Careful: Guards Don't Recognize When Your Bounty is Gone

UrQuan · March 2016

If you have a bounty that's about to go away, and you're looking at your character screen when it drops down to zero the guards will think that you still have a bounty.

I had this happen yesterday - I was on my character screen when the bounty went down to zero, I exited the screen and got the notification "You are now upstanding" across my screen, with the accompanying sound. I walked across Abah's Landing to go to the cistern, and as soon as a guard saw me I was stopped and asked to pay a bounty of 0 gold. I chose to pay the bounty to see what happened and it took the last amount that the bounty was at prior to dropping to zero (I believe it was 7 gold), as well as taking all of the stolen goods I was carrying.

I suspected that this might have something to do with me having been on the character screen when the bounty dropped to zero, so I tried it again today. Same results (except this time I fled from the guard instead of letting him take my loot).

So be careful: just because you don't have a bounty and you get a notification that you're now upstanding, that doesn't mean that the guards won't stop you to take some gold and any stolen items you're carrying.

Ackwalan · March 2016

This happened to me as well. Have to wait for 3 minutes after you have 0 bounty in order to be bounty free.

Necrelios · March 2016

Hmm... sounds like they need to set a threshold for leniency if you have a bounty about to expire. If that guard spotted you just before your bounty expired they still have it in their head that you're a wanted criminal.

LeApricotRain · March 2016

I had the opposite happen to me, I had a bounty of 3 and ran around a corner right into a guard who stopped me, I fled but got the "You are now upstanding" notification right away and the guard never gave chase.

xxxdcxxx · March 2016

Do u mean something like this ?
imgur.com/zN6VGNC
Happened to me on 10th March

BalgusFlinn · March 2016

I also had this happen to me. Not sure if i was on my character screen.

MornaBaine · March 2016

Yep, had this happen as well.

Luvtantius_Micocia · March 2016

posted this several days ago but got 0 comments on it ...

forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/252476/can-the-bounty-bug-be-fixed-asap-please-thanks

UrQuan · March 2016

Necrelios wrote: »

Hmm... sounds like they need to set a threshold for leniency if you have a bounty about to expire. If that guard spotted you just before your bounty expired they still have it in their head that you're a wanted criminal.

No, both times I was outside of town and away from any guards when the bounty expired. It was only after the bounty expired and I got the "You are now upstanding" message that I went into town, went around some twists and turns, and then got stopped by a guard who suddenly saw me. The absolute earliest that the guards could have spotted me either time was about 1 full minute after the bounty expired.

UrQuan · March 2016

Luvtantius_Micocia wrote: »

posted this several days ago but got 0 comments on it ...

forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/252476/can-the-bounty-bug-be-fixed-asap-please-thanks

Yup, that screenshot is exactly what I saw when accosted by the guards...

ZOS_GinaBruno · March 2016

Hmm, we'll look into this one. Thanks for the info, all!

[Deleted User] · March 2016

The user and all related content has been deleted.

rotaugen454 · March 2016

Happened to me yesterday. I had paid off a bounty, then a guard stopped me. I had already sold all good, so just paid the fine and went on my merry way. Was a bit disconcerting. Probably pulled me over for being Argonian. Stupid profiling....

UrQuan · March 2016

Of course, I did a /bug in-game for this as well.

ZOS_GinaBruno · March 2016

Just to update, we also saw the same issue and are working on a fix for it for a future patch.

UrQuan · March 2016

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Just to update, we also saw the same issue and are working on a fix for it for a future patch.

Hey @ZOS_GinaBruno can you confirm if I'm right that it's related to being on the character screen when your bounty goes down to zero, or was it just coincidence that I was able to reproduce it by doing that?

Just trying to clarify so that until this gets patched people will know what to avoid doing.

ZOS_GinaBruno · March 2016

UrQuan wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Just to update, we also saw the same issue and are working on a fix for it for a future patch.

Hey @ZOS_GinaBruno can you confirm if I'm right that it's related to being on the character screen when your bounty goes down to zero, or was it just coincidence that I was able to reproduce it by doing that?

Just trying to clarify so that until this gets patched people will know what to avoid doing.

That's how we were able to repro the issue reliably, but it's too soon to say if that's the thing that's causing it.

UrQuan · March 2016

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

UrQuan wrote: »

ZOS_GinaBruno wrote: »

Just to update, we also saw the same issue and are working on a fix for it for a future patch.

Hey @ZOS_GinaBruno can you confirm if I'm right that it's related to being on the character screen when your bounty goes down to zero, or was it just coincidence that I was able to reproduce it by doing that?

Just trying to clarify so that until this gets patched people will know what to avoid doing.

That's how we were able to repro the issue reliably, but it's too soon to say if that's the thing that's causing it.

Cool thanks

Volkodav · March 2016

This has happened to me too.I look at my bounty and I have none,but am being forced to pay.I tend to resist and run.I have already earned the "cut and run" achievement. XD

Bossdonut · March 2016

It's best to just avoid the police all together.

Luvtantius_Micocia · March 2016

Today I went into Windhelm Outlaws Refuge and the moment I stepped in got a 68 gold bounty. I did not do anything else than just go inside ...

UrQuan · March 2016

Bossdonut wrote: »

It's best to just avoid the police all together.

