CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

If you can't open a master level chest without resorting to force locks then you're a bad thief.

Nah, the good thief just popped that master lock in 1 second and is on to the next one before you. I have saved hours and hours of time smash and grabbing, it all adds up.


Time = money. If you like fiddling with locks or proving your mad skillz to yourself, by all means. No one can judge you but Sithis.

It's not "mad skillz", it's being a competent player.

I don't think anybody's "right" or "wrong" here. It's really a matter of perspective and experience. A player who has clocked a lot of hours of specifically justice system play (i.e., thieving as their primary income source in the game) is going to have a different perspective on this than someone who mainly opens overland and dungeon chests.

My thief used to do a housebreaking circuit in 4 major cities daily. This involves breaking into every locked NPC door, and then every lockbox in their houses, every day. That type of game play, if you do it long enough, provides a different perspective on the whole "get in, get out" thing. At that point it's not really about lockpicking skill. It's about knowing the paths the NPC's travel, where all the houses and lockboxes are, the shortest way to travel between them, where the guards pop up, etc.

Thieving full-time can be extremely lucrative. A full-time thief has different priorities than an occasional treasure hunter.

Jaraal wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

Jaraal wrote: »

CMDR_Un1k0rn wrote: »

If you can't open a master level chest without resorting to force locks then you're a bad thief.

Nah, the good thief just popped that master lock in 1 second and is on to the next one before you. I have saved hours and hours of time smash and grabbing, it all adds up.


Time = money. If you like fiddling with locks or proving your mad skillz to yourself, by all means. No one can judge you but Sithis.

It's not "mad skillz", it's being a competent player.

Apparently forcing locks makes me a "bad player", even though I may be able to hand pick a master lock faster than you. Competence to me means doing the job in the most efficient manner, which doesn't include wasting time with lockpicks. At least for me. You definition of competence is obviously different.

The difference in definition just comes from the difference in perspectives.

If you're relatively new to thieving or it's never been an area of primary focus for you, you have a right to be proud for hand-picking that master lockbox in the local bank.

When you have a year or two of justice system experience under your belt, though, you've hand-picked probably a thousand locks, and there's no challenge there. You've also learned how much gold can be made and how to make it more and more quickly, so you're simply focused on other things.

Like how to rob an entire town clean in the blink of an eye: fast, invisible, silent, slippery as a shadow, and most importantly, scot-free. For an advanced thief, that's where all the fun (and all the profit) is.