Accidentally gained a bounty on my head and the consequence seemed extreme... comments/feedback?

RobbieRocket · June 2015

Hi,
I am new to ESOTU as a PS4 player.

I was in Daggerfall for about 10 mins before another player seemed to be fighting next to me - maybe against an assassin or a guard or perhaps just making fighting actions at me. Having already fought an assassin who attacked me, I reacted with an attack, suddenly I had a new icon on my HUD (bounty with a red and white section and angry guards swarming at me). I guessed that I must have attacked someone I shouldn't've and realised (as I paused my screen and tried to process the onscreen instructions) that I had not enough money to pay anything and I should run. I am grateful for the trophy I unlocked as I escaped the guards once, but I am not grateful for the 90 minutes hiding next to a wall (in order to lose the bounty) and 2 character deaths, loss of coin, etc. I also received.

I think the info was confusing and the penalty extreme - for someone new to the game, who was encouraged to defend themselves just moments before. I have since read all the information concerning bounties and guards and I like rules, its just a shame it happened so easily.

Any comments or feedback?

Hlaadriel · June 2015

You can disable the the attack innocents... Now that being said. thre is no PvP other than in Cyrodill, so you wont have player attacking you...

if halo around the NPC is white DO NOT ENGAGE as it will put a bounty on you
if it is RED. kill it

Spottswoode · June 2015

We've discussed this at length in a number of threads. Generally speaking, you should always pay the fine if it's cheap.

Welcome to ESO.

RobbieRocket · June 2015

Hlaadriel - thanks for reading my post and responding. Good tips.

Spottswoode - thanks for responding. My main point was that I had no intention of any harm, I was a newbie to the scenario and in barely a moment had 2 deaths and 90 mins of inactive game time. I also had insufficient funds to pay the bounty (though I was already on KOS anyway).
I think your response was a little tired or slack, perhaps because you have been active on other bounty-related issues before now.

Pendrillion · June 2015

It happens. I guess rule of thumb is: Inside a city, DO NOT ASSIST PLAYERS! Mind your own business. Or the guard will take drastic measures against you. If you have a bounty. Leave town if possible and go farm some stuff to sell at the outlaw refuge. So you can pay your bounty.

RobbieRocket · June 2015

Pendrillion - thanks for the answer.

I wonder though if you all agree that it's "in at the deep end" regarding 90 mins lost for a new arrival. I am also nerdy about deaths and the law and like both to be kept clean.

Otherwise, going forwards, all your responses are useful. Thanks for that.

Junipus · June 2015

IIRC the bounty drops at a rate of 400g per hour. While it's not ideal, next time you or anyone else is in that situation you can escape and go questing and exploring out in the wilderness until your bounty is gone.

Not sure of the console UI, but on PC your active bounty is displayed towards the top in your character details tab.

Saying all that though, ZOS should change the default for attacking NPCs to off instead of on so people can choose to murder instead of choose not to.

Pendrillion · June 2015

Well... Lets say... it could be done better. But I find it a good learning experience at the beginning. Because, well you know... Its kind of realistic. You are put into a situation and have to learn how to deal with it. Look at it as your first adventure. After all this is a RPG. Justice System kind of put the unexpected back into the game.

But believe me as well, when I admit to you, that I can understand how you feel and that it is kind of an unfair situation to be thrown in just at the beginning, and it can make the game pretty frustrating.

Enaijo · June 2015

There was no need for your 90 mins of inactivity. You could have left the city and quest somewhere else or/and get the money to pay the bounty.

Diddyman · June 2015

I know I shouldn't laugh because I'm new to the game too and haven't experienced this yet but it did sound quite amusing, especially the bit about hiding behind a wall for 90 minutes. I guess the system didn't know you were new to the game and doles out the same punishments to all players. I think I'd have chalked it up to experience if it happened to me. I've no clue what I'm doing in the game so your post has at least helped me to avoid trouble, so thanks for posting it.

JD2013 · June 2015

Also, pro tip: don't spam abilities like healing in a city. You may accidentally heal someone who attacked or is attacking a guard, and guards don't look kindly upon that . . .

WillhelmBlack · June 2015

If you're over level 10 just port to your AvA campaign and PvP until it's cleared.

