LE proper system of bounties

[qaswedrftg]

The system of crime bounties in vanilla Skyrim is utterly absurd. How can a bounty come into effect the moment I commit a crime? How can a bounty be issued when I kill people without being seen? Last time I checked there were no mobile phones and surveillance cameras in Skyrim.

 

I wish someone would create a mod with more realistic bounty rules, for example like this:

 

 

As in the vanilla game, a bounty can be issued by an imaginary bounty authority in a hold capital. It can happen on three grounds.

 

I. Victim report

When the victim gets killed as a result of the crime, or didn't see that it was you who committed it, there will be no victim report.

Otherwise, there is a 90% probability that the victim will decide to report the crime (100% when he is able to see a guard during or shortly after the crime). If he does, he will go to the nearest guarded settlement. (It is not necessary for the mod to actually walk him there, it's sufficient to calculate the approximate time he would normally need to get there.) There he will report the crime to a guard. There is a 99% probability (96% if the settlement is not the hold capital) that the guard will pass the info on to the bounty authority. If he does, there is a 99% probability that the authority decides to act upon the crime info by issuing a bounty.

If the victim is acquainted with you (i.e. knows your name), the bounty will be issued against you. If he isn't, there is a 25% chance that he will be able to describe you precisely enough for the authority to be able to identify you. In the case of the remaining 75%, no bounty will be issued (because the identity of the perpetrator is unknown) but when you get acquainted with the victim, he has a 90% chance (decreasing as the time passes) to recognise you, in which case there is a 90% chance (decreasing slightly as the time passes) that he will report it, and again the usual probabilities for the guard relaying the information to the authority and the authority acting upon it, but in this case it would seem that both probabilities should decrease slightly with time.

 

II. Witness report

When there is an NPC who sees the crime, there is a probability of 30% that he'll decide to report it (95% when he is able to see a guard during or shortly after witnessing the crime). Other than the victim, the witness will complete any unfinished business he may have, and only then go to the nearest guarded settlement. Everything else is the same as with the witness, except that his base probability of reporting you when recognising you later is 50%.

When there are several witnesses, the relevant probabilities will be calculated for each one of them independently.

When a guard is witnessing your crime, or is rushing in when someone cries for help, he won't count as a witness. Instead, it is assumed that the crime has been duly reported to that guard by the victim and every non-guard witness with the probability of 100% and without any delay. The same is the case when a guard is the victim, survives the crime and sees the perpetrator.

 

III. Clues

With the probability of 10% in a hold capital, 5% in a lesser settlement and 1..5% in the countryside, depending on the distance from a settlement (all these probabilities multiplied by a factor no greater than 1, depending on the hold), it is assumed that you have left behind some clues which will give away that the perpetrator was you. The time of discovery is calculated according to the distance from the nearest guarded settlement plus a reasonable delay to conduct the investigation. There will be the usual percentage for the bounty authority to actually act upon the crime info.

 

In each three cases, when a bounty is issued, it will take a certain amount of time for the information to be relayed to all guarded settlements in the hold. Only then will the bounty actually become valid.

 

Of course you won't know about the bounty until you enter any of the guarded settlements in that hold or talk to any member of any khajiit caravan (They have their ways of being informed of things.) Let's say you also have a 50% chance to learn about the bounty when talking to a route horsecart driver to whom you haven't talked during the last two weeks.

 

Soldiers and Thalmor count as guards (except that they can report, not to any hold capital, but only to the nearest friendly one; also they take longer to pass on the info, and the probability of doing it is smaller). The Dawnguard, Vigilants of Stendarr etc. don't.

 

It is not impossible that the authorities mistakenly issue more than one bounty against you for the same crime because they don't know it's the same crime. (It can happen when, for instance, two witnesses report to different holds.) You won't be able to do anything about it.

 

Of course the issuing of a bounty can't depend on anyone's belonging to any "crime faction". (What does it even mean? Never mind, I don't want to know.)

However, the eagerness to report a crime could depend on that person's attitude towards you. Also, the eagerness of the guard and the bounty authority to take action against you could depend on your reputation in that hold (which decreases as a result).

It is disputable whether members of the Thieves' Guild, Dark Brotherhood, the Thalmor and such should report to the authorities. On the one hand, they don't respect the authorities, on the other hand they might be interested in using them in order to get you in trouble.

 

[NinjaWarriorPoet]

Perhaps a streamlined way to do this would be if no one sees the crime, there is a 10% chance per murder or 1000? gold stolen that an Inquisitor or Master Bounty Hunter or Witchhunter is generated to search for you. Keep the delayed crime reporting, but I think you're missing some the small town aspect to most of this. There's a whole lot more communication in small towns.

 

For a little more complication, you could add the attitude between you and the witness. If they like you they might not report it, if they're a little shady, maybe they try to blackmail you.

[lofgren]

You should not be incurring a bounty if nobody sees the crime. If the last witness to a crime is killed before the guard are informed, the bounty will be removed. Whether an npc reports a crime is determined by their responsibility actor value and belonging to a faction that cares about that crime. This is the way bounties work in vanilla Skyrim. If you are seeing something different in your game it must be a mod. Edited August 6, 2016 by lofgren

[qaswedrftg]

I think you're missing some the small town aspect to most of this. There's a whole lot more communication in small towns.

 

 

Indeed. I didn't think of that. Crime detection on clues ought to be more likely in a village than in a town.