Karma system

[SwiftSpear 2]

Karma should be based on in game actions. Murder reduces Karma. Trade with other players (once it's implemented in a meaningful way), saving shots (similar to the left 4 dead saving shot), healing other players, and killing bandits improve Karma by a smaller amount than survival murders decrease karma. Karma also very slowly drifts up through pure gameplay hours. The Karmic penalty or benefit to murdering another player is based on that players Karma. A player you murder who has 900 karma may cost you instantly 40 karma points. Where as a bandit killed that had 10 Karma will give you a bonus of +24 Karma. Consequently this also means murdering a career bandit who just happened to spawn as a survivor does not entail a very heavy penalty, and likewise murdering a saint who had a very unlikely short term conversion to banditry doesn't entail a very valuable bonus. (loosely, karma vs murder = (victim karma/20) for survivor murders, and ((1000 - victim Karma) / 40) for bandit kills)

Karma is tied to account, it does not reset at death. Your starting loadout is tied to your Karmic level. At the extreme low end (tons of unredeemed murders) you start with no equipment aside from basic healing items. At the high end you start with more individually beneficial items such as survival kit (hunting knife, matches, hatchet), water bottle, or better weapons (intermediate tier sidearms or basic tier rifles).

Karma also effects bandit skins, however, not as absolutely as loadouts (if you have good karma, you will always spawn with a good loadout). Imagine for a karma system between 0-1000 points, and a default starting Karma of 300. Your chance of spawning with a bandit skin is 50/(karma+1). Karma also effects how easily you convert to or convert from banditry. Committing a murder entails a 25/(karma+1) chance of immediately adopting a bandit skin, and likewise, committing friendly actions with a bandit skin entails a karma/25 chance of flipping back to a survivor skin.

When spawning under this system, your client always perceives you as a survivor skin, even if you actually have a bandit skin (this prevents re rolling spawns to avoid the disciplinary factor of karma negative actions). This personal identity crisis lasts either 1 hour, or until your first murder/bandit conversion event takes place, whichever occurs first. (I realize this could still be gamed with groups of people meeting up after they spawn, but it would still be a huge hassle to go to that effort only to immediately be swapped after your first murder because your low Karma makes your chance of skin conversion very high)

No matter how low your Karma gets you are always given the chance to spawn without a bandit skin, and even just surviving in the bush for long periods will creep your karma up and allow you to recompense for your sins. This is so there is no room for the "all my kills were self defense" argument.

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Why this is a good idea:

It disconnects incentive to kill other players from receiving quick loot, because in the long run, you get less loot after dying. It encourages you to default your game play to humane non-sociopathic styles without actually making career banditry impossible.

Most importantly, it allows game play balance of other things to be modified without much fear that ratios of bandits to survivors get drastically out of whack, as if you have too many bandits you can always increase the spawn punishments of being a bandit, or increase the spawn benefits of being a saint, and ratios will again naturally drift towards the desired amount.

If something like a more potent single player healing item makes sense to the balance of the game, you know longer have the plague of the temptation of forcing players to work together simply so they don't immediately murder each other, since you don't need to worry about immediate murder to nearly the same degree, as players will fear the moral ramification of that action.