In Oblivion, I feel it leaned slightly more towards a skill based activity. You gave it a few taps up and judged whether or not it was the time to pop up the pin. Sure there is some luck involved. Just a little. Sometimes it would jump back down and break your pick when you thought you had it.

But lockpicking in Skyrim, without skills, feels like it relies more on luck and talent points than anything else. And feels impossible to go after anything just a little beyond your current level.

Unless I am missing something, other than the obvious rotation of the handle, there are no visual cues, or audio, or controller rumble to at least give you a hit that you are in the right area.

Dont get me wrong, Im not saying I should be able to pick anything because Im videogame god and ur noobs. But in Oblivion, I was able to pick the hardest of locks at the lowest of levels, lots of picks died that night though. Ya you can argue that its the same, that I could do this at a high pick cost. But at least in Oblivion, I felt in control of the lockpicking, or at least in control of my attempt. It wasnt like it is in Skyrim: guess guess broken pick repeat. It came down to my judgement of whether or not I popped it at that time. Sure sure its my judgement if I think the lock will spin at a certain point. But I liked the fact in Oblivion that I could at least test the waters and judge first and then decide if I wanted to give it a go.

Unless I am missing something big, F lockpicking...

If you want, watch a tutorial on youtube, that helped me a bit. I can open literally anything losing less then 3 lockpicks and I am a very low lockpicking level. It can be done

I never have a problem. It's definitely more skill based in oblivion.

Lock picking in Skyrim feels a lot more methodical, Master locks require lots of incremental turns with jiggles to see if there is any play on the lock but yeah if you have no perks you will break a lot of picks, where as I will pop novice/apprentice locks with a single fresh pick (sometimes 2) with no perks taken.
It is completly luck on if you go left or right first but aside from that it is a lot less luck based than Oblivions lock picking system.

For me picking is easy, just turn the lock *very* carefully and look wether it starts to rotate or jam, adjust pick position etc. It's skill.

It is just good if at least some people feel it difficult since that justifies having the lockpick perks in the game (which are totally useless imo)

i find that there is some skill involved. I have never touched my lockpick tree and I can open master locks with 3 at the most. I find the adept locks to be messing up abit. I break more on those regularly than any other locks. I have like 200 lockpicks and have opens 454 chests. Tske your time with them,,,move it a little to the left or a little to the right test it, then if you do get some movement I go reeeaally slow..if it wiggles I let the stick go..then move it abit...wash rince repeat..it works for me and was a heck of a lot better than those damn tumblers in oblivion.

It's ALOT more skill based if you have a controller. You can use the anologue stick to rotate the lock much more slowly, and feel it vibrate.

my Argonian lockpicker is shelved until the latches and crowbar DLC is released

You're definitely missing it. This is way more skill based (not skill as in your paper doll sheet, but skill as in you the human). What you do is tap the rotate button--just tap, don't hold. If it rotates a bit, you know you're close. If it just shakes, move the pick to a new spot and tap it again. When you're close, just hold the button down only slightly longer while moving the pick around just a couple pixels at a time. That's all there is to it.

With high lockpicking in oblivion you basically couldn't fail.

In skyrim its much more like probing, sort of a binary search, and remember exactly where you were when the pick broke.

I think the only thing that ever gave me trouble was 1 master lock that I couldn't find a starting point for, went through like 10 picks before I even got a nibble. Got it eventually though.

I would want them to change the current one to give you sound indicators for when you're getting warmer and colder and change the location every time you break a pick.

My 2 cents: some people are auditory and some are visual. Oblivion lockpicking offered something for both people, but the sound in Skyrim's lockpicking is just background noise that offers no functional information. If your eyes don't clue in on the pick jiggle well because you're a hearing focused person, you'll have trouble. This describes me to a T, I have to try very hard to focus on the pick position to know which way to move the pick next.

On the other hand, Skyrim lockpicking is more realistic, real lockpicking is somewhat more trial and error (though done entirely by feel and not sound or sight. Of course, when the only touch-feedback you may even possibly have access to is controller vibration...

