I don't know what happend. Ive never had this problem in any game, and ive played all the Morrowinds and the Fallout 3s and all that. But when I go to try and pick locks, I find myself rapidly enraged by the breaking picks. I cant even explain it, its just...the noise, the odd functions of the pick, the red herrings, the inability to tell where your thing was when it broke in a way that makes it at all possible to reposition it...

...It drives me insane. Ive actually had to stop playing the game for a few minutes so i didnt get angry. WTF is that about?!

This isnt really a question, more just venting. Although if anyone else feels the same way, I wouldn't mind hearing it

- buy picks at every opportunity so you're not aware of the count going down when each one breaks?

- don't move your left hand until your right hand stops moving?

- switch to decaf?

What svcks for me is that I like to role-play and I also love exploring. I want to know and get everything out of every chest. When they're locked and I am playing a Mage I don't want to use Lockpicking as I feel it doesn't fit my character. Same with Warrior, where I just I want to bust open the chest or something.

And Lockpicking is under "Crime" which means my good characters can't do it without breaking role-play.

It feels the same as fallout to me... but i would rather have the oblivion lockpicking back.

I have also played every Morrowinds and Fallout 3s. Lockpicking in the third Morrowinds was a diceroll based on Security, Agility, and luck, and lockpick quality. In the fourth and fifth Morrowinds lockpicking is based on player skill mostly Anyone can learn how to pick anylock with anyskill level, removing character skill and giving it to the player. However I VERY enjoyed how in Fallout 3s:3 that there was a threshold you had to meat. You needed to have 50 skill to pick average lock for example. This is very good to give some more roleplaying elements to the character's abilities. Then Obsidian did the same in Fallout 3s:3:New Vegas, which I enjoyed more than Fallout 3s:3.

Yes your "good" character can as long as you are not stealing from someone. And stealing is justifiable in some situations. Stealing evidence from a corrupt official to bring him down you should feel okay with. It doesn't matter if the game mechanics are set up wrong. Laws are not supposed to be followed blindly, anyone can tell you opening a chest in a dungeon is perfectly okay even for your subjectively "good" character.

You know I used to get the same way with the Oblivion lockpicking minigame. The Skyrim game seems much easier and less frustrating to me, but I know where you are coming from.

Then you run out of picks, and you can't get more because you are in the middle of the dungeon...

RIP unlock spells

I know what you mean. It is painfully irritating to have the locks break all the time! But usually I remember the position it broke in and manage to adjust it just enough to get it open in not too many attempts. I have a tendency to get very happy every single time I find a lockpick, whether it's on a table or shelf or when looting.

haha, my first thought when I read this was "Alohomora" ^^

I've gotten pretty good at lockpicking as time has gone by, but I would KILL for a mod that allowed me to auto-attempt based on my lockpicking skill like in Oblivion. I hate having to do that minigame every time.

Not even Fallout's lockpicks broke this easy. Personally, I loved Oblivions lockpicking system though I'm sure I'm in the minoirity on that.

I never figured out how to do Oblivion's minigame, . Though I much appreciated the auto-attempt feature.

The fact that there aren't any lockpicking spells is a serious oversight. But in terms of crime, picking a lock on a chest in a dungeon full of Falmer and Chaurus bugs is hardly criminal. If/Where it says lockpicking is a crime, I think it's safe to assume that picking the lock on a house or a chest in a house is a crime. Dungeons don't count.

P.S. To the OP, just buy every lockpick you can. If your count ever gets below 99+ then go out and get more. Or do the TG quests to a certain point...

I'm wondering why leveling up lock picking has no real affect on lock picking in general.

Picking locks never gets easier.

Does to me

I think lockpicking is incredibly too easy...I prefer the fallout style where you have to be a certain skill level to attempt to pick it

Lots and lots of practice. Timing was everything.

After the first few failed attempts with the automatics feature I never used it again, it eventually became easier to do it manually.

When you're in a dungeon and you do the lockpicking does it come up under the stats? I never thought it would be a crime in a dungeon.

Have a character 200+ hours in with 97 lockpick. Then start a new game. You will notice a huge difference. Novice locks are pissing me off. I'm use to them instantly opening or only having to move the pick to either center left or center to open it. Now I have to actually pay attention to where I position it, and it breaks so quickly!

I'm use to the above applying to adept locks, now I really have to pay attention to where it was like I normally would only expert and master locks.

The progression is VERY slow, but there is a difference. I imagine a huge difference if you take perks... but I didn't waste my perks on lockpick when I have 700+ lockpicks.

If perk points weren't so limited I'd go up the lockpicking tree every time just to make it easier because there are so many things to unlock that eventually it just gets annoying. Unfortunately I never have any left over points for it and have to struggle through. If I was on PC I'd get one of those master key cheats and just use that all the time.

On the plus side, the lockpicking mini-game no longer makes me want to drop-kick my monitor out the nearest second story window, so it's got that much going for it. Which is nice. (I honestly can't decide which irked me more in Oblivion: lockpicking prior to acquiring the Skeleton Key, or that conversation pie.)

I still have to admit I prefer Morrowind's method, though. That is, no mini-game at all. Even Skyrim's is a bit irksome...mostly because it seems like it's designed to rely on controller vibration feedback for knowing when you're getting close to breaking a pick / going in the wrong direction / whatever. Except...I'm on PC, so keyboard and mouse, so no immediately obvious feedback beyond the snapping of the pick. Possibly along with a frayed nerve or two, depending on how long I've been at a particular lock.

Sigh. You kids and your mini-games. Off my lawn, back in my day, uphill both ways in the snow and we still weren't skilled enough to open the lock, etc.

NOOO way. Not this guy at least.. I HATED that system. Not saying I svcked at it.. cause I could unlock anything. It's just when Fallout 3 made their system it just stuck with me. I was soooo relieved to see they chose it > TES4's system.

Only thing I can't stand? Is when (some) Adept locks almost seem like Master locks.

That and the fact I can lockpick ANYTHING besides Master.

^^^ this ...

I actually think lockpicking is too easy. I never use any boosts and i have been picking master locks since i started playing.
It takes usually only around 5 picks for a master lock ...

RIP indeed. Biggest mistake Beth made for Skyrim.