This is not halo? No sh1t really? When did you figure that out?

It is, however, a game. A game where balance is very, very important. You talk about magic being nerfed, obviously, it's now much more balanced than it has ever been before. Balance is good. "removing" open lock spell brings balance. This means my thief has at least one thing unique, while mages can do a lot more in past games and even more, without losing a skill. Basically, alteration is for mages both an armor skill and lock-picking skill in one skill, while warriors and thieves must choose two skills to mimic the same effect. Each skill should be worth equally, meaning, if you remove lock-pick from alteration, it's now worth one skill again instead of 2.

Merari reading your posts has made me happy some one else thinks the same.. I hate that people say "why should mages be able to unlock locks and go invisible" um well because they are [censored] magic idiot if they can cast fire out of there hands or use a spell to conjure up a familiar im sure they can unlock a lock..

and the argument about balance? how about thieves can pick the locks, mages can use a spell to unlock it and warrior classes can smash the lock off?

There is zero reason for each playstyle to be exactly the same and there is even less reason for each one to be balanced against the others.
Go take your MMO mentality to a multiplayer game.
Mages are supposed to be weak at lower levels and powerhouses at end level.

Magic was the best thing of TES. The freedom, the options, the choice, the customisablity. It is all gone now.
Replaced by pretty looking uselessness.
If that is your idea of balance then it can go die in a fire.
I want fun in my game, not some lame-ass 'balanced' crap.
Balance is just a euphemism for arbitrary hardcaps and limitations. It is the opposite of freedom.

Its that same mentality that cost us acrobatics and athletics.
And you know what? The game has become more boring and more frustrating of it.
Progression is gone. Im the same speed the entire game, and will never jump higher. Therefore, running around or jumping at all is now equally pointless and as frustrating a time waste as in any other game.
Yeah, circling around a mountain for ten minutes looking for that one linear path, giving up and glitching my way up a cliffside is such fun.
The freedom is gone. No longer can I stand on a house to admire the view. No longer are there fun things hidden up a ledge, as the ledge is just background, as there is no way to ever get up there.
So the game has become smaller and two-dimesional too. Look at the dungeons. Oh, they are pretty allright. Just a shame they are all tubes.
Placing insurmountable objects in my path while I can see the objective just there like this is some 1985 platform game. I said it before release, and I was right. It leads to lazy level design.

The removal of open lock means the game has less replay value, as there are less possible builds.

However it was much easier to pick expert/ master locks with lockpicking than level alteration to 75- 100 to open them, even with auto attempt you just had to buy lockpicks.

Which part doesn't make sense? It's a matter of simple balance and usefulness.

Note: This is 3 months old thread.

There is absolutely no reason for the spell to have been removed.

That it makes lockpicking 'obsolete' is silly, untrue, and has nothing to do with RPG.
Mages are not thieves.
It is more than annoying that my mage now has to fiddle around with lockpicks.

Redundancy and several options to achieve the exact same thing are always only a good thing in an RPG, removal of options and liniting gameplay is always only bad.

No magic to open locks is a large game design mistake, especially when perks are taken into account. If the perks allow various advntages, then presenting a mage the ability to spend perk points on lockpicking, without allowing mages to spend perk points on magic that can be used to open locks, is a glaring flaw, because it doesn't support the magic-use play style without also making the player use a thief's play-style

There is absolutely no reason for the spell to have been removed.

There is zero reason for each playstyle to be exactly the same

and there is even less reason for each one to be balanced against the others.

after watching some youtube videos i can now lockpick master locks w/o any perks with just a few tries.

I'm not sure I believe that, at least on a PC. I watched my nephew playing for a while on his XBOX, and he seemed to have very little problem even at a low level - but I noticed that the XBOX controller lets you rotate the lock very slooooowly, which I can NOT do on the PC

Source please? I find this hard to believe, as Open Lock is a staple to Alteration magic.

I think I'm utterly confused. Locked chests have keys or lockpicks as I understand it. Unlocked chests just open.

I'm answering to ask... lock picking spells? only from previous TES games or... does anyone know where I can gets me some?

Yeah, but use the A and D keys(left,right), not mouse. Watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oslc28vRqbk was all i needed to know.