I believe that we should be able to lock doors that we have a key to (houses), and if we don't, we risk getting robbed blind by a thief.

When you face a door, you could press X to exit the house and lock the door, press and hold X to lock yourself in, or press A just to leave the house without locking it.

This would make keys have less of a "one-time-use" feel to them. Plus, who doesn't want to lock a pissed off guard/murderer out of your house while you arm up for a fight?

I'd like that.

That would be a great idea although that would eliminate unique items being sble to be stolen.

No. Realism is great, but too much is....Bleh.

I just think it's kinda lame that I can use a key once, and then I can just throw it away without ever needing it again.

Can has magic security camera with facial recognition? Just find out who stole it and ask around for his/her whereabouts. Once you find out, take him (and his family, if you're into that) down!

Thats a good idea. I like managing my stuff, and random theif encounters? Awesome!

I am not saying that you should be robbed each time you forget to lock your home, but it should be a possibility (just to keep people in their toes). Maybe having the equivalent to the waterfront shack (a house in a bad area) in Skyrim would increase the likelihood of your house being broken into. Living in a nicer area, like the Skingrad house, would lessen the chances.

i like the idea, but I think it'd have to be implemented late game (after your character has acquired some fame). I don't think it'd be a good idea to be robbed early game when you have so very little. In the late game i could see you having access to powerful locks. Although now that I think about it, placing locks would probably be under the lockpick skill. I could see there being some magical counterpart (Unlock Hard Lock, but in reverse), but it could cause a problem for the warrior characters. It's probably best saved for a "hardcoe" mode. Which I would love. But that's another subject altogether.

Actually, I was thinking more of a "needs a key" lock. Of course, locking your house like that would have to set your house key as a quest item to make sure your don't lock yourself out, or perhaps you could go to the chamber of commerce to get a new key if you lose the old one, at the cost of 100 gold.

It wouldn't feel like your getting robbed though, you would just think 'oh how annoying! i have to activate the door with this key before i leave or the game will randomly take away stuff!'

But it really isn't a horrible inconvenience; you just press a different button upon leaving. It just adds a tiny level of realism to the whole home ownership thing, and Bethesda could probable implement it in one day without problems.

Absolutely not. I work hard to get my loot and I work hard to decorate my house with it. If some NPC was able to access my house and take it all, or even just one item, just because I forgot to lock the door, I would be incredibly angry.

It's a nice idea, but that's as far as I want it go: an idea. Too much realism makes a game not fun.

Then it would be worth it for you to lock your door before going on a quest...

Then how about just not have this at all? Like Vel said, I'd be super mad if any of my loot that I bring to my house gets stolen, even if it happens rarely/you can do a quest to get said item back, it'd just be a pain and wouldn't be fun at all.

Ok, so I know you like to not lose your valuables. Would you at least be supportive of a toggle for it, so those who would like it can have it? Beth has the tech to do it, they just need to take a couple hours to put it in.

Eh, it wouldn't really make sense to have an option to toggle something specefic like that in the Options Menu. And who knows how long it takes to implement or how much of their limited resources they must use to put this in. I say focus on other stuff B)

(And if you have a PC, mods are there for ya, and consoles *may* get 'em too) /pray

No to having to lock your door at the risk of getting robbed, yes to bringing back the lock spell. Or locking a door that you have a key to.

Well, all they need to do is make it so that pressing X (or whatever button) with the key in your possession will activate a simple lock command. I know it will be used a few times by AI's, so I don't see why we can't have that ability.

Yeah, it be fun for some people's immersion, I think it really boils down to personal preference, and in my opinion, I think it's an unnecessary feature.

what if instead of having you're stuff just gone, you go inside and theres the thief and you have to chase him down and beat up/kill him to get some item that you own off of him?

That would be pretty badass. I would also like to have a guard approach me and say something like: "Hello, citizen. We found some thief snooping around your house, and we found these items with him *gives items back*. here you go!"

People who don't mind having their stuff stolen are people who don't play as a collector. They don't really care about stuff going missing.

But we collectors do care. It is the entire goal of my game to collect every unique item in the game. Further, why do you think we can buy houses? The whole point of houses is to offer secure storage.

And I also assume people who want things stolen, have never had their houses robbed? Because I had. Twice. Don't you DARE tell me it is "fun" to have your belongings stolen.

Well I'd like idea of better locks I use many mods for Oblivion thats make interaction with doors and locks much more versatile and return many features what was axed from game.
one of mods is
Reneers KeyLock Mod
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=33630


About robberies I'd like to see such feature as part of quest event for house what we buy, stolen loot better make as stolen gold and misc items thats already was in house like stolen silverware dishes, painting and sconces, I don't think player will happy about stolen loot, so again as part of quest thats really interesting we can pursuit thieves or use deductive investigation found thieves and listen their story what if he was in great need or ask him about invitation into thieves guild, I think thats good idea.

Another good feature if some beggars in inhabitants of slums can pickpocket our character for small amounts of gold if player is not aware about their actions (sneak and security skill checks) to catch their hands, thats can be easy implemented via greeting dialogue,

Or if taverns will be much better we can drink alcohol at drink contest and sleep in tavern or be knocked out during bar fight in such cases we can lose again small portion of gold

If we will able sleep everywhere like in this mod,
Roughing It
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=24441
In such cases resting in such manner in public place can also cost us small amount of pick-pocketed gold.

Few ideas about fixing exploits on locking unlocking and lockpicking

If player lock door with key door no more train his security skill and become marked as player owned or already picked, bashed locks are broken and if player is not owner but there is another owner they will be restored at next time but replace by higher grade lock and/or trapped, doors without owner will never restore self so once opened they will not close anymore.
NPC able to unlock doors by key, lockpick, unlock spell or bash lock

Lock spell work in different way it creates magical barrier around door and enchant it for certain duration if barrier was placed by player it can have duration based on skill in alteration school, barrier is physical and magical field around door thats glow and increase door durability versus bash, prevent lockpicking (unless you have skeleton key), but can be dispelled or wear of after certain time or or after take maximum damage from spells and bashes barrier health is based on charged Magicka into it but never have smaller value then 50 for example so there is no barriers with 1HP, when barrier is broken but not dispelled it create noise and flash of light effectively work versus sneaker around and alert NPC nearby, if barrier was dispelled or wear of by self noise is not produced and barriers just blinks and disappear, NPC mages can use such barriers for protecting self from pursuits or protect vaults and treasury as additional security for durable doors with difficult locks and traps, as well such Lock spell can be used as trap to close doors if thieves was unsuccessful to disable trap and activate it, such spell much better then closing door by script like it was before.
Lock spell not physical replace of key to lock door it more like magical force field around door door under such field can be already open or bashed, so it cannot be used to constant locking doors and lockpicking them.
Such spell can also be component for circle of protection spell what already introduced, just use on target function to determine how it work, as well such force field can be used as trap rune what envelope target and prevent it from moving but not harm it and even protect it from damage since it work as force field around them.

Something I'd prefer is just the general ability to lock doors.

Nothing says "Dovahkiin wuz 'ere" quite like leaving someone's front door unlocked...