Lockpick revamp?

[WrathOfDeadguy]

I had a thought not too long ago- how do lockpicks actually work? In the real world, a lockpick is typically a cleverly shaped piece of metal that can be used to pop the pins in a lock up so as to open the lock. While it is certainly possible to break a lockpick, doing so makes it a royal pain in the posterior to open the lock, and you're much more likely to bend or warp the pick than break it outright anyway.

 

I was just wondering if there were any way to script the lockpicks in Oblivion to behave in a similar fashion.

 

See, it feels a bit more than odd to have my characters lugging around several hundred lockpicks until they're Lvl 10 and can just get the skeleton key. Who does that? The only reason folks do that is so that they won't have to get stuck every time their pick breaks. What if lockpicks worked in such a way as to make all those extra picks unnecessary? Here's a little list of features I'd like to see on lockpicks:

 

- Each lockpick has HP, just as weapons and armor items do.

- Lockpick HP is degraded every time a tumbler falls (when the lockpick would normally have broken).

- The amount of HP taken away each time is dependent on the Security skill (say 50HP at novice, 40 at apprentice, 30 at journeyman, 20 at expert, and 10 at master).

- You can fix lockpicks with the armorer skill as you would armor and weapons (think of it as hammering the pick flat again after it gets bent or twisted).

- If a lockpick reaches 0 HP, it does break- play the breaking lockpick animation and remove the pick from the player's inventory.

- When a lockpick breaks, to simulate the pick having broken off in the lock, the lock is switched to 'needs a key' for the normal reset period of three days so that the player can't just keep trying with a new pick (after all, somebody needs to come and service the silly thing in order to clear the lock out). When this happens, a message pops up informing the player that the lock is jammed and they'll need to try again later.

- If possible, the wait period after a broken pick would be disabled for a Security expert or master; with 75 or above in Security you could clear the lock out yourself.

- Lockpicks would have a weight of 0.1 each, to discourage players from carrying hundreds or thousands of them at a time.

 

Currently the Security skill is a joke. It's all about timing; if you miss, you lose a lockpick, but somehow you're able to just try again and again until you get it or you're out of lockpicks. However, alterations like the ones above would add value to each individual lockpick. Lockpicks would no longer be 'that annoying thing I only use because I can't get the Skeleton Key yet.' Instead, they would be the 'weapon' of the Thief- a tool that, used with proper skill and care, opens all doors. Having each lockpick be an item unto itself (instead of, like gold, something which is basically a currency not valuable at all on its own) would be of great benefit to characters who may not necessarily want to do the Nocturnal quest, or for players who would just like an alternative to the crappy lockpicking system currently in place. It would also place some actual value in the Security skill; right now the only difference between a novice and a master is how many picks you go through before the autoplay opens the lock for you. Now, these lockpicks would still pale in comparison to the Skeleton Key, but they would be a viable alternative. There are, after all, many thieves and only one Skeleton Key, and I just can't see every thief in Oblivion running around with a backpack full of extra picks as many of use presently do.

 

If all this were implemented, a master of Security would really have a big advantage over a novice, and a novice would have a real reason to take their time and be careful on each and every lock they pick (since, after all, you're likely to jam the lock with a broken pick if you're in a hurry). Having that one lockpick when you're locked in prison would be a much cooler thing after this modification, also- for a Security master, it would become a real get out of jail free card. Masters are, after all, supposed to be the best at what they do, and a master's lockpick under a mod like this would literally have five times the value of a novice's pick due to the difference in HP taken away when a pin falls- and that's another incentive to work on that Security skill if you're going to be a criminal. It would also remove a lot of the hassle of saving and reloading if you screw up just once with your last lockpick. There would also be an incentive to seek out Security trainers; it would be quite a pain for lower-levels to have to wait so long after every broken pick, and trainers would help them get that skill up faster.

 

Basically, I'm looking for a lockpick that you would only need a handful of as a master, reworked so that a novice has a real reason to get cracking on their skill (the burden of so many extra lockpicks in their pockets and the delay after every time they actually break a pick), which behave more or less like real lockpicks do. IMHO, something like this would do more for Thief-type characters' depth than any ten other mods out there right now. If any or all of this is possible, I'd positively love to see it happen. :)

[Sypron]

I'd like to see this being possible too, but the sad thing is, it isn't. At least not feasibly. It would take too long a time too get it working, and then it would probably be buggy. I still like the idea tho, seems alot more realistic. Maybe in TES:V. At least oblivion's lockpicking was a step up from morrowind. In morrowind, you get a lockpick, they each have a set amount of uses (i think 25) after which they break. To use them, you equipt it and stab to door. The security skill kinda worked like chance, 30 skill, 30% of success (not exactly, but thats pretty much it). I've ditched security as a major skill, simply because i'm so good at the mini game I can unlock 5 pins with level 10 security. Anyway, heres hoping against all odds someone will make this.