Exactly, it's as silly as it sounds, but it's the way it worked, likely due to a bug they never ended up fixed. In fact, I think that behavior continued into GTAV, the first GTA featuring animals. It was part of the flawed witness system. I wish I could find an article that talked about it as I knew about one, but since RDR2's release it's overtaken the original game in search results.
Number one and three. Wow. I've done the ol' body in the campfire trick too. Although I try to keep Arthur's honour level high. If I've killed innocent NPCs then it's accidental. (Pure stupidity.) It took a while to get used to the horse controls so I can relate to ramming into stuff. The absolute worst thing that I did in the game was kill guard dogs. (It was in self defence but still horrible.) As an experiment, I wondered what would happen if I took one to the butcher in Valentine. Luckily, I didn't make it to the butcher and abandoned the experiment. It shows how realistic the reactions are.
I always feel guilty when I hit people while running around in Saint Denis. It’s just so hard to navagate when there’s so many people running around. I have a question for you guys, say you’re helping someone get home (like one of those random quests when people need a favor) and you die. Does the quest reappear somewhere?
As far as I know, I think it does. I think you just have to wait several days or maybe even hours before it will appear again. Then again, I ended up dying during those horse races and haven't been able to try that particular one again. Some of those things are annoying like that. They're not quite stranger missions, but they're unique events that does have the stranger take you to a specific place.
Had a somewhat funny occurence while playing today. In Rhodes, I encountered someone near the church grieving for someone that was put in a grave. I greeted them, and I think I upset him because he then told me I ought to respect someone who's grieving. Then I turned and greeted someone who was leaning by the church and Arthur went on about how respect was underrated, how there could never be enough of it in the world. Speaking of the witness system going off the rails, I encountered a random event while roaming the streets of Saint-Denis. Kids were hollering at me to try to get my attention. I got off my horse to see what they would do. They retreated into an alley and followed them, and it appeared to be a trap. Suddenly I'm surrounded by men who all want me to put my hands up. Well, I wasn't going to go down quietly. It all happened quickly, but someone came at me, I grabbed their gun and ended up shooting one of them and next thing I know I'm wanted for murder. I guess it's what you'd call an alley holdup. "But honest, Officer, I was just defending myself!"
Oh, that's nothing. The bit in St. Denis where you meet a character you previously intimidated for Strauss and they call for the cops as "this man is bothering me!" can escalate to a high bounty pretty damn quick since evading the law bumps it up and there's almost no way of getting out of the search radius without a horse - even if you get your trusty steed, you'll need to ride fast in crowded streets so chances of hitting folk AND more cops will occasionally spot you. There's no way to turn yourself in that I can find either...
I can't remember if I encountered that one or not. I know I did encounter someone saying that, but wasn't sure how it came about, and remember being really confused since it seemed to come out of nowhere and hadn't made the connection. Maybe it is the same thing. Just really weird how it just totally blindsides you. All I remember thinking was, "How the hell am I bothering you?" There's one mission in which you help Arthur's Ex Mary recover a brooch. After he sells it, you have to catch up with the coach, jump onto it and take control of it. The problem is, if your horse isn't nearby, you have to use a random horse. I had a hell of a time as I couldn't get close enough to it without the horse getting exhausted due to low stamina. Even with my own horse, a black Arabian, I had trouble catching up and wondered it maybe it was adjusted its speed to be even faster. It was getting a little ridiculous. Then finally when I managed to jump onto the cart and take control of it, I had managed to crash it straight into a tree. Couldn't move. Had to shoot the guy in order to restart from the checkpoint.
It got me the first time too as the character looks different due to their circumstances but: Spoiler it's the wife of the guy you beat up for Strauss in Chapter 2 who later died. She's been forced into prostitution because of you taking the debt. Needless to say she ain't happy to see you.
That's an amazing detail! Normally these things would be over and done with and you'd never hear from them again, but I love that there are repercussions. I don't remember GTAV having that level of detail. Speaking of detail, in the northeast end of Saint-Denis, there's a small saloon. The first time I went there, the owner was outside and was complaining about rats being in his saloon and asking for someone to go in there and exterminate them. And so I went in ans sure enough there are rats that you need to take care of. As an aside, here's an interesting article about the vaudeville shows. I think I'm going to start spending more time there. https://kotaku.com/red-dead-redemption-2-s-vaudeville-shows-are-more-than-1833099462
Well, there is a reason for it (Arthur's fate spoilers): Spoiler Her husband is the guy you caught TB from, and after you get diagnosed you can find her again whoring in Annesburg, with her son forced to work in the mines. You can opt to save him from a bullying mine boss, and give them enough cash to make a new life. She never forgives you, but I think there's a cutscene in the end credits that suggests you turned their fortunes around. There's a reason that particular Strauss mission is mandatory.
Y'know, I never tried that, nor did it occur to me to try. The story immediately swept me up in meeting Trelawny and the consequences thereof so well, I didn't even realise this was possible.
This game continues to be a tour de force! Rockstar has really nailed atmosphere in this game. I just recently got done the mission in the swamp where you've got to wade in search of someone knowing there's something out there, and I thought that mission oozed atmosphere. And there are so many things that keep surprising me just when I think I've seen everything. I also just maxed honor. I thought I was much further away from doing that, but I had finished doing a stranger mission when it pushed me over the edge.
I started another play through with the exact same intentions, but got bored in the snow levels and resumed my John Marston playthough. (I have been playing John as a dishonorable douche, though )