What is your opinion of the lockpicking and hacking mini games?

I'm over them in a big way. Minigames as a whole are SO ten years ago; I would MUCH prefer a simple skill check to doing the same animation over and over and over and over. The fact that you can just retry them as many times as you want - WHILE THE WORLD IS PAUSED! - means they are ultimately pointless as there is no real consequence of failure.

Lockpicks (excuse me 'bobby pins') are never scarce after about level 2 or 3, and if the player (not the character) knows what he is doing they rarely get broken anyway. I think my Prime character is schlepping around five or six hundred bobby pins, but I don't know for sure since anything over half a dozen is essentially meaningless.

Hacking is....boring. And fiddly. Once you know what you're doing it devolves into a Where's Waldo for braces and parens that eventually get so frustrating that you start to just run your mouse pointer over EVERY character because it's faster.

I'm going to mod these games out once it's safe to do so, and they should not be included in the next iteration of the series - or TES for that matter.

I like them.

Yup...said it many times on other threads...Hacking is outdated, and boring...they need to come up with a different method...

lockpicking...to me it's alright, but it does get real old fast as well...not sure what they could replace it with, but I think they should...I was hoping for a change in both with FO4...even a slight change, instead of the exact same method over now the 3rd game..

Agree, they are pretty lame, boring and repetitive. I've broken maybe 4 or 5 bobby pins so far, it's not even a challenge. Same with hacking, like you say, it's just running the cursor through the list, remove the 3 duds and then make a guess or two.

This is supposed to be an RPG, of sorts, please tie it into some skill checks and having the proper tools, etc.

Yep. My ideal system is a simple progress bar. You start your hack/lockpicking, and the world goes on around you. No picking/hacking when your being riddled with bullets.

Yes bring back pblivions lockpicking please!!

While the lockpicking is far too easy in this game, I like that one. In Skyrim I'd often go through ten to a dozen picks on a master lock, but I don't think I've ever broken three on any lock in Fallout 4. It should be made harder.

The hacking game I like a lot less, but I'd prefer it to under the hood checks.

Both should be in real time, though. Stop to hack while combat is going on and you should be gunned down.

I love lockpicking, but that's just me. I have all the way back to Oblivion and even in ESO and in the previous Fallout incarnations as well.

Hacking gets on my nerves though since there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, although I can still do it.

I will admit though, that I wouldn't complain if they were no longer there either. As they did in DA:I, if my skills are high enough, just give me an animation of me picking the lock or hacking the computer, I don't really need a mini-game.

I just wouldn't be able to stand a simple skill check, there has to be something more. A happy medium between a skill check and a live mini-game would be best. Something that the base challenge is actually really really difficult and the skill check makes it easier where actually being a Master of the ability actually makes it remotely easier (but still a challenge).


Also having locks permanently break after failing a few times makes more sense.

Also I'm not a fan of the system that has been in place since FO3. I like Oblivion a lot more.


ESO might actually have my favorite lockpicking system right now.


You say the mini games are so 10 years ago...well, a static skill check is sooooo 20+ years ago. If I want dice roll mechanics, I'll play AD&D.

I dont think mini-games are sooo ten years ago, the problem is more the lack of variation in the games and the fact that, as you bring up, the world pauses removes a sense of challenge associated with them. It would add a real challenge to stealth-builds if the world was unpaused, maybe slowed down like VATS.

I personally think Bethesda need MORE mini-games, with variations for pick-locking and hacking to really keep you on your toes. It would also be nice to see other interactions outside of these methods such as kicking down doors with high strength builds.

I actually enjoy lock pick but hate hacking.


I agree with you in atleast one way - these mini games need to be updated. I played fallout 3 and fallout NV and these mini games have not been updated or changed in virtually away for 3 titles in a row. The only nice addition in fallout 4 is that you can order companions to do these tasks.


Also, as everyone - hate or love these mini games- pretty much agrees that they are not really challenging or risky.

Lock picking is fine, hacking is awful there must be a better way

Sorry for double post but thought of an idea...


There's probably only a small chance that Bethesda would rework the min games or just make them skill checks.


One compromise would be that as part of an Upcoming DLC you could purchase and expensive upgrade for your pipboy that automatically hacks/lockpicks, to pick more advanced locks you would have to pay for upgrades.

I modded out the Hacking thing the second it became available. That mini-game in particular pisses me off, because it's entirely possible to fail it or have to restart it based completely on random chance.

I consider myself pretty skilled at the Lockpicking game, so I don't mind it as much. However, it feels like in the late game, just about everything is locked - tool boxes, suitcases, etc., so it becomes increasingly annoying as you level.

What really gets my goose (pardon my language), is when you pick a Master level lock to access a room only find a Novice level lock on a frigging toolbox inside. Really?!

I finally modded out the Lockpicking AND hacking entirely (auto success IF you have the perk to at least attempt them) just because I knew that ~eventually~ I would succeed, and it was just boring and frustrating to waste time on them. I don't feel I lost anything.

For a second, I was about to say that time does NOT stop while you're lockpicking / hacking, but then I realized I was remembering Dying Light, where time does ~not~ stop while you are picking locks. I was remembering a time I was picking a lock and I heard a shambler groaning nearby... getting louder/closer... until I "backed out" of the lockpick interface and sure enough, a biter had entered the room with me!

