LE Lockpicking Overhaul

[miscdude]

First off, I realize that there are a lot of things that can not be done anytime soon without the CK being released. This topic is, at the moment, less of a mod request and more of a poll on the general agreement towards what I think of the lockpicking system / an overhaul of the lockpicking system.

 

I absolutely loved Oblivion's lockpicking, simply because it was similar to real lockpicking -- you lifted up pins and tried to keep them in place so as to twist the lock open. While it did lack some of the more complicated parts of lockpicking, it was there and I felt that I was picking a lock. In both of the Gamebryo Fallout games I was disappointed with the lockpicking. It does not feel like you are picking a lock, it feels like you're moving your mouse to a random position and hoping you get lucky.

Which is exactly what it is.

That is, in my opinion, a bad game mechanic and definitely something that detracts from both immersion and the desire for doing something you can feel accomplished with. If there's no challenge in lockpicking, it becomes something neglected, uninteresting. It becomes more of a chore that you have to do to get to the house or treasures beyond, rather than a vital skill that is applied to the breaching of a house or laughing in the face of a lock on a chest. So when I saw that the same system was used in Skyrim, I decided that it was important enough to me to make a topic about.

 

The real question is, how do you fix it? Do you go back to the Oblivion system of picking a lock? Or do you try to salvage what is already in-game? I believe the latter, as would anyone actually interested in having to code things for a new system. So, to make the current front-view system feel more like lockpicking, remove the sweet spot torque-n-guess, and add more immersion to the game overall, I came up with the following idea which, I believe, is best described in a diagram.

 

 

 

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b229/piedayman/lockpickdiagram.png

 

 

 

1. Place hands into the view. This is a big part in immersion, and would be better to give a sense of working on a lock in front of you.

 

2. Have an L-shaped torsion wrench. This, while making real lockpicking easier, is a good way to take the focus of the player off of the wrench itself and place it more on the lock.

 

3. Use the lockpicks with the hand, but make the hand go translucent. This way, you see the pick, you realize that the hand is controlling it, and if you look at the pins inside the lock, the pick itself begins to take on a role of importance.

 

4. Use visual and audible (not shown in diagram, haha) cues to pick the lock. This is as close to real lockpicking as is possible in a videogame because, as I'm sure everyone is aware, there is no way to "feel" the pins. Therefor, if the player is looking inside the lock, they will be able to see the pins inside to lift the pins into place. The lighter half of the pin would need to stay up via mild torsion applied by the left hand, and then the right hand lifts the pins up and down to try and set them into place. An audible cue would play for the pin setting, and then the player would be able to visually identify a pin behind it. When all of the pins are raised, it would look like a little hole above the dark pins, and then the lock is open.

 

5. Enjoy that you have just picked a lock.

 

Feel free to correct me on anything here that I have misstated about lockpicking, I'm fairly new to it and any corrections will not only help me but help the future mod if it's made as well. I would love to hear any comments on this, or to know if anyone would like to attempt to create this mod. I'd be willing to put any of my efforts as a newbie 3D modeler towards it, so long as someone else is interested in coding it. Also, any logistical issues people have would be helpful, as I may have easily just over or under thought all of this.

[Allephus]

Yeah, Oblivion had a great lockpicking system.

 

I'd like to see it in Skyrim.

[phantur]

If my lockpicks didn't break all the time, I'd like this to be made.

[TheUnlimited]

I support this.

[miscdude]

Theoretically, the picks shouldn't really be breaking unless too much torsion is applied, regardless of difficulty. I was thinking that the difficulty would also take from Oblivion in that it would just determine the number of tumblers, and maybe have a (reduced) effect on the torsion.