiance bay I can kill the one near the catacombs without consequences, but in gilded vale i loose reputation when I kill the only 2 people inside a house.

 

I think in defiance bay there was a house with 2 backer NPC, killing one of them gave reputation loss and the other one not.

 

I play version 1.06.

There are 2 possibilities:

- The log does not always show changes in reputation.

- The reputation loss for killing people is indeed random.

 

In my first playthrough I did not kill anything unless it was hostile all the time or the fight was part of a quest. Now I tried something different because several people said that killing backer NPC is an easy way to get equipment and money.

 

I think you should always get a penalty for randomly killing people. The devs choose that in POE this penalty is reputation loss. So every time you kill a person in a town or a person that is tied to a fraction should give reputation loss. The only exceptions should be that they attack you first or you start combat via dialogue. The game should not encourage you to kill people randomly.

 

Note on how it should NOT be done: In Morrowind you could insult people until they attack you. This allowed you to kill everybody without being a criminal and increased your conversation skill.