Outch!..That would be pretty mean...opening a golden chest with all the hard earned points you've put into the skill only to find some old sport socks in it.I would be mad for sure!

It's the main reason I don't ever want to see 'gated' locks again. While the intent is good, as it requires you actually invest in the skill to open harder locks, it never works properly in practice.

What I would like to see, on the other hand, is a rework of the system such that loot kept behind harder locks would be worth going after but making the attempt at low skill and without perks would generally not be worthwhile. Part of this, of course, would be making the lockpicks themselves significantly harder to come by in large numbers; after all, those 15 lost picks are significantly more important if you only have 30, and more are harder to come by, than they are when you have 400 and can get them in lots of 30-50 at will.

My ideal scenario would be the complete removal of the mini-game, so that the character's skill and perks would be the sole determinant of success or failure, but I don't really expect that to happen because it would result in a raft of complaints about the lack of player interaction with the lock. Which is somewhat ironic, since that same demand for player interaction is what brought about the oft-hated mini-games in the first place.

People actually spend more than 10 lockpicks on any lock? Wow. I never buy lockpicks. It doesn't take me long to get the point where I have no less than 100 for the rest of the game. It still amazes how people struggle with this game mechanic so much. Even in oblivion, I used to see people just spamming auto pick.. Is the mini game THAT hard?

Bethesda should get rid of it all together. Because it's apparent that people don't want to waste their brain power picking locks.

An easy fix would have been requiring “novice” perk to even attempt novice locks, and so on... would have made me invest cuz I like opening everything, even if it is just a rusty dagger!

I also find the skill quite easy and the majority of the time the rewards are poor. I think they should have made it either a lot harder or used the fallout system where if you are not a high enough level in Lockpicking then you can not attempt it, which I think makes sense as if you have no idea about lockpicking you are not going to be able to crack open a safe etc.

Having said that before they even think about making the lockpicking system more difficult, I think they need to add more options such as opening spells and lock bashing.

The lockpicking Skill tree would be useless if it wasn't for the Treasure Hunter Perk. Particularly useful on No-enchanting playthroughs, I sometimes Find 2-3 Enchanted items in Rare(Master Lock boss) or (Unlocked)Boss chests with said perk.


That said, I just have a general hate for how loot in this game is handled. Too random. Not that I have a problem with "Random Drops"/Random Loot, but it has to be given context. Finding a 4th Era Nordic Steel Sword in a Dwemer Coffer locked since the First Era doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If the lockpicking mini-game bothers you (as it did me) there is a mod on Skyrim Nexus called Lockpick Pro. It shows on the screen where the "sweet spot" is.

I haven't used any of the perks in the tree but the actually skill level has helped me, there are some locks I run into often get it all the way to the right and just when it should pop open my pick breaks, try going slightly to the left or right it's just that one sweet spot and it won't open until my lock picking goes up a level.
That being said, I hate the lock picking.
I find it rather incredulous Bethesda just threw Fallout lock picking into Elder Scrolls. I can understand there is no need to reinvent the wheel at every opportunity but if any other company had taken that Fallout lock picking system into their game Bethesda would sue them. But whatever if Bethesda wants to be known as the type of developer that reuses the exact same thing in all their Intellectual Property I guess that's there business.

Not in my experience I never buy lock picks and I pick every lock I find, even if it's master and I know I wont get jack [censored] from it, and I have about 500 lock picks on a lvl. 30 character and I've Never put a perk into it

i've never perked lockpicking but i plan on doing so on a future character. i suppose only for roleplaying. but i think the locksmith perk does look useful (pick starts close to lock opening position). golden touch and treasure hunter are added bonuses.

i don't think its fair to say the skill is worthless. while it is possible to unlock anything without perks, every time, just by mastering the minigame (which isnt difficult), there is still the reward for the sake of roleplaying, i.e. playing as a master lockpicking thief. and those other perks that i mentioned.

Beth made a right backside of lockpicking in Skyrim.

One of the things that made me really fancy playing a thief in Oblivion was wanting to know what was behind every door and in every chest.Theres just not that pull in Skyrim as anyone can do it.A complete novice should not be able to unlock a master chest regardless of how many picks or patience they have.

The traps have also become redundant.Unlimited tries at disarming them removes any tension and bit's of rope alert you to the fact that one is present.

Awful non chracter based skill and a worthless use of perks.

