Fallout's or Oblivion's would be best, what with the mix of character skill and an entertaining minigame.

I like Morrowind's because in terms of lockpicks, it was more realistic. At most, I had 5 lockpicks on me, usually of different grades. In Oblivion, I would have as many as 50-60 lockpicks, because I hated the minigame and would just spam, which meant relying on character skill, the way an RPG should. What thief carries around 50-60 lockpicks?

I liked both the Oblivion style and Fallout-3 style, they seemed "thematic" to the kinds of locks we would be picking in the given day and age. Both games it took a bit of practice to get it down, and still doing Very Hard locks I would break several picks before getting through. I didn't care as much for the Skeleton key in Oblivion as it seemed to bypass the minigame in many ways. In Fallout 3 I always had to at least Try to pick the lock (even after it had become second nature)

What was nice with Fallout 3 is that I had more control over how Good I got at lock picking by putting more points into that skill. I don't think we will have to worry about that with Skyrim, as per the GI article Todd said that Using skills would make them get better (as long as they were among your elected primaries). This is nice, I much prefer getting better at lock-pick the more I use the skill, just as I would in real life.

As long as they continue doing as well with this mini-game as they have in the past, I'll be happy. Unlike Fallout 3, we'll have spells too that can unlock things.

They could change it so it's like oblivion's system but the pick only breaks after lots of mistakes. Then balance that out by having picks be as rare as Morrowind.

I think Beth was really onto something in FO:3's lockpicking game. I mean why should you be able to see a cross section of the lock like in Oblivion? It was not realistic at all. However, FO:3s picking was too easy. Every lock had only one tumbler. They should use the view of FO:3 (outside the lock) and make it work sort of like a combination of FO:3 and Oblivion. Where you have to hit each tumbler and work the tension wrench at the right time to catch the tumbler in the "open" position then have you do the same on the next tumbler. Gates that are supposed to be well locked (like the Imperial Armory) should have lots of tumblers and other gates (like a sheep pen) should only have like one tumbler, with other buildings in between (like a house having 4 tumblers).

Hands down fallout 3, it was far from perfect, but it didn't get extremely annoying as oblivions did

Ok, fine. You can try all day long but if you don't have the proper skill level the system should never let you succeed in picking the lock. Either way, unless you have the proper skill level you should never be able to pick the lock, whether you try or not.

Again, skill level trumps all in RPG's. That's the way it should be in certain things so you can't abuse the system, like Lock Picking.

Actually I found the Oblivion lock picking mini-game really easy. I can do Very Hard locks from the start of the game with few difficulties.

Personally I'd like a hybrid of some sort because I don't want players that don't specialize in lock picking to be handicapped but at the same time the ease of the mini-game in Oblivion meant my mage could lockpick just about as well as my thief because skill really didn't play a role. Heck, I used Security as a way to efficiently level Agility more than anything else, I never used it as a class skill.

thief 3 style lock picking

Let me illustrate this, I am a banjo player in real life, I do it for a living with an Irish trad band. Let's say I'm a journeyman at banjo skill. My mate, who's ben playing a lot longer than me is an expert, let's say. He plays some mental tunes that are slightly beyond my capabilities. Sometimes when I play along, I make a mistake, get lost in a tricky bit, but sometimes I'm flying along and match him note for note. You are saying I will never play one of his tunes absolutely right, because I don't have the skill level, but on occasions, not always by any means, I do, and I'm pretty sure the same should be said for picking locks.

I liked Gothic 1 and Gothic 2's lockpick mechanism. Each lock has a combination, where you have to direct either Left or Right (this is all done in real-time). Example: L-L-R, or R-R-L-R-L-L. The better you are in the lockpicking skill, the less often your pick will break if you choose the wrong direction.

Morrowind's if only because it was real time.

I voted Fallout3, as it honestly is the most similar to actual lockpicking (locksport is a very fun and legitimate hobby). However, in Skyrim I would love to see it in real-time, like others have said, and would also like a Morrowind/Fallout3 "lock too complex" based on skill level.

Another aspect I think needs to be included is a lockpick (the thing that moves the pins) AND a tension wrench (used to twist the cylinder) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock_picking

Oddly enough in Morrowind the "probes" look like tension wrenches. I would like to see 2 items required for lockpicking, but of course wrenches take much longer to break.

For an RPG, Morrowind had the best Lock Picking scheme. Your Lock Pick Skill, coupled with the Tools, which gave a multiplier, gave you a base Skill to use on the lock. Your Fatigue, Intelligence, Luck and a couple of other factors were then added (or subracted) to come up with the success, or not, of opening the lock. No discrete steps, there were locks at 45, locks at 24, locks at 78. Sometimes you could open a lock that was higher than your lockpick skill, sometimes you couldn't. However at least the locks did not break, only the tools, so you could come back when you were rested, or better skilled.

The 25,50,75,100 Skill Tiers was the first messed up factor come Oblivion. this makes Intermediate Skill leveling of no value, I feel like I am sticking points into something that is giving me no immediate benifit. Couple that with a Mini Game and it now becomes more of the Player's skill to open a lock, rather than the skills of the character as it should be. Oblivion sort of put in a Dice Roll like Morrowind had, but it was too far removed from the game play that Morrowind had with locks.

I so hope they do away with Tiered Skills of any kind in Skyrim, but for sure, lose the Lock Pick Mini Game and put the outcome back in the hands of the character where it belongs.

I understand completley what you are saying. I just disagree.

If you have the abillity to unlock something without the proper skill then why even have skil'ls? This is an RPG that relies on skills to determine your character, being able to bypass those skills ruins the Role Playing. Take for example, in Oblivion you could lock pick, successfully, a 100 strength lock coming out the training dungeon and without increasing your skill once. That is broken and should never happen. To open a "100" lock you should be a master lock picker, anything less and you've bypassed the skill all together.

