You're that murderer! Archery Contest Bug

[Kalderus]

Has anyone else encountered a bug during the archery contest at the gamekeeper's cottage where randomly after the contest all the npcs begin running like crazy and screaming "you're that murderer!". I haven't murdered anyone in my entire playthrough, and ignored it thinking it would resolve itself, and went to complete the first part of "Bird of Prey" and when I returned, Vitek was trying to arrest me for murder.

I read that this bug may be due to a hostile charcoal burner showing up to attack Vitek's son and getting killed by AI, and the game randomly blaming you the player with the death. I already completed the "Handsome Charlie" quest for Gules, but only killed Charlie; however apparently it doesn't matter since doing the quest tanks your rep with all charcoal burners everywhere, causing them to hunt you all over the map, and in doing so, try to kill friendly npcs. When said npcs fight back and kill the deranged charcoal burners, YOU, Henry, get blamed for their murder and the very npcs who just defended themselves try to turn you into the bailiff.

Now, how do charcoal burners end up at Vitek's cottage archery range, you may ask? Well, they're one of the randomly generated NPC contestants. I've now tested this about 5 times and every time after a charcoal burner shows up and the contest ends, sometimes a few rounds later if I can go back to back wins to avoid exiting the contest-dialogue loop with Vitek's son, all the NPCs run like the wind screaming "you're that murderer!".

https://www.reddit.com/r/kingdomcome/comments/1ikwdkw/kcd2_anyone_else_dealing_with_archery_contest/

Flawless stuff there, Warhorse. According to reddit, a variation of this bug existed in KCD1:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kingdomcome/comments/9ic3au/randomly_accused_of_murder_during_archery_contest/

EDIT: I've now tested this a bajillion times, and what actually happens is every time a charcoal burner is a contestant, as soon as the contest ends (even after multiple rounds if you get back to back wins), the charcoal burner will ALWAYS accuse you of murderer and run off, causing all npcs in the vicinity to also run off and accuse you of murder.

[Kona]

Archery contests are kinda buggy in my experience. The npc ai sometimes seems to think you are waving around a weapon in public when you are just at an archery range shooting arrows.

[Darth Cannabis]

Did you actually turn in the killing of Charlie, and did you kill any charcoal burners?

Even if you annoy the burners when dealing with Charlie, not killing any of them GIVES YOU rep with them and 150 gold when you actually turn in and should offset it.

Only thing I can think of since, I have now killed Charlie on multiple play lines, and have not had an issue of tanking my rep with the charcoal burners.

[Kalderus]

I checked and weirdly I actually have 72 rep with the charcoal burners, so not perfect but not low enough to randomly get accused of murder. I did indeed turn in the Charlie quest and acquired his hat, having only ever killed Charlie himself, not via a duel since I seemingly had no option to talk to him, but he did become hostile and attacked me. Maybe Mutt attacked a charcoal burner and killed one? Even that makes little sense since they still have 72 rep with me.

[Kalderus]

Posting what I found on a similar reddit post that explains what's going on likely:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kingdomcome/comments/1iqb929/kcd2_im_being_randomly_attacked_by_people_of_the/

"This is happening to me. It seems to be a bug with the Handsome Charlie quest. Even if you don't kill or even attack any charcoal burners during that quest, and you either duel Charlie or only attack him after he becomes hostile within melee range, somehow the burners think it was murder and run off into the woods as murder witnesses. Now, normally charcoal burners don't interact with most other npcs since they're usually off secluded in distant rural areas, but the archery competition teleports one into areas with other regular npcs (Vitek's cottage or Trosky castle grounds quarry). At that point, the charcoal burner remembers your "murder" (even if the exact burner was never even there, the news seems to travel among anyone of that faction) and immediately accuses you of murder, causing all OTHER npcs around to also accuse you of murder and run off to call the guards or try to arrest you like certain stationary npcs like Vitek.


Try it yourself and test it. Get arrested for the murder and I guarantee the Bailiff will charge you with the murder of "Handsome Charlie". This needs a patch ASAP."

[exothermic]

Originally posted by Kalderus:

Posting what I found on a similar reddit post that explains what's going on likely:

https://www.reddit.com/r/kingdomcome/comments/1iqb929/kcd2_im_being_randomly_attacked_by_people_of_the/

"This is happening to me. It seems to be a bug with the Handsome Charlie quest. Even if you don't kill or even attack any charcoal burners during that quest, and you either duel Charlie or only attack him after he becomes hostile within melee range, somehow the burners think it was murder and run off into the woods as murder witnesses. Now, normally charcoal burners don't interact with most other npcs since they're usually off secluded in distant rural areas, but the archery competition teleports one into areas with other regular npcs (Vitek's cottage or Trosky castle grounds quarry). At that point, the charcoal burner remembers your "murder" (even if the exact burner was never even there, the news seems to travel among anyone of that faction) and immediately accuses you of murder, causing all OTHER npcs around to also accuse you of murder and run off to call the guards or try to arrest you like certain stationary npcs like Vitek.


Try it yourself and test it. Get arrested for the murder and I guarantee the Bailiff will charge you with the murder of "Handsome Charlie". This needs a patch ASAP."

I apparently reproduced the same bug with the same sequence of events. Would appreciate it if the devs could patch this quickly.

[alka]

I also had a bug at the Huntsman's archery competition. Charcoal burner reputation tanked to zero.

In my case, as soon as I started the contest, Vitek and one of the NPC archers would start beating up the other NPC archer.

It (Huntman's archery comp bug) was happening to me before I started the 'Handsome Charlie' questline though.

Some bugged quests definitely starting to appear, will need patching.

[exothermic]

addendum to my previous post:

After waiting 3 days or so (after turning in the Handsome Charlie quest) I went back to Gules to inquire about his next job for me. When i spoke to him he gave me an award from the charcoal-burners for sparing their lives. After the dialogue concluded I was also rewarded reputation with them. This fixed the problem for me. Charcoal burners are now neutral with me. Not sure if others are still having the bug, but mine has resolved. Posting in hopes that maybe it works for others.

[Oozy Monster]

The charcoal burners continued to hate me because I looted their huts, though they did give me the 150 silver for sparing them.

I had a similar problem where the charcoal burner accused me of theft during the archery competition and attacked me. I ran off and put him down away from prying eyes.

[臣聖]

Burner reputation become 0 after you can receive the quest handsome charlie
don't choose 1 v 1 duel to avoid burner witness you kill him, you better choose assassination to finish this quest, and leave immediately
burner reputation reset to 100 when you can receive the quest of next target from Gules

[ParasiteX]

I did have one time where one NPC stepped in front of my arrow. And this mainly happened because i had done several contests in a row, which caused the place to get rather.. crowded..

[Joe]

Best bug I got during the archery contest was suddenly two contestants punching it out against each other till one pulled out a mace.

[Lemdog420]

my fav was the quarry range where 3 people walked across targets in middle of a match

that is until i was doing the contest poster is talking about. yes, happened to me lol. a contestant started fighting the game warden's son at the start, i skewered him and saved the lad. was crazy

now the range in kuttenburg crashes my game, i get no joy from that one