Enodoc · June 2015

I agree that it's a bad situation to be in as a new player, and that the penalty is too high and the details too vague for someone who has just popped out of the Wailing Prison.

There needs to be clearer information more readily accessible to a new player, and I think the best way to do that would be to have your very first arrest counted as a tutorial which just results in a warning.

This could work as follows:

You get your first bounty, whether it be for murder or stealing a piece of cheese.
Your Infamy Meter does not enter the Fugitive (KoS) state.
You are arrested by a Guard:
- The Guard informs you that you have violated the law, but makes mention to the fact that you've just awoken from a comatose state and decides to let you off with a warning, "future infractions will not be met so leniently" or some-such.
- Stolen goods are confiscated.
- Bounty and Heat are cleared.
Any future crimes carry the standard penalty.

This is primarily intended to inform new players about the Justice System if they end up arrested by accident. Therefore the "Tutorial" arrest is voided if:
- You enter an Outlaws Refuge
- You reach Level 6
I'm sure there's some things I haven't thought of, so feel free to point them out!

dap_robertb16_ESO wrote: »

IIRC the bounty drops at a rate of 400g per hour. While it's not ideal, next time you or anyone else is in that situation you can escape and go questing and exploring out in the wilderness until your bounty is gone.

Bounty drop-off rate is based on your level.

Azrael008uk · June 2015

Oh this was great fun.

Just starting out (and for those who feel this has been discussed to death remember that a huge new audience has just joined the game through XBox ONE and Playstation 4) and this came as an unpleasant surprise.

Legging it from some Chimer Spirits who chased me all the way to the guards who promptly attacked them.

This seems a much fairer fight, I thought to myself, threw a spell... hit the guard... and immediately had bounty on my head for which the penalty was "be killed to death".

Harsh... but not as harsh as coming back to life with the full bounty still on your head.

They got over it, settled down and after a while I was able to pay the fine.

leshpar · June 2015

Just let a guard kill you. Bounty will be gone and the gear repair will be at most 50 gold.

Rinmaethodain · June 2015

An the lesson is:

Don't spam abilities - if you spam (which is annoying) you might get punished for it.
Mind your own business - sees someone fighting in city? you don't know what he did. You don't know where he comes from. Don't stick your noose into someone affair or you might be punished.
Don't swing your sword left and right or you might hurt someone ya know? Its like running with scissors.

Pretty much acting logically and being reasonable will prevent you from getting bounty in city unless you do it deliberately.

Enodoc · June 2015

leshpar wrote: »

Just let a guard kill you. Bounty will be gone and the gear repair will be at most 50 gold.

@leshpar Not if you don't have enough gold to cover it.

tallenn · June 2015

Enaijo wrote: »

There was no need for your 90 mins of inactivity. You could have left the city and quest somewhere else or/and get the money to pay the bounty.

Or even log out to another character. Bounty ticks off whether you are logged on, or not.

RobbieRocket · June 2015

Thanks for all your responses, some are excellent, some are insightful. Most of you have responded with advice (such as leave the city or don't attack people, etc.), which is not really of help for me, because I needed the advice before it happened. I have learnt a few things from the experience.

Just to clarify, I was killed twice BEFORE I hid for 90 minutes. Being killed DID NOT remove my bounty as my bounty was between 12 and 20 gold and I had 6 on me, having just arrived.

I did not know how to leave the city and whenever I moved, I was spotted and attacked (again).
Up until this point, the game had been largely tutorial so it was defintely a surprise. I was also not completely aware that I was even attacking someone (I had just fought someone, an assassin, and a few swings that missed did no harm so when this happened I was not aware of hitting a target).

The forum moderator made an excellent response and some of you have offered empathy or appreciation for sharing. I guess this was the point of the post: to make people aware, to share and to help the community and game developers give this some thought.

If I receive a bounty in the future, I will be responsible for it, I'm sure.

Thanks to all, again.

Enodoc · June 2015

It's interesting to see how much bounty you get as a low level player and how long it takes to decay. For future reference, completing two or three side quests at low levels should get you enough to pay off an average bounty. Another place you may be interested in is the Outlaws Refuge (

on the map). That has an exit which leads to the outside of the city, away from the guard patrols.

