Some time ago I released a basic real-time lockpicking, hacking, and explosive breach mod. It had a few quirks so I went back to the drawing board with it. I have just finished a redux and I am ready to re-release it. To those who tried my earlier mod and had the animation bug, that issue should no longer be present here.

See it in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWsOoOzwAWA

Download it: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40741

Real-Time Entry Skills for Fallout: New Vegas
by TheFlyingBuddha

In a Nutshell:
The goal of this mod is to replace minigames for hacking and lockpicking with real-time alternatives. Instead of the minigame and strictly gated access based on skill level, there is now a hotkey and a skill-based check to access harder locks. Explosives can also be used to open locks.

Requirements:
This mod requires the New Vegas Script Extender (beta 7 or later) to function. Get it at: http://nvse.silverlock.org

In-Depth:
This mod attempts to address a number of design drawbacks to the current implementation of lockpicking and hacking currently in the game.

Installation:
Unzip Real Time Entry Skills.esp to your Data Files Folder. Activate in the launcher. Enjoy!

Normally when you pick a lock either you succeed, losing no picks, or you fail, breaking a pick. Generally most players simply become very good at the minigame making breaking picks a minor issue and eliminating any sense of risk and reward. Picks are also common if you are looting first aid kits and dead enemies, eliminating resource management as a concern. The only real constraint on lockpicking is that access to higher level locks are gated by skill level which simply frustrates the player when they are a point short. Skill gates also made the skill magazine bonus awkward, as they didn't provide access to better locks in most situations (unless you happen to be exactly 10 or 20 points short) or noticably impact the minigame. Most of the same critiques apply to terminal hacking as well.

As an alternative, with this mod, each time you pick a lock you will wear out a lock pick. If you have the level of skill normally required to access the lock in the vanilla game (eg 25 for easy, 50 for average, etc) then you will automatically open it. For each point over the previous threshold, you have a 4% chance to open a lock of the next difficulty. So for example, Jimbo has a skill of 30. He can open Very Easy and Easy locks at the cost of one pick, with no chance of failure. He can attempt to open Average locks and has a 20% chance of successfully opening the lock. So Jimbo can go around opening every Easy lock he sees, or he can chose to risk spending several picks to open an average lock. If he had a lockpick magazine however, he could improve his chance of success by 40%, ensuring he will spend fewer resources.

This approach has a number of advantages. Resrouce use is predictable, making the resource in question more precious to the player, and the player is provided with interesting choices about how to spend those resources. It also has a clear element of risk and reward.

Finally, to add a little extra risk and to prevent spamming picks at locks, there is a chance that when the player fails to pick a lock it will be jammed or damaged, increasing the difficulty by one stage. The check for critical failure is a roll under your Luck. So continuing the example above, let's assume Jimbo has a Luck of 5. If he rolls 6 or higher after failing to open a lock, he has critically failed and the Average lock will change to Hard, preventing him from attempting again until his skill improves. The perks Computer Whiz and Infiltrator have been modified to remove the chance of critically failing and have had their prerequisites adjusted so they are available much earlier.

To open a lock or hack a terminal you simply have to mouse over it and hold down the Grab key (Z by default). Your character will then be rooted in place while holding the key and sounds will be played as the check is made. There is a basic attempt at having NPCs detecting your tampering so beware if you are near the owners of the area you are in. If you are in third person, there is a basic animation played as the attempt is in progress. The result of your check is displayed as a message. If you release the key early the attempt is aborted. Messages are displayed if you do not have high enough skill to ever succeed.

Explosives can be used to open locks but with some restrictions. You can use powder charges, time bombs, plasma mines, and C4 to open locks. To breach a lock, you must have an explosive of appropriate strength and a skill equal to the lock level minus 25. To use an explosive to breach a lock you must have the explosive equipped and drawn. Then hold Grab. At the end of the normal timer, an explosive is placed at the object. It explodes after 5 seconds and if the explosive used is strong enough, the lock will be breached. This is intended to provide some utility to the explsoives skill without making it trivial to open all locks with explosives.

This mod does not in any way alter the currently existing hacking or lockpicking minigames. You can still access them normally if necessary.


This mod is relatively simple in concept and execution. I have tested it a reasonable amount and it should act as described. Other than fixing bugs there should be little reason to change it. I do not have any plans to add features or support for DLCs (such as additional explosive types) unless someone has some suggestions on how I can do it an a very simple fashion.


Please do not redistribute this without permission and please give credit where credit is due!

I'm glad you fixed this, TFB. The animation issues with the original were a bit disturbing... Thanks.

Yeah, honestly I never interacted with objects much when I played so I never noticed the chair issue. I may explore that a little further in the future, as I would prefer to have the animations I was using before over just using the block animation (although it looks quite fine as it is). I would also like to have some feedback for first person like a little bit of screen shake, but I haven't found a good way to do that.

The first person is fine in my opinion. One thing I noticed is that you have to do a clean install if you're upgrading from the beta version. Otherwise the old animation issue remains. After I took the beta out, saved, then loaded the new mod, the animations went back to the way they should be.

So this is basically a newer version of "Real Time Lockpicking and Hacking"?

Yep. It fixes the 3rd person animation issues (sitting two feet in front of chairs) and adds XP for successfully picking a lock or hacking a computer.

Exactly. I wanted a slightly better name and I wanted to remove the old mod as I had overhauled its guts, but it is essentially an update with a slightly different balance on how picks get used up and what explosives you can use. It has XP gains, as was mentioned.

Thanks Jac for pointing out the need to scrub the old one out first. I never did figure out the root of that animation issue and I never did test the effects of installing the new version over the old.

Hey, it's a great mod for those who don't like the mini-games. I didn't like them in Fallout 3 and moving to New Vegas hasn't improved my opinion of them. I'm glad you made this mod because I was looking at converting the FO3 mod to NV and was running into some problems, so I'm glad you updated this one.