Avoiding Fines "I fought The Law..."

[Chimera San]

Good morning everyone. My first post on this forum and looking forward to joining the community and perhaps making some pals.

 

Before outlining my problem, I've listed some information that may or may not be relevant to my issue.

 

My setup is:

The Elder Scrolls III (GOTY Edition) for the PC platform.

Note: I installed the Morrowind disc which was already patched (Ver. 1.2.0722). I then installed the Tribunal disc. I noticed that it wasn't the lastest version (1.4.1313) so I downlodaded the patch and brought it up to date before installing the Bloodmoon expansion which was current at version 1.6.1820. Finally I installed three Mods:

 

1. area_effect_arrows.

2. better heads.

3. better bodies.

All of these Mods appear to function fine in the game.

 

Additional:

My system is a 2 GHz Pentium 4 with,

256 MB of RAM running on OS,

Windows XP Home Edition.

 

My device drivers are up to date to the best of my knowledge.

 

So with that in mind my problem has to do with using taunt. I've read over and over that if you taunt an NPC into striking the first blow (dealing you damage) that you can retaliate without getting a price on your head. This doesn't seem to be working correctly for me.

 

 

Here are some scenarios:

 

* I taunt a lone Ordinator (the one just outside "Vivec, arena storage" for example) into attacking me. I kill him but still get hit with a 40 gold fine.

 

* In the "Larrius Varo" quest to rid Balmora of the Commona Tong at the Council Club I taunt ONE of the five targeted individuals. This entices ALL FIVE targets to attack me including the bar tender. As I take damage from each individual, I kill them in self defense but now I get charged with foul murder at 1000 gold a pop (except for the last individual, I guess because no one witnesses his/her demise).

 

* This one really kills me; literally. I decide to rest in The South Wall Cornerclub in Balmora. I pay my 10 drakes for the bed and then awake to a loud noise. This is of course a Dark Brotherhood assassin come to do me in. Now here's what gets me. I allow the assassin to deal me some damage and then kill him. This should be self defense, right? Not for me. I get 40 gold on my head for striking the assassin AND the entire Thieves Guild joins in with the assassin in trying to kill me! And when I finally do kill the assassin (while I simultaniously avoid hitting any members of the Thieves guild) I get 1000 gold on my head for foul murder! If I don't kill the assassin, then everytime I enter the South Wall, it's "ARRRGH!, You will suffer greatly!!!" and the assassin resumes his attack, which no one in the South Wall seems to mind. Frustration!

 

* That nude Nord outside Caldera that got his "Cloud Cleaver" swiped? Well, I refuse to help him slaughter the "witch" so he goes medieval on me. Had some fun with him like damaging all his attributes to zero and boxing him to the ground a few times but I didn't kill him and headed back to Caldera, turning and snickering ever so often as he pursued me. One thing I'll give him is he wouldn't give up. Back in Caldera he proceeded with going knuckles upside my head. The "guards" didn't protect me by the way; I thought I read some where that they were supposed to. Anyway, I boxed him to the ground a few more times. The guards didn't interfere. I got tired of him getting back up and punching me all the time though so I finally killed him. That was when every guard in Caldera went ballistic on me. I didn't even taunt this Nord. I thought for sure I'd be justified under self defense. Nope. More foul murder for me.

 

The list goes on and on. Whether it's me using taunt or frenzy or an assassin coming out of no where, if defend myself and some one sees it, I get gold on my head. The only time this doesn't seem to be the case is if I enter a cave of outlaws. Then I can just go up and revoke their breathing privilges regardless of whether or not another outlaw sees the carnage. Sigh.

 

I've tried to figure this out on my own and searched the boards but I haven't been able to find a resolution to this problem or even a post from some one with this exact problem. I know about not wearing Indoril armor and talking to Ordinators and I don't steal anything (I toggle full help on before I pick an item up to make sure it doesn't have an owner), so I don't think that has anything to do with it.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Sincerely,

Chimera...

---------------------------------------------------------------

"It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you."

[Switch]

That is totally bizarre. Just when you think you've heard every glitch Morrowind could possibly have, someone comes up with another one. :P

 

I'm not sure what to suggest. Are you sure those are the only mods you're running?

 

If you taunt them until the red "Goodbye" comes up, and they land a hit on you, and then you hit them and kill them, you shouldn't be fined. That sounds like what you did, and yet you were fined.

 

I can't think of any way to explain this other than a mod conflict or something that happened during installation... though installing each expansion and updating them individually, Morrowind, patch, Tribunal, patch, Bloodmoon, patch in that order is the right way to go. So... that shouldn't be a problem.

 

All I can suggest is trying a complete reinstall... :/ or you could try starting a new game without any mods and see if the problem is still there.

 

Oh and, welcome to the forums. ;)

[super squirrel]

the other idea is join the theives guild, get mark+recall, and set up mark next to a bounty taker. loot dead bodies (DB assasain armor gets alot of cash) to get enough money.

 

if all goes wrong, press the tilde (`) key (next to the 1 key) and type in TAI.

[ThetaOrionis01]

super_squirrel, I'm sure you're trying to be helpful, but please look at the date of the last previous post before offering advice.

 

Please read up on the forum rules, in particular the section dealing with thread necromancy.