Also just for the record, Ambassadors don't have any forum moderation powers. You can find out more about the Ambassador program here:
ESOTU Community Ambassador Program.

jamesharv2005ub17_ESO · June 2015

FYI getting killed by a guard will not remove your bounty.

Moonscythe · June 2015

There was a Peanuts comic way back before most of you were born that truly exemplifies the unexpected nature of the justice system. "Life is full of rude awakenings" It is what it is.

. Don't help players fight the guards ever.
. Don't revive players who are killed by NPCs, especially while in cities.
. Turn off auto loot and keep your hands to yourself, sneak thief.
. Remember, there are no actions without reactions.
. Don't react with an attack if you're battle mode triggers.

We've all been there; hidden like frightened mice, reacted without thinking to attacks happening around us, so don't take any negative comments personally. It isn't worth the heartache.

Sighlynce · June 2015

You can accidentally pick stuff up when trying to engage an NPC , just be aware

. Best advice , when you get to level 10 go to Cyrodiil . Go through the beginner quest and use a skill point on Rapid Maneuver ,find it under Alliance skills (type lfg in chat and stay a while, PvP is awesome!) . Put it on your skill bar while in town , now if they come after you again hit RM and out run em' !!! That's what I do

and it works !!!

idk · June 2015

I'm seems you have learned your lesson. If so then the punishment is not to extreme.

navyspeed · June 2015

RobbieRocket wrote: »

Hi,
I am new to ESOTU as a PS4 player.

I was in Daggerfall for about 10 mins before another player seemed to be fighting next to me - maybe against an assassin or a guard or perhaps just making fighting actions at me. Having already fought an assassin who attacked me, I reacted with an attack, suddenly I had a new icon on my HUD (bounty with a red and white section and angry guards swarming at me). I guessed that I must have attacked someone I shouldn't've and realised (as I paused my screen and tried to process the onscreen instructions) that I had not enough money to pay anything and I should run. I am grateful for the trophy I unlocked as I escaped the guards once, but I am not grateful for the 90 minutes hiding next to a wall (in order to lose the bounty) and 2 character deaths, loss of coin, etc. I also received.

I think the info was confusing and the penalty extreme - for someone new to the game, who was encouraged to defend themselves just moments before. I have since read all the information concerning bounties and guards and I like rules, its just a shame it happened so easily.

Any comments or feedback?

There is no stand your ground law in PVE lol.

RobbieRocket · June 2015

Thanks again for your varied responses.
Thanks again for enlightenment that a forum ambassador is not a forum moderator.

Also, if I am interpreted as defensive in my comments here, it is likely because I was trying to be precise with the point I was making, guiding the reader to the issue. With this issue, it is easy to think I'm complaining about bounty rules or having to hide, when it was more about lack of control and understanding of scenario.

Thanks again, happy adventuring.

phairdon · June 2015

This happens. My bounty was for killing a chicken while trying to complete a combat related quest in Stonefalls. Nuked it with my fire staff while battling an npc.

Kaitona · June 2015

I feel like I've learned many valuable lessons from this thread. Thanks OP!

Nebthet78 · June 2015

What I prefer to do is just find a place to hide in until my heat goes down and play one of my alternate characters instead. That way I am at least playing the game instead of twiddling my thumbs.

UTG_Zilla · June 2015

I can't tell you how many hundreds I've wasted on bounties because I think someone is under attack so I try to save them and end up attacking guard, or accidentally pressing B when confusing buttons and attacking innocent with skill, with attack innocents off... If you see someone else under attack in a city, just leave them be. It's better not worth the risk.

ADarklore · June 2015

RobbieRocket wrote: »

I am also nerdy about deaths and the law and like both to be kept clean.

I still on occasion gain a bounty accidentally, usually I'll go up to talk to someone and hit the E key to speak to them and instead end up stealing something off the table they are standing by. SO NOT COOL for ZOS to not give us the option to immediately 'return' something we accidentally picked up. Like any honest citizen, I then immediately look for a guard so I can pay my bounty and be on my way. I have also toggled off the option to target innocents, this way there is no accidental killing and an even worse bounty. Like the OP, I prefer to maintain a 'good guy' status, and having a bounty is just unacceptable.