It sounds like I am too heavy on the right stick. I will have to play around with this.

Thanks

Are you people joking? You can open master locks with lockpicking level of 1 (Well, normally you have something like 15 in beginning). I have not used any perks to lockpicking, though having 50% change of getting magical items seems nice.

I am not sure, but I remember that in Oblivion there was only few tries on a chest before it locked down? or resetted.

I think in Skyrim the lock should reset if you break your pick ... There is one chest in thief`s guild like that. It was pretty hard to do without any perks with 50 lockpicking.

One thing i hate that it seem they missed a small detail like a lock on the treasure box(that look different) in drawven place. When you are about to open the chest, it show you standard lockpicking gui just like the rest, make it more dull.

I wish it should give you some different challenging when it come to the Drawven's treasure chest. Feh.

Once you know what you are doing you can open any lock without the perks.
Sure it might take some time and few lockpicks, but lockpicks are everywhere and time is stopped anyway. I was just opening master lock underwater yesterday. Not drowning was disappointing.

Toast to that brother hahaha

I unlock Master locks with just 3 breaks (and no perks above adept)


Its not luck. Its just having experience in the mini game

I played both FO3 and FO NV


So its just skill and knowledge

I opened a master lock at 25 or so skill, but it did take half a dozen of picks. (On the PC.)

I disagree, it's completely skill based, I was picking master locks as a novice, you just need a few extra lockpicks and patience.

It's all about correct positioning on the circle of the lock, a master lock, that range on the circle is as small as a tusk, at novice lock it's as wide as a melon.

In Oblivion a lock never permanently lucked down, but all the tumblers would simply fall down again (each perk would allow one tumbler to stay up).

I like Skyrim's system better, partly because I found it easier in Oblivion to open very hard locks than to open an easy or average lock. Although it's kinda broken you can open a master lock regardless of your character's skill level. But then again, unless there's a key, you have to pick locks. Opening a master lock isn't exactly easy though, and I can go through several lockpicks before I even find a spot where I can jiggle the lock a bit. Lockpicks are very abundant though, I haven't bought any at all (blacksmiths sell them) and I still have in excess of 150 lockpicks (and growing).

Lockpicking is also fairly easy to level. Breaking a pick also gains you skills. So if you're really struggling, just break a lot of picks or open a lot of Novice locks (a lot of homes only have Novice locks) and invest perk points into the Lockpick tree to make it easier for you. But once you get the hang of it, you won't need perks at all (except when your intention is to escape from prison at some point).

No perks at all, and I can open a Master lock, provided I have a dozen picks or so, at any skill level you care to test me at. The "luck" is in finding the starting point. After that, a deft touch, and it's not bad. That's without the vibration feedback that consoles get. (As I repeatedly say, I'm glad Skyrim didn't do Fallout-style skill restriction. I can pick locks long before the Fallout system would let me attempt it.)

I was trying to unlock a master lock while my LP was really low... I gave up.. And im really good at picking locks, I think that if your level is to low u should just wait to pick the lock when your at a higher level,

Veterens of Fallout have no probs with lockpicking, I was unlocking masterlocks from 30+ skill easily within 5-10 lockpicks

Skill.
I learned it from Fallout and when I saw they'd used it in Skyrim I was stoked, it's a fun, subtle system that I actually find quite relaxing.
When I discovered you could attempt any lock at any level... I was over the moon.

Oblivions system was just as good though, but my god sometimes when you were on the last pin of a really tough one and you messed up... it made me want to eat the controller.
Both styles are skill based with levelling up there to make your life easier if you want it.

tbh, I haven't taken a single perk in lockpicking yet, it goes against my principles,

Have you read the book ingame called "The Locked Room"?
That's my attitude to lockpicking.
I love seeing how much probing and testing I can get out of a single pick on a master lock.

Then if the pick breaks, I quickly memorise a scratch or stain on the metal at the break point, move the new pick straight to that position and work from there.

You need a super light touch on the right stick for the tough cookies.
I really do recommend finding that book in the game, it's a great little cautionary tale on being too impatient when picking locks.