Oblivon's system was too annoying IMO, Skyrim's was great, Morrowind's non-existent, but I'd say ESO's is the best one.

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Oblivion had the best lockpicking system, with Skyrim just behind it.

I only did twenty minutes of Morrowind, so I can't comment on their lockpicking.
And ESO has a timer (for obvious reasons) which I don't personally like, but I can accept.

I wish ESO would make the locks harder and remove the timer. Morrowind was literally equipping the lockpick as a weapon and spamming it on a door until it opened.

nicholaspingasb16_ESO wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Oblivion had the best lockpicking system, with Skyrim just behind it.

I only did twenty minutes of Morrowind, so I can't comment on their lockpicking.
And ESO has a timer (for obvious reasons) which I don't personally like, but I can accept.

I wish ESO would make the locks harder and remove the timer. Morrowind was literally equipping the lockpick as a weapon and spamming it on a door until it opened.

Not to mention that in Morrowind you needed a certain level to even attempt. I like the others since you can attempt at any level.

I like ESO's
too much trial and error in Skyrim and I don't really know about the other two

I'd say Skyrim. After getting used to picking master locks with my crappy mouse on pc, the console version lockpicking with the gamepad was piece of cake.

nicholaspingasb16_ESO wrote: »

AlexDougherty wrote: »

Oblivion had the best lockpicking system, with Skyrim just behind it.

I only did twenty minutes of Morrowind, so I can't comment on their lockpicking.
And ESO has a timer (for obvious reasons) which I don't personally like, but I can accept.

I wish ESO would make the locks harder and remove the timer. Morrowind was literally equipping the lockpick as a weapon and spamming it on a door until it opened.

Thanks for the info on Morrowind.

The timer is to get us to hurry up, so if we can't take all day, hogging a chest until it opens. So we either do it (not necessarily in one go), or move on. It's a MMO consideration, but as I said I personally don't like it, even if I do understand why.

I can't for the live of me remember any particular details about the lock picking systems in Morrowind and Oblivion. Just one: I used to stand in my "acquired" home in Balmora, magically locking the door, then picking it. Rinse and repeat. For hours on end. I guess it had to do with skill leveling or something like that.

I'm just glad that I don't have to do it here, too.

KhajitFurTrader wrote: »

I can't for the live of me remember any particular details about the lock picking systems in Morrowind and Oblivion. Just one: I used to stand in my "acquired" home in Balmora, magically locking the door, then picking it. Rinse and repeat. For hours on end. I guess it had to do with skill leveling or something like that.

I'm just glad that I don't have to do it here, too.

The oblivion system was like ESO, but more precision was needed. You basically had to thrust your mouse upwards and click at just the right time to get the tumbler in. And then, if you failed 1 tumbler, all of them popped back out.

Hard but rewarding!

smeeprocketnub19_ESO wrote: »

Because I don't want to have to play a mini-game just to open a lock.

I agree

I said Morrowind, because I'm feeling ornery. My real answer is Skyrim.

Honeslty, Oblivion's is my least favorite, because it's a straight-up twitch mechanic. At the time, it actually made me really mad. I quote my 2006 self: "[EXPLETIVE DELETED] twitch players have every other [EXPLETIVE DELETED] game on the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] market aimed at their [EXPLETIVE DELETED] 14-year-old boy mentalities. I want roleplaying in my RPGs. My character is good at this stuff so I don't have to be. That's what an RPG IS. This [EXPLETIVE DELETED] mechanic makes Oblivion a bad roleplaying game!!!!!"

Then I calmed down and got better at it, but I never liked it.

Skyrim improved this by splitting the difference. In Oblivion, if you were good at the minigame, Master locks were no challenge at level 5. If you were bad at it, you went and got the skeleton key as soon as you could, because you wanted nothing to do with it. In Skyrim, you could actually make the minigame easier by putting points into it. It was still a twitch mechanic, but your skill character mattered. Skyrim got it best. Plus, it felt more like something the player could learn and get better at rather than a reflex test.

But I'd still take Morrowind over Oblivion any day. Any day. Give me roleplaying in my RPGs, not a reflex test.

I wouldn't mind if ESO changed to the Skyrim method, with a timer. Heck, I would just like them to be more difficult for anything above simple level chests, if the risk of breaking several picks meant that the rewards were also better.

It'd be much more meaningful if lockpicks were a rarer commodity, breaking one would be the last thing you'd want to do because they were uncommon and expensive. Making most people only willing to risk it if the payoff was potentially worth it.

MasterSpatula wrote: »

I said Morrowind, because I'm feeling ornery. My real answer is Skyrim.

Honeslty, Oblivion's is my least favorite, because it's a straight-up twitch mechanic. At the time, it actually made me really mad. I quote my 2006 self: "[EXPLETIVE DELETED] twitch players have every other [EXPLETIVE DELETED] game on the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] market aimed at their [EXPLETIVE DELETED] 14-year-old boy mentalities. I want roleplaying in my RPGs. My character is good at this stuff so I don't have to be. That's what an RPG IS. This [EXPLETIVE DELETED] mechanic makes Oblivion a bad roleplaying game!!!!!"

Then I calmed down and got better at it, but I never liked it.

Skyrim improved this by splitting the difference. In Oblivion, if you were good at the minigame, Master locks were no challenge at level 5. If you were bad at it, you went and got the skeleton key as soon as you could, because you wanted nothing to do with it. In Skyrim, you could actually make the minigame easier by putting points into it. It was still a twitch mechanic, but your skill character mattered. Skyrim got it best. Plus, it felt more like something the player could learn and get better at rather than a reflex test.

But I'd still take Morrowind over Oblivion any day. Any day. Give me roleplaying in my RPGs, not a reflex test.

I never put a single point into lock picking in skyrim and master locks were a piece of cake. Oblivion actually forced you to make security one of your minor/major attributes or get a spell for it

Personally I hated Oblivions lock picking with a passion. I really liked Skyrim's lock picking because it felt more like I was...you know picking a lock rather than Supergirl using X-Ray vision to look into the lock. Which brings me to ESO's lock picking...though not as bad as Oblivion's lock picking its still the Supergirl X-Ray vision thing I dislike. Skyrim lock picking required skill, you had to listening to the pick and try it at the right time or you would break lots of picks trying it randomly.

andre.roques.3b14_ESO wrote: »

I actually wish there was some variety with combinations, tumblers, and other cyphers just to mix things up.

Yeah. The number of tumblers should vary from lock to lock, I think that would be a good addition. Some with 7 tumblers, some with 3, etc.

At least the Skyrim model forced you to reason it out, instead of being solely dependant on twitch. That's probably why I preferred it.