So...I know how to pick locks. But it seems like I only get one chance to do it. If I am unsuccessful, the game tells me so, but then when I hit the spacebar again near the same door to have another go at picking the lock, I get nothing. Am I missing something with regards to lockpicking?

You only have one chance.

Surprising answer, but thanks!

Life of thief is quite hard in Daggerfall. Mages can open any house easily using cheap custom spell. But to open the door with Lockpicking, your skill must be ridiculously high and still your chance to open it will be quite low. My current thief character has Lockpicking 75, and her success rate is only about fifty percent, it seems.
Still, picking locks is much more fun than opening them with cheesy spell, in my opinion.
Interestingly, my thief open locks in dungeons MUCH more easily, while Open spells often fail...
V

Thanks for the responses. I guess I'm just used to Arena, where you can spam your lock picking skills infinitely until the thing opens!

You can try bashing the door open with your weapon, idk if it will work for a box or chest though, but it might? Just keep hitting it, and it will break or open.

Well, boxes and chests are never locked in DF, only doors. But yes, you can bash doors--makes a lot of noise, though!

If you bash down a door the guards will come!

Halt! Halt! Halt!

Im a thief, I had to do that to get inside of a house and luckily they didnt hear, or come. But it was on a side quest, so idk if that counted as being a regular door and the guards would come, or either its a quest through that door so the guards didnt care?

Also I dont know how to lockpick. I dont know what to buy/look for, and idk what to press or whatever to lockpick.

Simply use the door when your interaction mode is set to "Steal", and a message will tell you whether you are successful or not.

I've had a few situations where it wouldnt let me open the door, and I would try to unlock it, and it said that it would be, or already be unlocked. Then I would try to open it again in every time of interaction mode, then it would just say This lock has nothing to fear from you, even in a dungeon... I would HAVE to bash the door to open it. Is there a bug involved, or another way to open a door?