It's complete BS that I am recieving bad karma from dead power gang members when they hate me. Every time they see me and attk me I cant take anything from their hideout with out getting bad karma. Bethesda and Obsidian fail for not fixing this problem!

Yeah, that's kind of lame - I felt the same way when I started losing Karma for stealing Legion supplies. I remember thinking, "Man, I'd bet they'd make you feel bad for stealing from Hitler too."

Seems like a minor (and easy enough to make) oversight, though. I just hope it's easy enough to fix too. I know that they've disabled karma penalties for certain things (like cracking Jeannie May's safe, or pickpocketing the Omertas), so it does seem like it could be done if they put their minds to it.

Well stealing is stealing and killing is killing.....I smell cookies... but yea I hate how NCRCF people attack you outside of GoodSprings at that intersection between Primm and Sloan. They attack you regardless of your reputation with them and if you kill them you get shunned. Total bs...

go kill a few vipers/scorpians/fiends/ghouls and get the karma hit back if it bothers you

karma dont mean jack

I hate to say it but if you just dont do that quest right away or even choose to give him up you can go on to do quests for them. You can kill the 2 guys who spawn near the sky diving place with no penalty then continue to the prison. I put on an outfit to be safe but they know you dont belong there but will allow you in for some caps. You will pass some powder gangers that wont be aggresive as long as you DONT COMPLETE THE FIRST QUEST

I think you can safely and completely ignore Karma - seems to have NO impact on this game. As I said in a previous post how can taking from dead escaped convicts be stealing - like they legally owned those sticks of dynamite in the first place!

This.
This isn't FO3. reputation is where it's at in New Vegas. Even in the Mohave Wasteland stealing from the dead is frowned upon. :shrug:

I have yet to suffer any problems from Karma loss, I just think its telling you that you are doing a bad thing and thats about it now. Also seeing the red text at least lets me know I have to be sneaky about opening the thing so nobody sees me.

I agree with some of the others, karma doesn't seem to mean or affect anything in this game. But then again i may be wrong.

I think NPCs have different things to say about you depending on your karma. I seem to recall people commenting on how I looked like a badass when I had Very Evil karma. But I can't really recall exactly. I also think there was at least one instance where I got different dialog options depending on my karma (could be wrong).

Every item seems to have an "owned" or "not owned" variable, it doesn't specify who it's owned by. Taking an owned item results in karma loss, whether the owner was good or bad, alive or dead.

What really doesn't make sense (spoiler alert, etc), is that after you finish "Come Fly With Me" everything in the Ghoul's area is still "owned." You'd think they wouldn't care since they don't plan on going back any time soon.

The karma loss for stealing is virtually non-existent.

I stole everything that wasn't nailed down and did the good route on most quests and still was always rated very good or good.

This

My understanding is that the theft system is tied into the karma system. So, if someone is going to get mad at you for stealing, then what you're stealing has to incur a karma loss. And, since you can't literally wipe out a faction, something owned by the faction will continually give a karma loss, even if you are mortal enemies and most of the Powder Gangers are actually dead.

Besides which, karma is irrelevant in New Vegas. Sure, it's cool to have a character that is evil, but at the end of the day what really matters is how you treat the factions in the game. And that makes much more sense than the old karma system. I mean, how would a bunch of strangers know you are a bad person if you've never been seen stealing or killing? Or why would the NCR care if you murdered and robbed a bunch of Powder Gangers? I'd say the reputation system is, on the whole, more robust and realistic than FO3's karma system.

That's weird because recently I stole everything in the Goodsprings and I got labeled Evil: Opportunist...

http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35383

Only if your seen stealing will it affect relations.
Usually nobody will attack you or even say anything if your caught stealing...your faction / town rep just gets lowered.
That's it...

Yeah, it’s stupid.

Good karma for killing them, but bad karma for taking their stuff?

Anyhow, I steal whatever I want from whoever I want (it’s not like the NCR is helping me out as I solve all of their problems for them) and my karma’s still perfect.

I guess logically stealing from the Powder Gangers is stealing from the NCR, as it is their stuff.

I've completely cleared out the jail and kill every gang member I find. It says my karma is still very good.

I believe the only reason to keep karma above evil is so you can recruit Cass.

Fortunately karma has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on the game, that being said, you're right it is pretty dumb.

As Joe Cobb said, "Not all of the Powder Gangers are my friends, like the ones at the NCRCF, so watch yourself."