Bounty? WTF?

[YodaMan 3D]

So I am riding along minding my own business and come across a shay deal being done off the side road.  No one else around.  So I step up to the plate, put my mask on, and at my arrival the deal goes south quick.  Long story short, lots of bad people dead, no one lived but me.  I loot steal the wagon, poor horses no longer have owners, so I take them to a place to find them a new home.  Riding along a minute or so down the road and take off the mask, immediately get a bounty for $450+.  No saw me, COME ON!  That happened twice.  So on the last attempt, I leave the mask on all the way to the Fence.  Boom no Bounty.  

So my question is why exactly does a man riding around without a mask, "Yep, I bet that 's the guy whol killed all those men and stole their wagon" TWICE vs "Hey look there is a guy riding in a wagon filled dynamite with a mask on, being followed by a Arabian horse with blood all over his nice clothes carrying a bloody stone ax, pulling into Emerald Ranch at the Fence there.  I doubt he's a bad guy that deserves a bounty."

To be clear, I "dead eyed" the bad guys no sign of blood on me the 1st two times.  Last time I went total Jason Vorhees with the stone ax.  No witnesses anytime of the 3 tries.

Can anyone explain this to me?

[Moosh89]

No idea, but I had a similar "WTF?" moment last night...

I was on "An American Pastoral Scene" and after the mission ended and I was just mounting up to leave the river, there was a "red eye" witness, so I rode up to him, and roped him off his horse. I dismounted and when I approached him, it gave the option to hogtie him. I figured I'd get to intimidate him, then cut him loose, but as soon as I hogtied him, it was like he somehow still notified the law, despite laying on his belly on the river bank. "WANTED", thankfully the mission auto-equips the bandana mask, so I wasn't named, but I still had to hightail it out of there, nearly got spotted by the Marshalls but the WANTED soon faded.

[shawn]

I think there is something off in the system. I had this happen to me before. I had done some really nasty things in front of people and no one bats an eye but I accidentally shot someone and BAM! I am a wanted man. 

[Volt]

I noticed something similar last night. I was attempting to do one of the Challenges.

Spoiler

The bandit one of robbing people of their horses and selling them to a fence.

 

I figured to make things easier, I'd camp a road near the NPC for this. On the plus side, it was always a very short wait until someone on a horse came traveling along the road. On the negative side, it was also a short time before some new person came down the road to witness what I had just done. But there was always a short window of time for me to do something about it. If I killed my target, then the witness would see their body on the road. I could sometimes take their body and hide it off the road. Then there would be no problem with any witness. But then I'd have to try to find their horse that ran off. I also tried lassoing them and hog tieing them. I forget if that would cause a witness to "WITNESS" or report anything. But after a short period of time, they'd untie themselves and chase after me.

In general, I noticed that using a mask helped with not causing things to turn into a bounty against me. Though, there would usually be a short period of their being a red area on the map that I had to run out of as that investigation/searching phases would occur. The game seems to spawn potential witnesses close to where this all goes down. So even if survey the area in a 360 degree sweep, there may be someone that will spawn behind and near me. I assume it's a game design issue. 

Doing stuff like this seems easiest to pull off without any witnesses when I do it away from towns, and roads. Doing it in towns seems to always guarantee multiple witnesses. Doing it on the roads seems to result in at least 1 witness. Doing it in the wilderness seems to result in 0 witnesses. At least that's been my casual observation with my game.

[Kormath]

always wear the bandanna when doing anything criminally related if you don't want a bounty or red honor points.   Witnesses won't know who you are, they just report the crime (unless you haven't changed clothes and are doing criminal activities repeatedly in the same area).

I just finished bandit mission @Volt is talking about.  

Spoiler

It took me maybe 30 - 45 minutes, give or take a few.  I'd sit on my horse in the creek bed just to the northeast of the Fence.  Wait till a lone horseman rode by across the bridge and pop them in the head.  3 of the 5 fell off the horse on the bridge.  I'd pick them up and toss them over the side and they weren't seen by others riding by.  Eagle Eye works well for that.  the other 2 got drug off into the fields on either side and i didn't have to worry about witnesses for them.  Only had 1 witness see me on the bridge dropping a body over the side.  Popped him in the head and his horse drug him off into the field also.  

 

[Truth]

3 hours ago, Volt said:

I was attempting to do one of the Challenges.

1 hour ago, Kormath said:

I just finished bandit mission @Volt is talking about.

Spoiler

Does it have to be a specific fence? I stole 2 horses (and sold them) but didn't get credit for them.

Or do I actually have to choose the "rob" option on them?

First one I shot the guy and just rode the horse over, second one I hopped off my horse onto his (forcing him off of it) and sold it.

[Kormath]

1 minute ago, Truth said:

  Hide contents

Does it have to be a specific fence? I stole 2 horses (and sold them) but didn't get credit for them.

Or do I actually have to choose the "rob" option on them?

First one I shot the guy and just rode the horse over, second one I hopped off my horse onto his (forcing him off of it) and sold it.

Spoiler

You unlock the horse fence in chapter 3.  When Dutch has you go to the Grays or the Braithewaits, go to the Braithewaits and do that mission.

 

[Truth]

1 minute ago, Kormath said:

  Hide contents

You unlock the horse fence in chapter 3.  When Dutch has you go to the Grays or the Braithewaits, go to the Braithewaits and do that mission.

 

I already did that (I'm on chapter 4 now)...

[Volt]

7 minutes ago, Truth said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Does it have to be a specific fence? I stole 2 horses (and sold them) but didn't get credit for them.

Or do I actually have to choose the "rob" option on them?

First one I shot the guy and just rode the horse over, second one I hopped off my horse onto his (forcing him off of it) and sold it.

I wondered about this too, before starting it. And the answer is ...

 

Spoiler

You take your stolen horse to the Horse Fence. Different from the other Fences. The Horse Fence I used was the one northwest of Rhodes. It gets revealed during after a mission in Chapter 3. It looks like a Horse Shoe icon on the map. It's those 2 brothers, one talks and the other doesn't. That hang out by a wagon near the water. 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2018 by Volt

[Kormath]

2 minutes ago, Volt said:

I wondered about this too, before starting it. And the answer is ...

 

  Hide contents

You take your stolen horse to the Horse Fence. Different from the other Fences. The Horse Fence I used was the one northwest of Rhodes. It gets revealed during after a mission in Chapter 3.

 

Ah yes.  The horse fence has a Stables icon on the map, just a bit north of camp.