The lockpicking minigame in Oblivion is the bane of every one of my thief/assassin characters. I know how it works – that’s not the problem, I just can’t do it. Primarily because it’s based on timing and quickly reacting and my grasp on those two things tends to be less then adequate late in the evenings when I have time to play and am tired from work.

As far as I’m aware off, I’ve got two options for alternatives:
- Obscuro’s Overhaul removes the level restrictions from the Daedra quests, so I could just go and get the skeleton key straight away after crawling out of the sewers. My problem with that is that mashing the auto-attempt button isn’t really fun, that and somewhere there’s an annoying, little voice in the back of my head going ‘you’re cheating!’.
- Chance based lockpicking (Zumb’s or Fearrabbit’s mods). Those two aren’t perfect for me either as random number generators hate my guts. I know the mathematical chances of something like that are slim, but if dice see the chance to screw me over somehow, they take it. It might have something to do with an incident involving a couple d20’s, some mayonnaise and a blender back when I was a kid.

What I’m looking for is an alternative minigame, one that’s not based on the player’s reaction time. Something like Fallout 3’s minigame, for instance.
If someone feels like taking this on, that person can enjoy the soft, warm, fuzzy feeling of enriching someone’s playing experience. That and I’ll say thank you. A lot.

The only other LP mods I know of are http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16136 which requires you to use multiple lockpicks based on your skill but that still uses the mini-game. I don't know how people find that so easy to do, even doing it with just their ears.

The other one is http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=31424, based off of Zumbs.

Since my armorer skill isn't too high to make it too easy yet, I use http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9258, that lets you craft them but if you have MM it has conflicts with the leather crafting system in it. Using this with Zumbs will allow you to get up to the default 100 (?) required for one of the lockpick upgrades (adjustable in the ini).

I don't know the status on the ML mod. I made a comment there 23rd of September saying I would wait for the customizable version he mentioned in the thread.

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Well; when then pin reaches the top the chamber, there is a distinct sound cue that tells you when you need to click. However, as I said; I just can't react fast enough.

A little bump to see if an alternative minigame - not based on the player's reaction time - is possible. If not, I'll just resign in my fate and go ask Nocturnal for the skeleton key.

Why not just do what I do, use the Auto-Attempt feature. I really can't be bothered going through all that hassle in order to open a lock. With Auto-Attempt, sometimes I'll even get it on the first try.

Mindlessly bashing the auto-attempt button is basically what I do once I have the skeleton key. But that's not really fun...

It doesn't sound like you're having fun the other way either, so what's the difference? At least you'll get the lock open.

Erm... that's why I'm asking here if an alternative, fun minigame to the not-fun autoattempt bashing and the frustrating (to me) vanilla-minigame is possible.