Lockpicking Skills A Joke?

[AltreU]

I know people that have trouble anticipating the sweet spots on locks, so this tree is warranted. The tree also has more use than just picking locks, such as finding more loot. The perk that makes you a duplicate key for certain locks would be convenient for quick entry of favored loot spots.

[Beriallord]

There is a skeleton key in this game, same as in Oblivion. Which does make lockpicking perks kinda pointless.

 

Lock picking is pure luck, even if you know what you are doing, sometimes you get it with one pick, other times it might take 10 picks. There is no anticipation involved with guess work, and master locks with low skill have a very, very narrow sweet spot, meaning you could easily work all the way around the lock and miss the small sweet spot and end up using 20 picks without even turning it a little. Is it hard? No, its just luck. And most stuff that is master locked has a key somewhere that opens it. And from my experience, master locked chests don't necessarily hold any better loot than any other chest. So chances are you can just skip it and you aren't missing anything useful.

Edited November 18, 2011 by Beriallord

[ZomBBoognish]

Lock picking does seem too easy now. I really liked how it used to be about playing with the tumblers and trying to spot the proper timing. Made it seem more about practice and experience. Like some of the other people who commented, its more about how many picks you carry.

 

The best thing to fix this, for me, would be to make the locks unable to open after < x > broken picks. Realistically I think an old school locking mechanism could only have so many small pieces of broken metal in them before the tumblers wouldn't be able to function properly.

 

Hurry up and release our mod tools Bethesda. You guys are amazing, but it's always been the modding community that puts the frosting on the cake.

Edited November 18, 2011 by ZomBBoognish

[Tropxe]

Not only is it easy to open every difficulty of lock in a few picks, it's also easy to just steal keys off people and bypass the need to lockpick altogether. I wouldn't say it's just luck, either. There's a strategy to it. You don't just start at the top and move around incredibly slowly if you're on a master lock. You move between certain points that most often seem to be where it will open from. There's about 5 specific points, including the top, where it's usually on or near to the sweet spot. Also, if you tap the keyboard very lightly (or use an analogue stick) you can test out several points before the pick breaks. If it really was luck-based, the perk tree would be useful. I think I once went through about 7 picks on a master lock and that was my all-time worst performance. And this is all coming from someone who's barely played Fallout 3 and FNV.

[Tweetybird]

Yeaaaahhh, I kinda stink at the master locks but even I can get them open after some picks. I'm impatient though so I tend to tap a little too hard :)

[chrismgtis]

Is it me, or is there generally little point to investing perks into this skill? If you played F3 and FNV for a few hundred hours, even the Expert locks in this game are fairly easy to pick, right? So, why bother upgrading? They should have used the Fallout System that would force you to upgrade locking picking skills in order to pick advanced locks rather than make it easier, IMHO...

 

Well you definitely don't require points to do it, which is what makes lock picking great in Skyrim. But it can be extremely difficult without the points. Expect to use a lot of lock picks on harder locks. There's no "doing it easy" to not break a pick. It just doesn't work that way, so you're going to break them.

[Xothic]

I just kept the skeleton key from the theives guild lol.

[Ghogiel]

. You move between certain points that most often seem to be where it will open from. There's about 5 specific points, including the top, where it's usually on or near to the sweet spot.

I kinda doubt that. You can test it. simply save, then attempt and open lock. once you reload the lock will be randomly reset, and you have to do the process again. If there are only 5 specific points it will open from then with maybe 10 reloads you should be able to open it every time at max 4 picks, assuming every slight tap to test a spot breaks the pick. Next time I run across one i will test. pretty sure it's random

 

That said, it only take 5-10 picks to open master locks at lock picking skill at 10-20

Edited November 18, 2011 by Ghogiel

[BigSchitz]

Lol, another "My lockpicker is bigger than yours" thread.

 

My two cents: The lock picking in Skyrim is a tedious bore that adds nothing to the game but a dead, full stop when you have to sit around trying to find the stupid 'sweet spot'. Like Beriallord said its just pure luck, nothing more.

[CaptainChaos]

Yeah, I'm sorry, I wasn't complaining. I like the games to be balanced and enriching. It's like a lot of people here are upset that smithing is too easy to break the game. It's not their fault for breaking it - the skill set just wasn't designed well. The game should encourage you with reasons to go out and explore. Same thing with lockpicking. I used to play a lot of thieves, and I would be excited to play one here with lots of useful skills - but the lockpicking tree just seems a waste and that's a shame - it's just not designed well. If they made it a requirement, like in Fallout 3, etc., you would get really excited!! about having that extra skill level. And you would be SPECIAL against those classes that did not bother to invest in it. Why is it my current barbarian can pick locks like a pro with no experience? or should someone's necromancer be able to show up a thief? IMHO, they should design the perk trees so everyone feels like they made an individual choice the rewards their style of game play, that's all I meant.