I totally ,TOTALLY svck at lockpicking. The best i ever did, ironically, was when i started the game. Did this stupid hard lock in a dungeon (didnt know there was a key for it) and it took me about 10 minutes edit: AND A :swear: LOAD OF LOCKPICKS. (didnt know about thieves guild then)

So after that i relied totally on the almighty custom Open Very Hard Lock spell :celebration:
When faced with a lock, do you lockpick it or use a spell on it?

And on a side note, anyone know if there are going to be open very hard lock spells in skyrim, now that custom spellmaking's no longer available? if its not..and there's no skeleton key available..I'LL DIE.

on a totally unrelated note: I cant find "my statue" In bruma, where is it? :cryvaultboy: At least, i think there is a statue of me.

I used to be amazing at it, no spamming the auto pick button for me.

I was playing with a friend once and he got sent to jail, and I managed to pick the 5 tumbler lock with the one lockpick we had. Skills :rock:

I'm no good anymore though, the skeleton key has ruined me.

Don't try to press A every time you push a tumbler up. Keep pushing the tumblers up without pressing A until it starts to go up slowly, then press A when it gets to the top. With patience and practice, you can open very hard locks with a beginner skill in Security :ninja: .

As for me, it depends on my character. Mages Alohamora them and thieves and warriors pick them.

It was very hard in the beginning but as my character got better it was no big deal. He has a Open Hard Lock spell but he rarely uses it as he likes keeping his skills up to date

It depends on the character. Mages cast the spell, everybody else picks the lock. Unless the character is RPing, to NOT pick locks at all.

When lockpicking, I just count to three. The tumbler will pause at the top, after a series of quick strokes. Some times it will pause on the first or second stroke, at random. If you count the quick strokes, it will always pause on the third consecutive quick stroke. So, it's 1, 2 and tap "A", on the top of the third stroke.

EDIT : Sorry, it's been a while. I misspoke in the previous statement. It has been corrected, with the right info.

I don't use the lockpicking min-game. I always use the auto pick button.

Reason? I want the success to be the result of my character's skill, not mine.

I'm very good at them. There's a technique you should use. Everytime you push one of the slides upwards they go in a different speed. The slower it goes up, the easier it is to click it. But it never goes up in the same speed twice in a row, so you should wait until the selected slide goes up the quickest and then you'll know that you can click it on the go after. Seriously, this technique makes it easy for me, even very hard locks I can do with 1 lockpick, no problem. Try it out, guys!

When I started the game I was really bad at lockpicking.

But now I think I'm very good. Several have posted techniques like the one above, or listening for certain patterns of clicks, etc. Some have posted that they can pick locks "blindfolded" (ie without looking) because of the sounds. I don't do any of that, I just hit the tumbler and if I feel I could click a the right time I do. And I seems to do that very well.

I rarely go after the Skeleton Key anymore, unless I want to give it to Martin. Because I like the game. Also with the OOO mod that quest can be very difficult.

Also if your character is good enough at Restoration, you can make a Fortify Security spell and lock pick at skill of 100. That makes things real easy.




That is an excellent reason. I might do the same, but I really enjoy the minigame.

Same. Now I just use the Skeleton Key and I'm probably no good at it anymore.

I used to svck at it. Anything above average was impossible. I recently found out a neat technique though, and can do very hard locks using max 5 lockpicks

I hate the lockpicking. In fact, I hate mini-games in games period. I usually just use the auto pick and break a ton of picks to open a lock, then give myself another hundred picks via the console. Or if I have a magician character, they just use a spell.

I don't pick locks. My characters pick locks. I flatly refuse to play the mini-game because I'm not the one in Cyrodiil, so whatever skill I might or might not have at it is entirely beside the point.

My characters tend to be good enough at it to get by, which is sufficient.

Currently, I use Open Lock spells purely for RP purposes. My skill in the minigame is enough to render the entire Security skill redundant, so I really need to think about how I could RP lockpicking realistically. I don't want to spam auto-attempt 'cuz that'll result in a mountain of broken lockpicks, but it might do.

