RDR1 random encounter question

[sunhuntin]

OK, so I am still all about RDR1, mainly for the hunting side of things. Sometimes, I will see two folks standing together, a man and a woman. No campfire, just them. If i ride up and dismount the horse, both will make a dash for it. If I let one of them get on, and then pull them down again, I am treated like a horse thief.
If I whistle for a new horse while staying on mine, both will run for it and one will climb on. Whistling a second new horse means the other person can get one as well. Once done, they will both just stay where they are, on their horses. Just for fun, I whistled a donkey once, but they both ignored it.

There does not seem to be any purpose to this, and I wonder if I am missing something. There appears to be no change to the honor rating or anything else.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

I've had this with various different people (not just a man and woman) and it feels like some kind of glitch/unintended thing rather than an actual random event. It's hard to tell for sure because not all random events are marked on the map though. I've also had it happen where someone's horse was killed (eg by a wild animal) or someone was left with nothing to do after a random event (eg they were being chased by sheriffs but the sheriffs were killed and they got away) and they ran up and took mine in this way. Also always seems to happen when out in the wilderness.

 

So I think it could be a random event where it's supposed to be stranded people looking to steal a horse to get out of the wilderness (which maybe is glitched so they don't ride away). But more likely there's just some kind of mechanic for "stranded" people to steal available horses that comes into play in a weird way, or another glitch. There's a legit random event where someone will ask you for help but then pull you off your horse and steal it so maybe it's related to that, like a glitched version of that mechanic.

Edited May 18, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[sunhuntin]

That is a good possibility, that it is broken somehow. I would love to see what they are meant to do.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

Yeah I definitely think it's something broken. Just don't know whether it's a broken random event or just broken NPC behaviour.