Lockpicking gameplay

[Rageburst]

This is a pretty fun skill depending on what locks we can pick.

Here are my suggestions:
- In dynamically created dungeons, we can have locked dungeon doors that lead to extra paths, or perhaps even needed paths (so hiring a lock picker in the group would be needed).

- Locked loot chests: We can encounter these while fighting in dungeons. After some time and when no one is around, the chest will become closed again and contain new riches so other people can pick it open.

- Prison doors can be picked open: This idea is somewhat more involved. The idea is that your character can have a really bad reputation with a certain townfolk. If this is the case, guards will be aggresive to you and try to capture and drag you to prison (or kill you if you resist). You can pick the lock and attempt escape..... Kinda like Morrowind, but you actually experience the prison.

You can also have a fellow friend try to break you free from prison, although this will ruin his/her reputation a bit if an npc sees the friend picking it.

- Break into npc houses: Imagine this, a row of npc houses possibly containing riches. You can break into a house, and search the desks, chests, beds, shelves for loot. After a while (every 20 minutes), the door will relock itself (no one can be inside), and new loot is generated in the house. Here\'s the catch, the lock may require a high lockpicking skill, and if the owner of the house sees you, your reputation is lowered. If a guard sees you, the reputation lowers AND they attempt to bring you to prison or kill you if you resist.

There is likely a good solution to implement this in a multiplayer context... Something like the house loot is pitiful, but you can at least obtain some basic items like food or whatnot. That way, you can\'t really abuse something so unrewarding for high level players. By then, you\'d probably want to raid dungeon chests.

..... As you can see, the last two ideas heavily integrate a form of faction/town/village reputations. If you decide to live a criminal life, you will likely develop a bad to neutral reputation with townfolk (if you rarely get captured, it would be neutral).

[elscouta]

Originally posted by Rageburst
- Prison doors can be picked open: This idea is somewhat more involved. The idea is that your character can have a really bad reputation with a certain townfolk. If this is the case, guards will be aggresive to you and try to capture and drag you to prison (or kill you if you resist). You can pick the lock and attempt escape..... Kinda like Morrowind, but you actually experience the prison.


You can also have a fellow friend try to break you free from prison, although this will ruin his/her reputation a bit if an npc sees the friend picking it.

And what happens if you have no lockpicker friend? Is your char lost? Hmm.... i think i don\'t like this idea

The others one sounds good though IMHO

[Axsyrus]

Originally posted by elscouta

Originally posted by Rageburst
- Prison doors can be picked open: This idea is somewhat more involved. The idea is that your character can have a really bad reputation with a certain townfolk. If this is the case, guards will be aggresive to you and try to capture and drag you to prison (or kill you if you resist). You can pick the lock and attempt escape..... Kinda like Morrowind, but you actually experience the prison.


You can also have a fellow friend try to break you free from prison, although this will ruin his/her reputation a bit if an npc sees the friend picking it.

And what happens if you have no lockpicker friend? Is your char lost? Hmm.... i think i don\'t like this idea

The others one sounds good though IMHO

now read it again..

[elscouta]

Ok... i assume i forgot an obvious statement:

And what happens if you have no lockpicker friend & if you are not a lockpicker

[lynx_lupo]

Everyone should be able to bash things open. And for the weaker(STRwise) mages and the like there will surely be a Knock-like spell.

But I don\'t think one should be able to bash(/picklock) out of a prison. Bashing iron rods seems pretty useless to me. And if all things were bashable(/pickable), then there would be no point in prisons.

[elscouta]

True, everything is bashable. But if there\'s bomb inside the chest, i think a lockpicker will probably take less damage than a mad warrior with its great sword (this applies to other traps as well)

And sometimes, breaking a chest can break what is inside (especially if it\'s the ultimate crystal staff of the godly power of doom)

[lynx_lupo]

I agree with those additions. Just() the first one needs more clearance... cause the warior might just have bashed the bomb apart too(let\'s say the sword doesn\'t do fire damage! ), but in the lockpicker\'s case the bomb explodes, cause it\'s \"wired\" with the lock.

