The Unpickable Lock

[enkephalin07]

So no matter how trained you get at picking locks, sometimes you come across one that [Requires Key]. Huh? I've got the skills and the tools, why should I require a key? Even if you're a Master at lockpick, and therefore are familiar with all locks constructed, locked and unlocked by all sentient beings, you can come across a lock that [Requires Key]. Wtf, if I knew that, I would've pumped my precious points into keymaking instead of lockpicking!

 

Oh, but it doesn't matter, because it's really an Impassible Knee High Fence In Different But Not Especially Imaginative Guise. I mean, if they wanted to be just marginally imaginative, they could've said, "Look, a tree fell against the other side of the door, holding it shut."

 

And I could accept that; no matter how I pick that lock, relock and unlock it again, there's still a damn tree against that door!

 

They could say, "A building collapsed on the other side. A car skidded off the highway at 90MPH and collided right into that door." Or they could say something as prosaic as, "The door is barred from the other side." If you want to know how prosaic that is, ask a security expert, and they can recommend MANY gadgets more reliable than a deadbolt that will protect a door, even in this day and age.

 

But this [Requires Key] poo is just a poorass hackneyened device. It could say 'Unpickable' or 'Magickally Held', but it's still pretty patently a poorass device that robs any player who spends on lockpicking skill. If they don't have the imagination to justify assraping other skill expenditures the same way, then they also don't have the imagination to justify ripping off the lockpickers. So instead you get the Unpickable Lock.

[icepod]

I agree...well put.

This is one of those instances where (for quest continuity) they really mess up the whole realism and sandbox feeling the game has.

 

Oh well, nobody's perfect, so no one would be able to make a perfect game.

[Conscripted]

Even a "this cabinet must be opened from elsewhere" would have been more realistic. I could imagine an inventory chest with an internal lock that I can't get to and an external switch/button/key-fob/radio-frequency/something that I would alternately have to find/use as more realistic.

 

"This electronic lock requires a [blank] to open"

 

"There is no keyhole"

 

"The lock is fake"

 

"Etcetera"

[Skotte]

<snip>

"This electronic lock requires a [blank] to open"

<snip>

 

with this one it could be that a generator is needed but the player finds some impassable rubble in the way (but have it where the gen is visible to them) if you want to be cruel put out a key somewhere that would've opened the lock if it had power.

[grumbler]

All I can say is that some people will complain about anything! :P

 

I understood the [cannot be picked; requires key] concept from the start: it is a quest issue, to ensure that you go through the right steps before you access something. having the game tell me that "a tree fell against the other side of this door" would be horribly immersion-breaking if killing the Super Mutant with the key suddenly made the tree disappear!

 

While one can make the argument that a master lockpicker could pick any lock ever made, that is just one argument. The counter-argument, that there are some locks that even the best safecracker would have to use nitro on or drill out, is just as plausible, and that's what the game assumes. That doesn't ruin immersion for me at all.

[deliverance6]

yesit is irritating

 

 

but tbh, open the console, mouse click the object (door, locker, cabinet etc) then type Unlock. clsoe the console and VOILA!

you've magically fixed bethesda's stupidity

[gtmaddog]

I also agree it is stupid but they do give you the ~ door... ect unlock done opt(unless u use 360 controller (like me :( ) and cant ~)but like the fort constantine when you need 4 keys that is a quest and its just fun for me o and also the doors that r key and the key is a very hard computer thats what makes me mad so i agree it is dum and if i whont to skip parts of the game u shud have the right to but hay i whent in to the revan rock when not spos to and there a invisable force field keeping me from going eny father so

[enkephalin07]

Oh, I'll agree that sometimes this is done for story or gameplay purposes, but it's an imbalance to the skill, it's still a poor and transparent device, and all said and done I'm not really convinced it's that necessary. What other skill do they do that to, give you the option to develop your character this ability at the cost of developing others, and then take that ability away at any time?

 

And I'm not bashing Fallout3, Bethesda and many other game developers have used this tired and transparent trope for decades, and it always infuriates me. If they're going to do it, at least 1. be clever about it (for a change,) and 2. give more opportunity to use the skill in pursuit of opening this lock.

[grumbler]

Oh, I'll agree that sometimes this is done for story or gameplay purposes, but it's an imbalance to the skill, it's still a poor and transparent device, and all said and done I'm not really convinced it's that necessary. What other skill do they do that to, give you the option to develop your character this ability at the cost of developing others, and then take that ability away at any time?

 

And I'm not bashing Fallout3, Bethesda and many other game developers have used this tired and transparent trope for decades, and it always infuriates me. If they're going to do it, at least 1. be clever about it (for a change,) and 2. give more opportunity to use the skill in pursuit of opening this lock.

If you want to, assume that it's a combination lock. No lockpicking skills help you there! :thumbsup:

[Skree000]

Trust me, this aint that bad

 

 

Silent Hill is the worst offender for door problems.

 

Nearly every single door in the games says 'The lock is broken, the door wont open'

 

again...

 

and again...

 

and again...