Hey chaps and chappettes,

So I'm not going to go all overblown with a rant here as everyone's had an opinion on the quest design at some point on here. I am however going to give you a brief run down of my experience whilst playing through the Dark Brotherhood quest line. If you don't want spoilers on this front then I suggest you stop reading now. I'll try not to give the game away totally but it's impossible to not mention certain aspects.

So suffice to say I was ordered to kill someone who lives in a particular city, let's call it City X. All good. I was also told that I was to kill this someone in a very public way in front of a lot of witnesses in City X. Again no problem whatsoever there. So I I go to City X, kill the target in front of 50 witnesses and promptly leg it. Great.

I then go back to collect my reward and am given another target to kill. Excellent. I'm told that in order to receive a bonus I mustn't kill this target on the road but in a major city. Now because of a bug with a certain item detailing where said target will be on certain days I had to just follow said target to the first major city and try and kill them there. 'What city is this?', I here you ask. Well it's City X. You know the one where I'm now wanted for murdering someone very publicly. Upon entering City X I am immediately set upon by every guard in the place and my target joins in the ass kicking too. So I reload and try again. This time I agree to pay the bounty. After paying the bounty I am teleported to the guard station and upon returning to my original position find that the target has [censored] off. I reload again. This time I just kill the bastard on the road and ignore the reward I'm now going to lose out on. Sigh.

So I go back to collect my quest reward (and get a dressing down for not killing the target as instructed) and receive another quest which instructs me to go and meet with a guard leader. Guess where he resides? Yep, City X. So I change my clothes in a vain attempt to enter the city undetected but am promptly attacked on sight once again the moment the game loads up. I run like a lunatic and find solace in the shadows. I bide my time and find my way to the guard I am supposed to meet. I walk up to him and am immediately attacked by his merry band of guards and the man himself. Ugh. Right so at this point I decide to reload AGAIN and pay off my bounty before I go for the meet. Success at last.

Now I know what a few of you Bethesda nut huggers are going to say, 'Well you should've just paid the bounty in the first place, duh'. Well yes I probably should have in retrospect, but why the [censored] should I have to use my psychic future powers to make up for the world's [censored]test quest design? At no point did someone not raise an objection to having someone publicly murder a VIP in a certain city, resulting in a huge bounty, and then having the rest of the quest line take place in the exact same area? I mean I'm supposed to be a great assassin with the Dark Brotherhood, not a [censored] who has to pay guards to leave him alone. I mean from a logic stand point what happened was ludicrous. I murdered a VIP in front of everyone, paid off a bounty for said murder and then promptly met up with the head of security while a massive security overhaul was taking place to avoid an even bigger VIP from also being killed. Yeh sign that design off baby!

Despite everything I am really enjoying this game, BUT it is criminally unfinished and IMO should've been kept in development for some serious polishing before release. What we've got is a game that is like a big tease. Hey you could be playing something incredible but we really couldn't be bothered to go the extra ten yards to get it to that point, so enjoy this buggy beta instead!

edit:

Oh and yes I realise just how ironic my initial statement about not going on a rant is. What can I say, I like to rant

Being a veteran to Elder Scrolls games I realised I would get a bounty when I got the quest.

So I made very sure that no-one saw me and I did not get a bounty.

Oh, and for the guy you have to follow around:

I killed the guy you're talking about in his sleep, because I made sure to wait until the day he would be in the least secure location (hint hint: it's a tavern).

Zero bounty received. Maybe it's not the game design, but you just svck at assassinating people?

Dont get caught?

That's fair enough but how on Earth did you do it with noone seeing you? I did the deed at the exact moment I was told to and as I had to leave the area via an area that needed to be loaded was immediately seen by everyone because they are alerted the moment you kill the target. Yeh I could've just shot them from a distance but that would've ended my chance of the bonus

Or maybe you just svck at reading between the lines. That is the target after this whole section and I did exactly what you did. I'm talking about the girl YOU HAVE TO KILL IN FRONT OF THE WHOLE TOWN

And Diosys, did you even read what I said? There is no getting caught. I was instructed to kill the target PUBLICLY. In fact I was told to kill the target IN FRONT OF WITNESSES to ensure maximum attention to her being murdered by the Dark Brotherhood. So how exactly am I supposed to not get caught and get caught at the exact same time?

edit: The only possible way I could have killed her publicly at that moment I was told to would've been to have shot her from a distance. But I'm on master difficulty and it would've taken a good 30 seconds worth of arrows to achieve this. I probably wouldn't have had time anyway. Also, the area I am supposed to kill her in is an area that needs loading so I had to be in that area to kill her at the specific time. The area is literally a balcony, so shooting from a distance is actually impossible

You're thinking of: Getting detected on that mission is scripted; Astrid even warns you that you will be held accountable for your actions in the Dark Brotherhood, and this is one of those instances. The rest of the missions, to my knowledge, can be completed without being detected.

Now, the mission that OP is talking about is the one where

Maybe you should have found a way to kill the girl in public without being seen. No bounties. No problems.

I give up with explaining this. As previously stated (not just by me), you are supposed to be seen doing it. That is the whole point of the mission. Weyman has made a decent point about Astrid pointing that out (I didn't pick up on that as I was playing late and had the volume fairly low). So getting caught is meant to happen. Fine. But having the next quests in the exact same place, and thus requiring me to pay off a bounty is just really shoddy. It totally breaks the illusion of being a stealthy character. I mean how does my assassin paying off a bounty for murder in the city then allow me to then walk around free to murder another person in the same city make sense? 'Oh you murdered someone but just pay this fine and you can carry on, and even be welcomed by security who are supposed to be protecting another VIP from assassins'. Seriously what the hell is that?

If they'd just made it a case of changing my attire from what I'd be seen in at the time to avoid detection then that would be fine.