Even if time did not stop, though, I still would not want the mini-games back: I'd just kill everything that ~could~ get near me first and THEN pick / hack.

heeeyyy now, PG13 pal

seriously though yea I hate that too...Also I've picked master locks that contain a crappy pipe pistol, 10 or so rounds of ammo that don't even go with the pistol, a few caps, and a couple worthless leather armors...and further along in the same building pick a novice lock, and get a sniper rifle, with ammo, and more caps...

I like both of them. They add an element of realism to the game in my opinion. I enjoy the logic puzzle of hacking a console. A lot of people seem to not take the time to really -learn- how to most efficiently hack the consoles, but when you do it's really not difficult. I don't want to see either of these things removed. I don't see them as outdated in any sense at all.

edit - Some comments here seem to suggest that some people don't really get how the hacking works. It's really not difficult.

If you see pairs of brackets like (), [ ], <>, or { } (often with other symbols between the brackets), highlight the whole string to either remove a dud or reset your number of tries. This is most easily done by highlighting the left piece of the pair. An incorrect try will give you a 'likeness.' This is telling you how many of the same letters, in the same positions your selected word has in common with the correct choice.

For example, if you select 'deceit', and the correct choice is 'recede,' you'll have likeness of 3 because they share the 'ece' in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th positions. I you select 'steak' and the correct word is 'streak' you'll have a likeness of 2 because they share the 'st' in the 1st and 2nd positions. If you select 'samurai' and the correct word is 'sword' you'll have a likeness of 1 because they share only the 's' in the first position. I think some guides incorrectly explain the likeness as being just the number of letters, in general, that the two words share, without specifying that it only pertains to identical letters in the same positions of each word.

Lock Picking takes me about 5 to 20 seconds to do. Have no problem with it.

Hacking can take a couple minutes. Really needs to be reworked somehow. I like the overall idea but it's like game-play just comes to a complete halt when I have to start hacking ... hacking, and hacking and whacking ... and hacking and hacking and whacking ... WOAH, where the hell did that come from ... I play this game way too much...

There have been innumerable threads on this forum where people suppose to "explain" the logic of it. Frankly, as I'm on my 5th playthrough now and have hacked more terminals than I can count, the only logic I have ever found (and it's not ALWAYS) is, that, if it's a personal name, it is the code about 75% of the time or, if it is a word that is completely out of context to all of the other words (i.e. it's a noun, the rest are verbs -or- it's a verb and the rest are adjectives) it is the word about 75% of the time, or, if it is a word that doesn't make any sense (i.e. it's a colloquialism or slang) it works about 75% of the time. Context is often the key for me. If I'm hacking a terminal in a synth base, it's synth related - at a raider base, it's raider related, etc...

Again, it doesn't work ALL the time, but, I'm patient. It doesn't take me more than 2 or 3 go rounds for it to be hacked.

I still don't like doing it though. It's boring.

And to all you folks that talk about "eliminating items based on the punctuation marks surrounding the word" or "if the punctuation marks are the same just before and after..." Again, it's only about 75%.

That's just my experience though.

If there is a trick. A simple trick that anyone can understand.

One of many things that doesn't bother me.

I just edited my previous post with my own explanation of it. You may or may not find it useful. Personally, I'm a physicist and as an undergrad I did dual degrees in physics and mathematics. I love logic puzzles, so I may be a bit biased in that regard.

The mini-games adds a layer of immersion to the game.

Yeah, some people like them, some people hate them, and others are indifferent.

I would wait for a mod to be released after the GECK is made available so that the mini-games are disabled and only requires a skill rank check. For the PC it should be easy to get the mod once it someone makes it. For the consoles... well that is a different matter since all mods must go through a vetting process. If those types of mods are considered "unacceptable" by Bethesda, then you simply have to deal with the mini-games.

1) Thank you

and

2) WOW! A Physicist? I am actually quite impressed (and this ole dog is not easily impressed). I think physics is absolutely fascinating (I don't understand 1/2 of it and can't handle all the math, but, still...). Can you introduce me to Sheldon Cooper?

Personally I find both hacking and lock picking to easy. I'd love increase in difficulty in both, and to have time continue as you do them. But they'd need a quick way to exit the terminal screen, and a way to look around while in the mini games.


Not sure how others are doing hacking puzzles, but in the hundreds I've done I've been locked out of one, and use the brackets maybe 1 in 15-20 hacks.

Maybe a happy medium would be that locks below your Perk level were automatically opened without XP (what are you learning from such a basic lock?) Locks AT your level bring up the minigame but break about the same as before. Locks above your level are possible to pick, but break picks a lot more frequently. Also, you should only get two or three tries before the lock is "damaged."

Oh, I understand how it works, but that mechanic only really applies at the beginning of the game and/or if you have low intelligence. If your character has high intelligence, there are almost always fewer words left after the bracket process than you have allowable guesses. At that point it is just a repetitive, mechanical process of running your mouse over everything, then clicking all the words left over until one of them works. And IF your character has low INT and you successfully pick the lock with the process described in your edit, that's YOU doing it instead of your character.