TA 3C - Korx start out totally Evil?

Hmmm, in DA I remember the default ethical alignment of the Korath Clan was at the extreme side of evil (as it should be).

Personally, I'd rather see the Korx at about a hair to the right (evil) of neutral. Right now they sit at "1" on the alignment scale, which makes no sense personally, as it puts them as even more evil than the Yor (25).

The Korx start out evil in DA as well. I think that's working as designed.

You're asking if the same guys who say "Our products are totally safe. By the way, perhaps I can interest you in some shards of glass for your young?" should be evil?

Maybe not more evil than the Yor, but pretty evil.

Different races begin at different alignments. The Torians, for instance, start out pretty strongly "good." In my last game (as Torians) I took every "evil" choice to get good planets, and they were still on the "good" side when I researched Xeno Ethics.

I think the "starting alignments" in DA are as follows (someone feel free to correct me if I got any wrong)

Good: Altarian, Torian, Iconian, Krynn
Neutral: Terran, Arcean, Thalian, Drath
Evil: Drengin, Korath, Yor, Korx

The Krynn are neutral. Not sure about the Drath.....

The Drath?

They're good.

Good info guys. I guess I always played a race that started out neutral or just to the right or left of it.

As for the Korx, I certainly don't agree they should be as evil as you get. Maybe just 25% evil. Being super traders, being totally evil doesn't help you trade much since the good races will hate you and not want to trade.

The Korx are like the Mafia. They'll quite happily do business with if they are getting something good back in return. If you refuse, they'll get nasty, and they'll resort to even more extreme methods as time goes on. Tell me how that is anywhere near neutral. They are evil, but in a disguise.

The Yor, on the other hand, seem to be just misguided with a farfetched quest to rid the galaxy of organic life. This is likely due to prejudice and can be changed, making the Yor not entirely evil.

Just for the record, from TA's Raceconfig.xml:

Alignments

Terran Alliance: 50
Drengin Empire: 1
Altarian Resistance: 99
Arcean Empire: 50
Torian Confederation: 80
Yor Collective: 25
Dominion of Korx: 1
Drath Legion: 75
Iconian Refuge: 90
Korath Clan: 1
Krynn Consulate: 50

Thalan are listed at 50 but are obviously not ingame yet.


@ Mr. Vegatable:

Please, pray tell, how a civilization whose entire goal is the eradication of life (something that was built into their being by the Dread Lords) is less evil than a civilization that built itself completely around trade. Yes, the latter will do absolutely anything to further its goals, but the pursuit of enterprise is not inherently evil (unless of course you're [not directly you MrVegetable] a Marxist).

Not misguided, and not entirely far-fetched either; not prejudice, but the core of their being.

Right, but in terms of the game mechanics, the "disguise" isn't working with the other races. Pure evil sets them at an immediate diplomatic disadvantage with strongly good-aligned races. Doesn't make sense for a trader. If they were neutral they'd be stronger.

Or.... maybe that's the intended design: forcing them to start evil so the player has an uphill climb to the more trader-friendly Neutral position? That's the only way it makes sense to me, and it's still a little odd (IMO).

I guess you need to save up those extra credits from all that trading to "buy" your way to neutral status. Actually sounds very "Korx like" now that I think about it.   

Since as the Korx you start out totally evil it makes no sense to *not* take all the totally evil choices with events (cause you can't get any worse) and then buy your way to neutral later on for even better trade results.

Still, I agree that the Korx as a trading race in terms of game mechanics should appear more neutral anyway.

How's this for a balancing idea: instead of 1-99 ethics spectrum, make the spectrum -20k to 20k, with a "good" alignment at 10k, and "evil" at -10k, with neutral at zero, of course. This way, each ethical event can give +/-x to your ethics score, even if you are already completely good or evil. Translating from the existing score, that means Altarians would start at 10k, Korx would start at -10k, and everyone else would start at various points between.

Using the new scale would allow the cost of declaring alignment to scale directly to your ethical choices. Playing as the Korx, if you take all evil choices it may cost you 15k+ bc to shift to neutral. Playing as the Yor, it would be possible that you would need to pay to get your evil status, especially on smaller maps where you can't get as many ethical events before declaring your choice.

Wait, those creepy-bastard Iconians are supposed to be GOOD aligned?!

That may be a result of the Precursor civil war. The Dread Lords were the ones that turned the (semi-evil) Yor against their Iconian masters, and the surviving Iconians were helped to escape by the Arnor. I guess Iconians lean towards good due to the Arnor association. Or maybe they drifted to that alignment while fighting the semi-evil Yor. Something like that.

Simple the Yor don't f**k each other over, a Yor wouldn't sell out it's conrades for a couple of bucks. The Korx would as has been said sell their own mother into slavery.

The Yor only hate all organic life. So yes I would say the Korx are more evil because they would do anything even to their closest friend or relative for money.

Also from a point of view of Korx as traders, the other races wouldn't trust them much but would deal with them out of greed or great need. The Korax don't exactly have a reputation for trust worthiness. The Korax have lots of technologies and natural bartering skills which help them be good at trading despite the fact few other races who had delt with them before would trust them, not to mention their war profiteering.

Being a mercenary is a position that requires trust, rather than charm.

Nowadays we may regard mercenaries as "evil" and "guns for hire", but when you take a look throughout Earth history, mercenaries have been far from that. Most of the armies until the 19th century consisted mostly of mercenaries, the fact that you hire them for money is exactly what makes them reliable. If you pay, they provide the service requested.
The Korx may sell you their mother, but the price you have to pay for her hasn't been meantioned. Perhaps they are just honest. "Yes I would sell you my mother if you offered me 1 billion credits". Most modern day humans would be tempted, hell, there are still humans today who sell their children into slavery because they need the money.

The Korx may be willing to do anything if you put enough money on the table, but they won't stab you in the back when it comes to the deal that has been made. This would destroy credibility and no charm can compensate that. Trade itself is the definition of the neutral stance: a cost/benefit comparison -> is it worth making this trade?
This also opens up the theoretical backstab -> is it worth betraying, but all traders know that in the long run, trustworthyness is priceless...

I agree with this when it comes to most trading empires, and it makes sense that the neutral empires receive trading bonus techs to reflect this.

The feeling I get about the Korx though is the same feeling I got with the Ferenghi from Star Trek. They are master traders, but their greed for more often clouds their common sense, allowing them to resort to much more "shady", or evil, methods.

Exactly I see them that way too, otherwise why is it made plain in the back story that the Korx are not well trusted or liked.

As far as those honouring deals is concerned what is important to them is not honouring the deal its plain they have no sense of honour, but rather being seen to honour the deal. If a Korx can use the letter of an agreement to betray the spirit of an agreement they’d do it in a heart beat if there was enough profit to make the risk worthwhile.

In their own society not only is selling your mother considered almost a rite of passage, but any Korax who can’t provide for themselves are looked on with contempt and enslaved, killed out of hand or allowed to starve to death in the street, the background material makes that plain.

The Korax clearly have no sense of honour or empathy, they are purely out for number one and are driven mostly by greed.

Dealing with the Korax I see like making a deal with the devil, check the wording very carefully don’t give them any wiggle room and still you just know they’re going to get the better of you in the end.

Yes you can have honourable traders who people will like to deal with but that’s not the Korax, people don’t deal with the Korax out of like or trust but rather need and greed, things the Korax understand very well, and are very good at exploiting.