You should have the appropriate skill for whatever the lock strength is, I want there to be a reason to increase the lock picking skill, mini games won't do that at all.

Improperly designed mini-games won't do that.

Properly designed mini-games just substitute player skill and luck for the random dice roll that traditional RPGs (seemingly) always had. Even at reduced skill, a player should have a chance to "roll a natural twenty" and accomplish an unlikely feat.

I'd prefer a properly designed real-time mini-game so that I can attempt that, with a dice roll "auto-attempt" second option.

Imo, bring back Morrowind-style lockpicking.

I really did like Oblivion's mini-game, but fresh out of the tutorial, I was able to unlock pretty much every door and chest in the game, so there wasn't really any point in working on the lockpicking skill. Not to mention, it's hard to roleplay a slow-witted Nordic Barbarian who know the ins and outs of every lock he comes across.

I am generally opposed to minigames in RPGs (unless they correspond to an actual in-universe game, like the gambling games in NV). I don't want to have to play a tedious puzzle game every time I click on a locked object. The WWW is bursting at the seams with tedious puzzle games I could play for free. If I pay to play an RPG, its because I want to play an RPG. So, if my character has the skill to unlock the object, just unlock it already.

So, my answer to the question is "None of the above". I don't want random dice rolls or tedious minigames. Just do a direct skill check and don't waste any more of my time. This is one thing DA:O did exactly right.

I just can't tell you how much I disagree with this. I absolutely hate the "you just fought your way through a robot infested factory, now you're near the prize. Too bad you only have 74 lockpick and this is a 75 lockpick door. If only you had a hat."

I want my chance to roll a natural twenty. Why else would I be carrying a hundred bobby pins?

Okay, fair point. But I still detest minigames. Provided there is some real-time way for me to bypass the minigame, I'll be okay with it. Given the choice of Bethesda's lockpicking schemes, I'd choose Morrowind.

I was shocked to see Oblivion was the least liked option because IMO it took the most skill I mean for me Fallout's was just trial and error and Morrowinds was based on the skill which would be annoying for a person to use the skill but not have security at a higher level because they didnt tag it and then they would have to scavenge for lower level chests

I agree with that, but then I also think that the distribution of locks plays a role. In dungeons, locks should not be too tough. In rare cases, they should be very hard, but then there should be a key lying around somewhere of on the body of some NPC. But mostly, once you're in a dungeon you should be able to pick the locks provided that you brought the necessary equipment - either lockpicks or Open spells/scrolls.

Locks with high lock levels should be found in special places - vaults, mansions etc. Mostly to be found inside of cities, because that's where a highly skilled thief usually operates, and that's where high lock levels make sense and are fun to experience. It shouldn't be one darned chest that is kept from you at low levels, it should be a whole building, or at least a section of a building, that is secured that way. You come across it several times and start thinking "Man, I wish I had the skills to break into there, I wonder what I'd find".

That was.. kinda how it was done in Morrowind. The cellar of Arille's Tradehouse and the Census and Excise Office for example, they were at the very beginning of the game and there was NO way to break into the former and only a very small chance to break into the latter. Later, all the vaults in Vivec, the Palace of Vivec... It was fun, because you knew that you weren't supposed to go there anyway as a normal character. The hard and very hard locks were meant for high level thief characters, and you acknowledged that fact.
The "natural twenty" was in Morrowind as well, only that it was done more realistically - you had to have at least some skill already proportional to the lock level. Still, it ofen took you what, 50 times before the lock opened.


Now, on to the different lockpicking systems. There are more than Fallout 3, Oblivion and Morrowind though - I think Thief 1 and Thief 3 also show very important examples of lockpicking systems that could be put into an RPG without any problems. Thief 3 has mostly the same system as Oblivion, but with nicer graphics and also in realtime. Thief 1 had a bar that filled up slowly, when it was full the door opened - also in realtime, and in case a guard came by, you could quickly abort the attempt.
I really enjoyed Fallout 3's system for the game that Fallout 3 was, and I really enjoyed Morrowind's system, but I think that an RPG implementation of those Thief systems would be most excellent. It's true that MW had this annoying "stabbig the lock" part to it, so why not play a nice lockpicking animation instead, which actually interacts with the lock on the door? The bar that fills up could be done more immersive nowadays, for example simply by "successful" sounding clicks and rattles during the animation.

So that's my proposed system... when you make a lockpicking attempt, you actually see your character doing something with the lockpick and the lock in realtime, and instead of hitting the lock 50 times, you just have to wait an proportional amount of time until the lock opens... of course, unless your lockpick breaks first, in which case you have to select a new one and start over (or a guard comes your way and you have to abort the attempt).

Morrowind's.

Oblivion's wasn't even a challenge. I could pick ANY lock at 10 Security once I figured out the pattern, thus getting rid of the need for a skeleton key. But Bethesda threw that in anyway, so all they did by doing that was just put the final nail in the coffin of Security being a viable skill at all.

Fallout 3's was better, but still quite easy. I did like how they reinstated the skill caps on it though (couldn't pick a hard lock until you were 75 in lockpicking)

With Morrowind's, it still makes the Security skill seem very useful. So that's why it has my vote.

If skill you mean that it took one whole day to learn how to not lose one lockpick on a very hard lock, then yes... It took skill.

In morrowind a level 1 mage could at least not lockpick the chest a masterful thief normally would have problems with.

I liked oblivion's style, however I would rather it be real-time like in morrowind.

that way you still have to be careful as someone could walk up to you while you're messing with the lock, and breaking a pick could alert nearby people.