[elscouta]

depends, magical / (al)chimical bomb don\'t need fire to explode...

And a skilled lockpicker can probably disarm trap... Of course a low-skilled loclpicker who try to open all the chests will probably die *quickly* (thinks at the composition of a party: one mage, one warrior, one lockpicker per chest)

[Vandel]

Originally posted by Rageburst
Here are my suggestions:
- In dynamically created dungeons, we can have locked dungeon doors that lead to extra paths, or perhaps even needed paths (so hiring a lock picker in the group would be needed).

Dynamically generated worlds in a 3d virutal environment is insane to even ponder.  Let me rephrase with the PS resouces, impossible.  It\'s hard enough to implement successfully on 2d tile games.  Look at how crude dynamic dungeons were in Diablo.  Try getting rooms and things to fit on the fly in PS.  You would have to implement a 3d tile system like in Dungeon Seige.  It has one of the greatest modding created.  Which has random map generators.  But they can not be used on the fly.  It\'s a great idea, it truly would create an evolving world, but the code just to make sure that a key, isn\'t accidentally placed behind a door that needs it to open is insane, trust me, I\'ve written such algorithms for programs.[/QUOTE]

Originally posted by Rageburst
- Locked loot chests: We can encounter these while fighting in dungeons. After some time and when no one is around, the chest will become closed again and contain new riches so other people can pick it open.

People would just go out of range, and come back and loot the treausre.  Unrealistic in a realtime environment.  It would be better if these chests could be purchased to put in homes that could be raided.

Originally posted by Rageburst
- Break into npc houses: Imagine this, a row of npc houses possibly containing riches. You can break into a house, and search the desks, chests, beds, shelves for loot.

You could do this in all of the Origin Ultima Series games.  For that matter in every other pen and paper RPG.  You should be able to loot shops when the keepers have gone to sleep.

This leads to the need for locks, or wizards, possibly guard animals, or a use for familiars.

Originally posted by Rageburst
 After a while (every 20 minutes), the door will relock itself (no one can be inside), and new loot is generated in the house. Here\'s the catch, the lock may require a high lockpicking skill, and if the owner of the house sees you, your reputation is lowered.

Items should not respawn.  This would create a need for a bounty system.  If a player deserves to be PKed... people should be able to PK him.  I think you\'re missing the point.  The whole reason PKing was taken out of PS was because it happens so much in power leveling games.  But there\'s enough people running around PS that could keep this in balance as a natural policing system.

In a word, this gives purpose to guilds, gangs, and guild wards.  You can\'t implement any of these things successfully without the ability to PK.  As I outlined in other threads.

But this would require a reputation being implemented.

Originally posted by Rageburst
If you decide to live a criminal life, you will likely develop a bad to neutral reputation with townfolk (if you rarely get captured, it would be neutral).

Here\'s is another reference to characters actions naturally adjusting their alignment/karma.  It should be implemented.

Originally posted by elscouta
Ok... i assume i forgot an obvious statement:

And what happens if you have no lockpicker friend & if you are not a lockpicker

This is why skills need to have the option to progress naturally.

If someone honestly sat down in a locked prison, or close a dungeon door, given enough time, granted it might take forever, they progress to a point, naturally, where they\'ll be able to pick the locks and escape.

This gets dragged into the other portions of threads about how characters should level.

** EDIT ** forgot to add my ideas...

Anyone who has played any of the \'Wizardy\' series, will remember the greatest lock picking system evercreated.

It required you to work out tumblers, from a widget window that popped up.

Depending on your skill, different tumblers were exposed in the correct position.  It worked out more like the board game \'Mastermind\' when you tried to work out possible combinations.  On a failed attempt, you would lose lockpick experience, so on more complicated locks, it could become impossible to pick.

So you would have to work on simpler locks to get your skills back.

Abosultely ingenious system, you cannot improve on it.  And brings to light, that you should have to train by doing things, not by spending trias.  This is good example of this system.

There are others, but they do not belong in this thread.