But after my bounty has expired I enjoy going right up to them and dancing in their faces while saying "neener neener neener"

ZOS_Gideon · March 2016

Hey everyone!

We've discovered the source of the issue -- on the client, the formula to keep track of your bounty's decay over time runs slightly faster than it should. Thus, if your bounty decays down to 0, there's a good chance that it's not actually 0, regardless of what the guard, bounty meter, or character sheet tells you.

We'll get a fix for this in soon; in the meantime, logging out and back in or changing zones should trigger an update from the server, and get your client back in sync. (This is probably why @Luvtantius_Micocia saw his bounty jump back up when he entered a Refuge.)

Oh, and it doesn't matter what part of the UI you're on; being on the character sheet doesn't affect the decay rate. The only thing that matters is how long your bounty has been decaying without an update from the server -- the longer it's been, the more your client will diverge from the 'true' value.

Thanks for all of your help in getting this tracked down

sirinsidiator · March 2016

@ZOS_Gideon there is also another case where the guard is trying to collect a bounty of 0.
I had 0 bounty, tried to pickpocket an NPC, but failed and then after 3 minutes (thanks to the TG passive) the bounty went down to 0 again, but there was still heat on me. Then I walked past a guard who stopped me and tried to make me pay 0 gold.

rotaugen454 · March 2016

sirinsidiator wrote: »

@ZOS_Gideon there is also another case where the guard is trying to collect a bounty of 0.
I had 0 bounty, tried to pickpocket an NPC, but failed and then after 3 minutes (thanks to the TG passive) the bounty went down to 0 again, but there was still heat on me. Then I walked past a guard who stopped me and tried to make me pay 0 gold.

So, did you pay it?

Forestd16b14_ESO · March 2016

It's because they can sense your guilt and will hunt you down no matter who you pay off and ......

sirinsidiator · March 2016

rotaugen454 wrote: »

sirinsidiator wrote: »

@ZOS_Gideon there is also another case where the guard is trying to collect a bounty of 0.
I had 0 bounty, tried to pickpocket an NPC, but failed and then after 3 minutes (thanks to the TG passive) the bounty went down to 0 again, but there was still heat on me. Then I walked past a guard who stopped me and tried to make me pay 0 gold.

So, did you pay it?

Of course not. And promptly got a new 260+ gold bounty.

UrQuan · March 2016

ZOS_Gideon wrote: »

Hey everyone!

We've discovered the source of the issue -- on the client, the formula to keep track of your bounty's decay over time runs slightly faster than it should. Thus, if your bounty decays down to 0, there's a good chance that it's not actually 0, regardless of what the guard, bounty meter, or character sheet tells you.

We'll get a fix for this in soon; in the meantime, logging out and back in or changing zones should trigger an update from the server, and get your client back in sync. (This is probably why @Luvtantius_Micocia saw his bounty jump back up when he entered a Refuge.)

Oh, and it doesn't matter what part of the UI you're on; being on the character sheet doesn't affect the decay rate. The only thing that matters is how long your bounty has been decaying without an update from the server -- the longer it's been, the more your client will diverge from the 'true' value.

Thanks for all of your help in getting this tracked down

Aha! That makes sense. It would be most likely to show up in cases when you're watching it go away on the character screen, because that's when you're most likely to see it go away, instantly think "oh, I'm upstanding" and go off to an area where guards can see you while the bounty is in that limbo and hasn't actually decayed to zero yet.

Luvtantius_Micocia · March 2016

My workaround now is to go first to an Outlaws Refuge to avoid losing my loot, and when I gain some bounty I just wait till it has cooled down again. Then I step out, wait some time to see if I gained a bounty again and if not, try my luck by passing a guard by looking him in the eyes and say "good day sir!"

Enodoc · March 2016

sirinsidiator wrote: »

@ZOS_Gideon there is also another case where the guard is trying to collect a bounty of 0.
I had 0 bounty, tried to pickpocket an NPC, but failed and then after 3 minutes (thanks to the TG passive) the bounty went down to 0 again, but there was still heat on me. Then I walked past a guard who stopped me and tried to make me pay 0 gold.

That's strange, Bounty shouldn't decay at all while you have Heat. (I think there's a similar bug with Trespassing, as bounty you gain while Trespassing will also decay while you still have full Heat from being in the Restricted Area.)

Luvtantius_Micocia · March 2016

Enodoc wrote: »

sirinsidiator wrote: »

@ZOS_Gideon there is also another case where the guard is trying to collect a bounty of 0.
I had 0 bounty, tried to pickpocket an NPC, but failed and then after 3 minutes (thanks to the TG passive) the bounty went down to 0 again, but there was still heat on me. Then I walked past a guard who stopped me and tried to make me pay 0 gold.

That's strange, Bounty shouldn't decay at all while you have Heat. (I think there's a similar bug with Trespassing, as bounty you gain while Trespassing will also decay while you still have full Heat from being in the Restricted Area.)

The bounty does not decay while there is still "heat" on a character. The problem is that the bounty appears to be gone but due to a bug there actually still is a bounty on your charachter. Changing zones forces to resync which often means when you do this right after your bounty dropped to zero you will see that you all the sudden gained some bounty again. If you will not change regions, and think you have no bounty you might get a surprise when a guard stops you and demands you to pay 0 gold and hand over the loot you stole.