Lockpicking minigames

[anaxie]

Whyyyy do developers the main offender being Bethesda put these stupid thousands of locked chests with mediocre loot behind a minigame u waste HOURS doing over time. I think its boring and annoying. Leave the things unlocked. If you want to place some hand picked awesome loot in a chest put a fuckin key somewhere in the dungeon or whatever.

I can't be the only one who wishes these mini games would just stop being put into games.

Unless its a stealth based game or something. THEN it holds merit.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

It's more annoying when there's a difficult lockpick and sometimes there's nothing in there or not even close to being good. That's annoying as hell.

[anaxie]

It's more annoying when there's a difficult lockpick and sometimes there's nothing in there or not even close to being good. That's annoying as hell.

That's why the minigame is stupid chests should contain hand pickled rewards not random level shit. Altogether Altogethe obviously less chests but more wow factors.

[bbr]

People dont always put valuable things in locked chests,. you dont have to open em :P
Lockpick mini games are silly though, I prefer a simple D roll like on POE.

[Aeula]

Just get a mod to cheese your way through them. That's what I do.

[endersblade]

That's why the minigame is stupid chests should contain hand pickled rewards not random level shit. Altogether Altogethe obviously less chests but more wow factors.

I prefer my items unpickled, thanks.

I think Bethesda's route of making master locked chests with fucking garbage behind them needs to go. Definitely agree. It's so lame to waste a pin or two getting a lock open, only to find ~50 currency and a health potion. Or a useless random weapon you won't ever use, that might have proved useful had you found it 30 levels ago.

[endersblade]

Games just really should give us something WORTH wasting the time to pick locks. Otherwise, what's the point other than to waste time? Is that taken into account when they say "80 hours of gameplay"? That includes the 10 hours of fucking lockpicking?

[Yunru]

Well....
¸Unlock


command.

[Delaios]

I've got mods in Fallout 4 (and for pretty much every Bethesda game I own) to make the sweet spot for lockpicking the entire 180 degree arc, and hacking only shows one option. Because the mini-games aren't fun, have no consequences (time freezes, failure doesn't matter) and don't require any skill, they just become a timesink that I'd rather do without. It doesn't even make sense that a non stealth character needs to fiddle around with that. There definitely should be an option to bash/blast locks open.

I hate the hacking more than the lockpicking though. It's a lot slower to do the actual mini-game (unless you just pick randomly) and it takes time before you can start it. The whole character-has-to-slowly-crouch-behind-the-monitor is so obnoxious at times.

[Alydael]

It's more annoying when there's a difficult lockpick and sometimes there's nothing in there or not even close to being good. That's annoying as hell.

It is to simulate real life. You never know what is in a chest when you pick the lock. You pick it in hopes that you get something good. If you don't like the mini game and the loot is mediocre, then just don't bother with it.

[Deleted]

Personally I feel that the more involved these so-called "RPGs" (I detest the term because they've got nothing to do with actual role-playing) are, the better. This means that the more there are these "sub game mechanics", the better the game becomes. That's not to say that the current Bethesda style of lock picking is perfect because it's not; lock picking should happen in real time, and you should aim at the lock, then hands with lock picks would appear automatically or after a keypress, and then you'd pick the lock with as realistic mechanics as possible.

The same should go for, for example, mixing a potion or crafting an armor. If you hit your hammer correctly on a piece of armor, you get a better result, and so on. So that every small thing in the game requires manual input and involvement from the player. The more the game relies on a virtual number and fast paced action, the less of a role-playing game it is, and the more it should lose the whole "RPG" title.

Of course this would mean a lot of people with ADD and "better things to do" would not play those games, but that's their problem. And yes, obviously, the whole experience should be fluid and constantly rewarding, not despite these features, but because of them.

[Afrospinach]

I feel this really depends on the mechanic, I likes the bioshock ones alright, I don't mind the bethesda ones. If you do not like them at all(mass effect 1) they are a blight on the games existence.

[Fencers]

If used to create tension, locking picking mini games can be a great gameplay mechanic. I think the Thief games did an alright job at locking picking as a mechanic.

[Tommy T]

I like them.

However, my favourite minigames are the panel ones where you have to walk on all of them without stepping on one twice. Either that, or the Astariums in Inquisition.

[Pony Soldier]

Well I would much rather want to pick a lock than finding a key in one of the dungeons in the Elder Scrolls games, those dungeons are way to big to be looking for a little key. I find the minigame itself in general not a bad minigame I actually quite enjoy it. Although I will absolutely agree with how fucking annoying it is when you spend so much time and lockpicks into a master lock or something and all you get is a handful of gold and a couple potions. This is where I hate it. What was the point of it being a master lock? It's like those games that let you open a door to a couple rooms but there's absolutely nothing in them. Why?

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

Don't pick them. Problem solved.

[anaxie]

I wonder what's in the chest! Probably fucking garbage because Bethesda hasn't made hand placed rewards since Morrowind and you can craft the rare armors sooooooooooooooo.

[Arrashi]

The only lockpicking game i liked is the one from original fallout/bg. Select lockpicking skill. Then select container. That's all.

[anaxie]

The only lockpicking game i liked is the one from original fallout/bg. Select lockpicking skill. Then select container. That's all.

Or force it open

[Arrashi]

Or force it open

Exactly. I love how in old games you could actually do that. Nowadays in immersive games like fallout or skyrim, half destroyed wooden door is impossible obstacle for someone in power armor/with magical axe. Especially if its one of "requires a key" ones.