I'm amazing at lockpicking, especially since I got the Skeleton Key. Mash that button

If I can be honest with some people here, the "I don't pick the locks, my character does so I refuse to do the mini-game" doesn't seem right. It may not be you in Cyrodiil, but you do control him/her.

You still decide where he walks, even in combat when he swings and such. So to decide all that and influence all the battles and then suddenly not doing the minigame seems weird to me. Sure you want him to be able to pick locks because of his skill. But even in combat, you might have a really low blade skill but you can still dodge and block and jump around while trying to get hits in. That's exactly the same thing.

Sorry guys, but that's just my opinion.

And you're welcome to it. It's your game.

My opinion is that the mini-games (persuasion and lockpick) are meta-games. They violate the concept of role-playing. Any player can learn to pick any lock, regardless of the character's skill.

In combat, I may trigger the action, but my character's skill set determines how effective it will be. If my character is a novice with a shield or bow, then fatigue will affect what he can do, and how long he can do it. If he is advanced, he will be able to jump higher, dodge effectively, shield-bash, disarm, etc. He will also hit harder, if he is experienced.

It is not exactly the same thing. It's completely different.

The auto-pick button is actually the lock-picking anolog of clicking the mouse to swing the sword. You're telling the character "do this," and the character does it, within the limits of his skills.

And that's just my opinion.

Same thing as with picking locks. If his skill is low then it′s harder to pick that lock. I see the whole thing as working with the character, I don′t see it as either him or me who does the deed.

And that is my opinion!

I svcked at lockpicking because I had no idea how it works, but when I played Oblivion again a few months ago I found the UESPwiki that explained how lockpicking works; I broke a few lockpicks when my Security was just 25-50, but then I finished the Mages' Guild quests and was able to create a "Fortify Security +100" Spell and now it is nearly impossible to break lockpicks.

The speed at which the tumblers rise follows a predictable order. Since most of my characters are thieves, I spent enough time lockpicking to know which speed comes next when I'm lockpicking, making it very easy to unlock everything. My current character has a lockpicking skill of 8 and I can easily crack open Very Hard locks.

After about 100 hours on my thief I can safely say I rock at lockpicking. So much for false modesty eh?

The right way to lock-pick is not only visual but based on the sound the tumblers make. When a tumbler is about to get stuck it will make a higher pitched "click" than normally, and thats when you know to push it in place.

I also disagree with the strong dislike for mini-games, and the point about them being disruptive to RP purposes. It is still based on character skill; you'll find that trying to pick a 5-tumbler lock at level 20-40 is entirely more difficult than at 60-80, due to the speed the stuck-tumblers fall. Not only, more tumblers fall as you make a mistake and even players with fast reflexes will have problems.

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2688/oblivion201110212310427.png

Like I said above, I think your reason for using autopick to base the picking on your characters skill is a great reason.

So I'm not really disagreeing.

However, I think it should be pointed out that the rate at which the tumblers move is highly dependent on the Player Character's (PC) skill. So the PC's skill does enter into it. At least a little. And with OOO there is a somewhat higher dependency on the PC vs Player's skill, in that there are skill requirements for opening the more difficult locks, and also detecting/disarming/dodging traps.

I've never been any good at lockpicking.I know how youre supposed to do it but for some reason whenever I see the tumbler jump up real fast I freak out and end up breaking the lockpick.

I've never been much on the magick in this game so I don't often use spells.All of my Thief and Assassin characters have had security as a major skill,it seems to help some.

I got quite good at picking locks I would say

At first I would never be able to pick a very hard lock without at least 40 picks, but now I only need one

I'm not disputing that. I have picked the locks. I'm not as good at it in Oblivion as in FO3, though; I can pick any lock in that game, and hardly ever break a pick.

My point was that the minigame is not "roleplay friendly" (in either of the above-mentioned games.) I preferred the "random-dice-roll" lock picking of Morrowind, where player ability didn't enter into it, but I fully realize that I'm in the minority there. The "auto-pick" button is just Oblivion's version of Morrowind's "twisting the lockpick in the air in front of the door," except even more boring.

Fallout 3 had it a little better, though. The higher the difficulty of the lock, the higher your lockpick skill needed to be if you wanted to pick it.

Still, that minigame was incredibly easy.