Skyrim: Why can't I bust this door down?

[Lupus80]

Back in the olden days of yore we had Elder Scroll: Daggerfall, not the first of the series, but nevertheless the introduction into the franchise for many (me included). I fell in love with the great amounts of choice the game had, not only in customizing your character but also how your character dealt with obstacles: namely locked doors and chests.

This ancient game gave you four ways to acheive your goal: find a key (not every door/chest had one), lockpick, bash it open with a weapon, or cast a spell (one your character knew or through a scroll). As the series went along the options for this (seemingly) simple interaction shrank.

Morrowind got rid of the bashing down the door. (Correct me if I'm wrong at that though)

Oblivion followed Morrowind's example.

Then Skyrim took away the Open Lock spells.

I wonder why did they do this?

Now every character I make is going to have to be a lockpicking expert (even if you don't get any perks for it, you still will level it up vey quickly).

 

[Mirroga]

I agree. Even Fallout 3 implemented a forced fast hacking during the hacking scene if you're feeling lucky enough to not bother with the minigame.

 

[Maxtro]

If you're on the PC, there is a mod that brings back the open lock spell.

There is also another mod that makes lockpicking super easy if you don't want to bother with it.

But yeah, it sucks that mods are needed at all.

 

[Judgement101]

Because locks are made from the finest ebony mined by the proud orcs.

Yeah, I got no idea. They need to have more games where you can just brute force your way though everything.

 

[evilneko]

Because you're playing without mods, you dirty prole.

 

[w9496]

I vaguely recall shooting a novice lock with a bow and breaking the cage door open, som maybe it only works on those.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

Well I started with Morrowind, so the lack of being able to knock down doors doesn't bother me. Not to mention breaking a door down would make the game a little more easy and doesn't require any skill to use.

I think you could go through the game without using lockpicking much, like I did on one character. You just have to be able to give up some locked chests. Most locked doors have a key if you want to excel at pickpocketing or murder instead of lockpicking.

I liked the open lock spells, but I really don't mind them leaving the game.

 

[Scrustle]

I didn't realise they took the open lock skill away from Skyrim. I knew they took several spells away, but I didn't notice that particular one. For all the improvements they made they really goofed on the spell selection. No idea why they did that. That aspect of the game was kind of disappointing. Even though the lock picking mini-game in Skyrim is actually pretty fun, picking locks is not something a mage does. They use magic.

As for the door bashing down thing, I have no idea. I started with Morrowind so I never knew it was even an option. Sounds like a cool feature. People always complain about how you can't just bash down doors in games, and doing so could cause unique consequences so it's not like it's redundant.

But if anyone says that consoles are at fault they can go fuck themselves. There's no reason why you wouldn't be able to do something like that on a console.

 

[ultrachicken]

I don't think giving each and every playstyle the ability to get past locks with ease is a good idea. Skyrim's system doesn't work because the lockpicking skill is leveled too easily, and giving three ways to defeat a lock isn't a good idea, either. Maybe if Bethesda brought back traps and made them disarm through a thief-oriented skill or high-tier magic? I'm not sure how well that would work.

 

[WoW Killer]

If you can bash open a lock or force your way past it with a spell, then what use does a fighter or mage have for training their lockpicking? Taking those things out promotes builds with a mixture of abilities rather than pushing everyone into a small set of specialised archetypes.

In DDO (at least when I played it last) the Rogue class had some real viability issues. They weren't as sturdy as other classes and their dps lacked versus high fort mobs, and yet other classes had work-arounds for their various skills. Arcanes could open locks and find hidden doors (actually anybody could do that with a clickie), Barbs were a good substitute for the spot skill (teehee), most traps could be jumped over (again the Arcanes can buff that) etc.

Multiple solutions to a problem tends to hurt jack-of-all-trades characters and promotes less interesting min-max builds.

And screw realism. Gameplay is more important.

 

[White Lightning]

Yeah I never got this either, I mean why can't I just shout the door down? It's absolute horse shit that I have to sit there tinkering with the lock WHEN I'M THE GODDAMN BATMAN DOVAHKIIN!

 

[KnightDragul]

One word can answer all the 'lack ofs' that surround TES: Skyrim > Casual


They designed the entire thing as a velvet stroke to casual gamers and screw the long standing TES complex RPG loving fanbase. Another step down the path to being EA Games subsidiary. (Subsuckiary)

 

[Zantos]

It's one of the reasons I prefer playing tabletop D&D. In video games I've got the option to lockpick, or maybe try and persuade someone with a key. Tabletop "I want to tie this dead giant spider to a rope, tie the other end to the roof, and ride it through the door like a battering ram." "Roll a d20"

I can see how it works in DDO and other multiplayer games where they have to make sure each class has its perks and downsides, but in purely single player games are they worried that people not using one of the developer's builds will make them cry?

 

[AntiChri5]

Just bring a follower with a high lockpick and tell them to open it.

 

[yuval152]

It's because they are mainstreaming the game, even when you rent a inn the shopkeeper shows you the way everytime, they're making it idiotproof.

And i'm still mad that they got rid of attributes but I never played daggerfall so I don't really mind the doors thing but it's a good idea to have it.

 

[darth.pixie]

Same reason you can't adopt Aventus Aretino and/or fire Grelod, pay for Winterhold to be rebuilt or win the war single handedly by following Talos's example. Hell, I wanted my own dragon army.

Hopefully more mods will come out to that effect.

 

[PinkiePyro]

It's because they are mainstreaming the game, even when you rent a inn the shopkeeper shows you the way everytime, they're making it idiotproof.

And i'm still mad that they got rid of attributes but I never played daggerfall so I don't really mind the doors thing but it's a good idea to have it.

i dont know i think idiot proofing would be the reverse being able to bash locks open and no picking minigame

 

[Twilight_guy]

Game designers made a design decision. For whatever reason they decided that wouldn't work in the game. Maybe because they felt it would make lockpicking into a useless skill when you can just bash everything open.