If you open a master lock with less than 4 attempts, yes it's luck. But after that, you should be closing in on the answer with a bit of logic. I treat it as a binary search. First attempt in the default position, 2nd and 3rd at the top 2 corners (over the bolts) then all the way left and all the way right (4th and 5th). After that I start splitting the distance between the places I've already tried. It seldom takes me more than 5 attempts to start seeing some turning in the lock. After that, 3-4 more attempts will get me there. If you're careful, you should get 2 attempts out of every pick on a master lock, so no more than 5 picks broken, most of the time.

Edit: I should add that I don't spend any perk points on lockpicking. They are too scarce, and that would be a silly waste of them. Not needed at all.

Lockpicking doesn't depend on the character's skill, it depends on the player's skill. While I have noticed that you break more lockpicks when your lockpicking skill level is low, it's not enough. I've never run out of lockpicks at low level - once you know the tricks, you're in, regardless of level. The lockpicking perks just do not matter - as with pickpocketing perks, by the time you get them, you don't need them. Loot and cash are too easy to come by in the game (even without smithing/enchanting), making those two skills pretty pointless.

Lockpicking would be much more useful if loot was harder to come by.

Three comments -
a) I like the lock picking mini game. Some people dont - and on the PC those people just have the mod that gives them the answer.
I have never put a single point into it as a theif or any other character (100 in lockpicking now but no points spent on it) - and I can open any lock - it just takes time with the harder locks and with the unbreakable skeleton key - I dont plan to put any points into something that wont make the game better
c) I think they made it too easy - the high level locks (expert and master) should really require skill in lock picking to even open them. Then putting points into lock picking would make sense.

Lockpicking is extremely easy once you have a system for it. Imagine it as a compass. I start out at North, then do West, then East. If i haven't hit the spot yet, i then try North West and North East. If the spot still eludes me, i then do North-Northwest, West-Northwest, North-Northeast, and then East-Northeast. This system ALWAYS finds the spot eventually, in 9 attempts at max.

One of the first Master level chests i encountered was at Lvl 30 or 35 in a dungeon, and it had a Daedric Bow in it. I've also gotten a Daedric Sword out of a Master level chest at a Giant Camp when i was Lvl 40 or so.

A very simple fix to make the lockpick skill more useful, is to reset the correct spot to pick, after every failed attempt.

It's very easy now because you can narrow down the correct spot through trial-and-error. But if you reset the correct spot after every failed attempt, you need your pick to survive more by adding perks into the lockpick tree.

The higher the difficulty, the worse the reward. There should be a warning on master locks - "nothing in here now, move along." I haven't put a single perk into it in seven characters. I love Skyrim, but lockpicking is an insult to my intelligence - all the best loot is in chests without a lock

Worthless.

I thought the OOO mod for Oblivion got lockpicking and traps spot on.There were some lethal poison and elemental traps for failed disarm attempts and even unlocked chests could be trapped.The skill gave the character a chance to detect trapped chests and disarm them.I loved it like that as it made you wary when approaching one.

It's all a non event now.

if by too easy you mean you wasted 50 locks to open a master lock, then that's hardly too easy.

People here say that high level locks should be really hard, but THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THEY'VE DONE!

If you use 50 picks on a master lock, even with 15 skillpoints, you're doing something very wrong.

As it is, locked chests might as well have a timelock that simply opens 5/10/20/30 seconds after you interact with it, instead of the useless minigame.

this is exactly the kind of content i thought was going to be in the game anyways. how long do console users have to wait before this kind of obvious stuff gets put into games?

better graphics, simplicity, meaninglessness and more voice-acting over great gameplay? wth.

This abundance of lockpicks is exactly why I made my LimitedItems mod (see .sig). It does nothing about the loot quality, though (wasn't there a lockpick perk increasing loot?).

Right, binary search, as I said in my last post. You said it better, though, easier to follow. Thanks.

Lockpick Mini Game needs to go.

The only determiner of success should be the Character's Skills, Condition and Tools. Period.

How I manipulate a UI windows should have nothing to do with my character's success of opening a lock.

With the ease of the minigame and the plentiful nature of the picks, yes, it's useless. That's why a lot of people want to merge parts of the lockpicking tree with the pickpocket tree and call it "security", and throw in an athletics tree which could give you movement skills, like dive rolls, faster running speeds, less stamina consumption for sprinting, etc.

I don't recommend adding in crazy jump skills, but tumbling would be a great addition for combat IMO.