Neither minigame is realistic, and they don't need to be because it's a videogame. Oblivion's minigame was bad because it broke the skill, plain and simple. I can't imagine why people would prefer a system that renders the skill irrelevant. Well, actually I can, but I can't imagine why those people would have any interest in an RPG.

I actually prefer the Fallout 3 lockpick system. While it's less fair to weaker characters, it feels much more involved than Oblivion's variant.

Ironically, Oblivion has lockpicks like those that exist in real life, while Fallout 3 uses bobby pins, which an old cliche of detective/action fiction.

Still, I think both systems are appropriate for their respective games.

as a lockpick mini i dont think oblivion svcked azz but combined with the shrine quest and the controller issues, it made a decent system easily svck, lol.

id love to see a well thought out combo of all of em.

in fact, are there not such great mods out there that the developers could look at and use? ....................

I really like both.

But since there is a "I like both." option, shouldn't there be a "I dislike both." option?

FO3's is more realistic and challenging they should not be judged on how easy they are....

Oblivion's system gives you the opportunity to pick any lock & the 'mini-game' itself is much more enjoyable.

there needs to be a restriction, and why is it wrong to not being able to pick a lock that requires your knowledge to of 50? even if it is one point youre not going to say you almost know to do a math operation right? the game says you really require all the 50 points in knowledge to open that lock, you cant open a lock that its too hard for you just because you have half the skill.

i see clothing bonuses (at least the majority) to be realistic improvements to your skill because its like a good equipment to perform that specific skill if you know what i mean (and the improvements are really minor), you have a skill of 49, you cant pick it, you almost can do it its just a little something more that is required for you to do it, and maybe that equipment like clothing might help you do it, for drugs its the same, its not that your smarter, you focus more when performing.

it really is like riding a horse with the right equipment, your skill will most likely improve and then this is also a rpg so your saying your skill to intereact with the world has a number (and that its not certainly true so it isnt even realistic to begin with ).

oblivion doenst give a damn about your skill really, you dont understand locks but you can pick a very hard lock? sure you can try but in the real world that really applies? the mix of both its the best really, having the skill to do it and then you can still fail to open it as it can happen in our world. improvement to be done? sure just include more levels of locks so that your skill matters more between 25 and 50 for example

sorry for the english

Oblivion's system seemed to be tougher, simply because if you aren't paying enough attention you can run through 10-15 picks on any particular lock. In Fallout 3, it becomes too predictable to pick any of the locks (even Very Hard), and the only real challenge is in raising your Lockpick skill to even have a chance to pick the harder ones. But, I prefer Fallout's simply because it LOOKS realistic. And using a screwdriver you never see in your inventory is a mystery. I like mysteries.

but thats the way really the point in these games.. your most important challenge should be improving your skills to do better and not having an incredibly difficult mini game for harder locks so that it can be challenging, i see it as a visualization that requires a little player skill for you to do it, for me its just that because that way it your stat skill that matters the most.

having a skill when you can just do it aswell as not having one it is unnecessary to have that skill in the gameplay. why would people chose lockpicking in oblivion?

Very true. Like I said, I prefer Fallout's system, but it's not as rewarding in the mini-game itself as Oblivion's system was. If Fallout's picking mini-game were slightly more challenging, it would be perfect.

a trend im noticing- any thread posted competing between Oblivion and Fallout 3 in either of their respective forums will almost always go towards the game in which the thread is posted in.

There should be an option for the Fallout 1 and 2 system. The "Fallout system" from the poll is really FO3-specific.



They shouldn't have "kept" the Oblivion system, they should have kept the Fallout system.

I realized just how easy oblivions lock picking system was when I was able to pick the very hard lock near the arena at level2 with the base skill. My unarmed fighter loved it though!

I'm not very fond of minigames at all, but the FO3 lockpicking minigame isn't very irritating. Unfortunately, the rest of the lockpicking system is.

Fallout by far. However I think they took the wrong approach on how skill affects it.

Instead of the rule of 25, they should have had the skill influence the % chance to break the lock if you broke a bobby pin, as well as how many chances you had before the lock was jammed.

Simply, I really hate the rule of 25. Same for hacking. The minigame was GREAT. But that stupid rule of 25 shows up, when they could have taken a more creative approach.

The Fallout lockpick system (not the Fallout 3 system):

No minigames
You can take a chance at the 'very hard' locks even with low Lockpick skill
However, you roll against your skill with difficulty modifiers depending on the lock
In the event of a critical failure (quite likely with low skill), the lock is jammed
You don't need picks in your inventory to use the skill, but they do increase your chances
With high Strength or with explosives, you can simply destroy many doors

I won't vote in the poll because there's no option for the Fallout 1/2 system, nor for "I dislike both".

Wow, the vote isn't quite turning out like you expected, huh? As of this writing, almost 70% of all voters like Fallout 3's system better.

The funny thing is that for every reason you listed for preferring Oblivion's system over Fallout's is the exact reason why I prefer Fallout's over Oblivion's.

If a player was able to pick any lock they pleased with a a Lockpicking skill of 1, then that makes the skill pretty irrelevant, doesn't it now? Why would anyone in their right mind put any points into Lockpicking if you could pick a lock by simply playing an easy minigame? This is why I think Oblivion's lockpicking system was weak: It didn't matter. Once you figured out what to look/listen for, improving the lockpicking skill didn't matter beyond improving the agility stat because you could open any lock with a skill of only 1 - they may as well just have taken it out of the game completely and nothing would have been affected. I like Fallout 3's Lockpicking system because there is a reason for me to put skill points into it, or go out and find the books to improve it. The whole point of playing an RPG is that the numbers that dictate how good your character is at something ought to be meaningful - otherwise you're just playing a glorified shooter, and we all saw how Operation: Anchorage turned out, didn't we?

Which is why the Fallout 1/2 system is superior to both FO3 and Oblivion ones - every point mattered, not just every 25 points (FO3) or none at all (Oblivion).

4. Force lock actually has a reason. - In Fallout, it always svcks. Oblivion, it worked well, expecially with higher levels, i could just repeatedly press Force Lock, until it opened, or i could try to open it if it was too high for my skill level vs Force lock. Much..much better IMO.

5. Gets easier each level in Oblivion, Fallout stays the same.

Other than that i agree.

IMHO they're both waaay too easy and irrelevant considering other options in each game.

:thumbsup: This.

While I do agree with you, the poll question was Fallout 3's lockpick system VS. Oblivion's lockpick system, not FO1/2 vs. FO3 vs. Oblivion.

I prefer Fallout's, except I like the idea mentioned in a previous post that a certain number of failed attempts results in a jammed lock, and an option to simply blow it with explosives (somehow modified by explosives skill) would have been nice.

I dunno, I'm not a big fan of the "rule of 25", either. It makes all the "in-between" points seem irrelevant, as they don't seem to affect anything except your "force" chances (and "force" isn't even worth using unless you're level 100 lockpicking and have a 100% chance to force a "very easy" lock). Additionally, the "rule of 25" makes both lockpicking and science (and I guess a couple of medicine skill checks) too easy to "gimmick" out with magic clothing. In fact, considering the light weight of said clothing, and the fact that it is not inherently "unsafe" to put that clothing on (just kill everything in the area, first), I'm not exactly sure why I should bother to ever manually get any of those skills up to 100, when they can be boosted 5-10 points with a few 1 or 2 "pound" articles of clothing.

Well, the thread title and poll say "Fallout", not "Fallout 3", even if they mean "Fallout 3" only, so I clarified that the original Fallout system was much different.