When I completed the side-mission, Water and Honesty, I received money from the stanger and +Fame; I was riding fast towards MacFarlane's ranch to save the game, during which power went off in my apartment.
Now when I restarted playing when the power resumed, I couldn't see this side mission appearing again. I assume that my PS3 saved this side-quest as completed. Now the question is, would it have saved my increased fame and money? I didn't see any Saving… animation on the left top corner of my TV.
Likewise, when I completed Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit, I looted the bodies of the bandits I'd neutralised, also my honor was increased moments back when the Marshal left me. With these I was going to save the game, while couple of men were chasing another, when I shot one of them, it turned out that they're lawmen, so a bounty was set on me; I reloaded the last auto saved game and it didn't show this mission any more.
The questions are: When does auto-save kick in? What all does it save? When are fame, honor and money saved? When are mission (both main and side) completions saved?
Best Answer
My answers are based on information found at the wiki.
In answer to your questions:
Auto saving happens after missions are completed, or when changing game settings. The definition of mision included both "Water and Honesy" (and all other Stranger Side-Missions) and "Spare the Rod, Spoil the Bandit" (offered by Leigh Johnson).
The wiki does not make a distinction between a manual save and an auto-save.
I would expect (based on the above) that they are save for either type of save.
After any Mission, the game will Auto-Save. I would take this to mean that mission completions are stored in the last auto-save.