FAQ: How Do Fines & Bounty Work?

[BigElectricCat]

Forget what quest it was, but was supposed to find something incriminating on a vendor at the market. Accidentally swiped an apple out of one of his sacks.

Had expected, "Stop right there law breaker! Your crime spree is at an end!" sort of thing. It's roll play, I made a mistake and I should pay my fine.

Instead, the guard and soon everyone in the marketplace was trying to kill me! : 0 !

So reloaded & punched a guard to see if that would trigger the dialogue & standard three choices. (fine, jail, resist arrest & maybe yield)

No dice.

So is this a bug? While I play "good" ranger style characters, true RPG should allow a bit of thievery imo...

On an update, noticed one patch fixes certain NPCs from attacking you if bounty on your head.

My question is how do players even get a bounty when everyone in the cell will attack them?

thanks!

[thecreativeblock]

I actually decided to try having a bounty for the hell of it by sneakily assaulting a guard in Duneville with my bow and I got caught with a 40 pennies bounty. In Duneville, Sun Temple, and Ark Noble area, each guard have their own dialogue that leads to the obligatory fine/jail/attack options.

Just quickly put your weapon away and the guards and everybody should calm down.

For the hell of it, I decided to click jail and in prison itself, you lose 2 skill points and there is no way to escape unless you use a fireball on a nearby guard to open the door while running away without grabbing stuff (I don't think there's a chest with your items?) and it was pretty funny.

However, if you pay your fine, be prepared to lose your stolen goods regardless. I would recommend you put your stolen goods in a secure chest before having to face a guard. Also, facing a guard happens automatically if you pass one or exit from a place.

Duneville dialogue: Alright, let's make it short: you might think you can do whatever the f--- you want down here, but you're wrong. There are rules, and you will respect them if you ever want to see the light of (the) day again. Pay your fine or live with the consequences.

Keeper at Sun Temple dialogue: You bloody fool! Your demeanor desecrates this holy place. We got two ways we can do this: you either pay a fine right now, or I'll take you down to the prison. Make your choice, and make it quick.

City Guard of Ark: I don't know who you think you are, but no one breaks the law and gets away with it. There are two ways we can do this: you either pay your fine right now, or you go straight to jail. And believe me, I'm serious.

[BigElectricCat]

That's interesting. In Ark marketplace, seemed more like "StartCombat 14" for all NPCs in LoS or in cell.

No dialogue box.

Long as it works for others. (Although it would've been interesting to see how long I'd have lasted resisting arrest)

Been a while. Guards in Skyrim allowed yield, or just Oblivion? Frantically pressing space bar only had me jumping while getting cut to pieces. ; )