Surely I'm not the only person out there who felt cheated by the lock-picking and hacking systems in Fallout 3. Exploration is more than a major part of the Fallout experience, and coming across a locked door somewhere in the wasteland and not being able to open it because your lock-pick skill isn't high enough was more than a little irritating. Normally you could just come back to it after you leveled up enough to open it, but more often than not you would completely forget about it and miss out on whatever the door was hiding. I think Ive devised a new diabolically clever system for New Vegas that would make locks and terminals more approachable and more realistic.

For lock-picking, having the option to shoot the doorknob off a normal door at the expense of action points or something, (not blast doors obviously), by targeting them in V.A.T.S. or being given the option when rolling the reticle over the door. In the case of footlockers or crates, the option to break it open (again, obviously not safes) This ability could be given by way of a perk or automatically when a certain SPECIAL stat reaches a certain point (perception or strength maybe??). Another way would be by obtaining some kind or auto-pick similar to the Skeleton Key in Oblivion, though this would be less...cool...as the aforementioned processes could make way for some interesting new animations.

For hacking, an auto-hack feature or some sort of item that takes up space in your inventory could hack the terminal for you. This ability or item could also be accrued by way of a leveled perk or when Intelligence reaches a certain number.

Obviously this doesn't matter much on the PC version of the game, (i.e. console commands), but for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners this could make the game less about backtracking and more about testing out the crazy powerful new weapon you found behind a locked door. (Experimental MIRV anyone?) I know this kind of a useless thing to post now seeing as New Vegas drops in four days, but maybe future Fallout games or DLC could utilize something to this nature.

If it's too late why post it in the New Vegas forums? You must know that overhauling a minigame is way too complicated to be just a DLC.

If you can shoot doorknobs off then the lockpicking skill is made obsolete.

If it's any consolation, the lockpicking minigame seems to have been improved in that it's much harder to break a lockpick, if the Best Buy preview was any indication. And thank god for that, breaking after 3 failures in FO3 was infuriating.

Personally, I never had a problem with the Fallout 3 minigame systems. :shrug:

You can do this ?

Doesn't have to, I'm sure Bethesda could come up with some way to regulate it, and, like I said, It would only come about after you reach a certain level and would cost action points or something.

Come on am I the only one who thinks this a good idea? Really?

Fallout 3 featured several mods to get around lockpicking and i'm sure they'll be remade for New Vegas. Although i don't think there'll be any change in the base game. The problem with providing alternate ways is if they don't follow the same skill system it kind of makes it obsolete for the original way. As i recall there was a mod to use explosives and depending on your skill you could end up destroying some of the contents. Now that is more or less balanced.

Yes.

I thought lockpicking was fine, but hacking, however easy, took forever later on with bigger words. which lead to guess-work so I could stay lazy about it lol, lockpicking I think is done rather well in comparison to other games.

Wait...The lock picking mini game was hard in FO3?

The only time I broke bobby pins in any real numbers was on the "Very Hard" locks....or is that the problem here? :shrug:

Ehhh, the only real frustration with VH locks is that the sweet spot was so fine toothed, it could be semi difficult to get. But Im a braggart about my F3 lockpicking skills :disguise:

He's angry because apparently if you don't take lockpicking as a skill, you cannot unlock, locked doors... yeah... pretty much...

Edit: FO3 lockpicking was pretty easy after you get used to it, and bobby pins were in almost every first aid kit in the wastes, still surprised that none started out as [empty] or they had a model for one that was busted into/ransacked.

It was never difficult, not bad at all. I'm just saying that not being able pick a lock or hack a terminal because your skill wasn't high enough was more of a nuisance than a challenge.

That's why you raise your skill in that area. it's not like the main quest needed you to unlock doors and stuff. it's just so you can get past locked doors and get at better loot, if you blew all your points in explosives or barter, then you get their bonuses. there's choices for a reason.

It isn't really a lock, it's about using a specialized ability to grant special rewards to the player, whether that is through lockpicking or hacking or something else it is irrelevant. Besides, i found lockpicking to be very easy in Fallout 3, having made the choice to put points into the skill was what mattered. Don't fix it if it isn't broken.

Well then.. no.

I found hacking was rather messed up in Fallout 3. Having a high skill didn't seem to really do anything aside from letting you unlock higher stuff. It never seemed to get easier in fact it seemed to end up getting harder and harder or rather more annoying. It got to the point where i got a mod to cut down the word possibilties to say three or four so i could more or less bypass it. Unlike lockpicking however i never really noticed anything major blocked off by a computer terminal.

I think I can count on one hand the number of locks in Fallout 3 that actually held valuable items with no alternative access.

I look forward to new vegas because I'm def taking lockpicking again, and hopefully with less skill points to distribute It will be more worth it this time. Like that Gobi Campaign Rifle was in a Very Hard locked footlocker! = Win

True, this was very lame. They way I see it, I think Difficulty should determine how many times you can use that pin before the bobby pin snaps and you need a new one, lockpick does this too, but I think difficulty of the luck + the lock pick skill should determine the britalness of the pick (If you use autolock pick it will still possibly break the lock, since IMO, if you're legitimately trying to pick the lock, the game shouldnt force us to risk a broken lock.)

I thought the brittleness was fine, on very hard you could get a cringe in the pin like 3-4 times before it snapped, all in all lockpicking really wasn't that bad, as very few doors were "very hard", I just didn't like hacking, I'd rather have that to be like bioshock's hacking with the tubes and flowing liquid, at least make it interesting, not English homework >.<

I dunno, if I stuffed all my points into explosives (as I often do), I'd kinda hope I could use said explosives to blow open locked doors. It's called "demolitions" for a reason, you know.

The entire POINT of lockpicking is your a tomb raider/sneak thief looking for LOOT and interesting places to explore that others dont want you to.

As for science.. it now does more but still one of its points is to brain your way into interesting places.

In short those places are there for a reason. so um

no!

Am I the only one who liked lockpicking in Fallout 3? It's tricky at the high end, and it requires an investment in the skill to unlock bonus content, which is the whole point.

If you're good at it, you get in free and easy. If you aren't, you have to be sure to carry a lot of bobby pins. Seems like reasonable risk vs. reward to me.