Aerothorn on 2/4/2006 at 22:44
Where can one buy lockpicks? I'm out and need some badly (I need quests badly, too...having trouble finding them in the capital).
Spitter on 3/4/2006 at 00:02
I'm not sure if it's just that my skills have gone up or if I'm getting used to the minigame, but I'm finding lockpicking far less irritating than I used to. I can usually open most locks with no to very few wasted picks now. C'est la vie.
Fig455 on 3/4/2006 at 00:56
Quote Posted by Aerothorn
Where can one buy lockpicks? I'm out and need some badly (I need quests badly, too...having trouble finding them in the capital).
join the thieves' guild or dark brotherhood and they'll sell 'em to you.
Huckeye on 3/4/2006 at 11:38
I read about the weight being a factor too, but I tried stealing gold from one of the countessessessess (sp?) And I got cought every time. Sneak is level 117, she was asleep, and I was wearing the dark brotherhood pajamas with the feet attached to them. I tried over a dozen times and got caught each time. I guess this is where my frustration comes in. They took the dice roles out of combat, pursuasion, and even lock picking. Even though Im not sure I want to be unseen no matter what I do, it just seems inconsistent with the rest of the game at times. I still enjoy to play it and am not sure how I would change if I even would.
As for lockpicking, I now can see it. I figured it would happen this way. It just 'clicked' for me. Im not doing anything different, I guess just watching the animation several HUNDRED times made the difference. Ive broken over 300 picks and now I understand it. Starting my next character will be fun as he will become overencumbered from lockpicks alone now that I know how to work them :)
RarRar on 3/4/2006 at 18:50
Quote Posted by Huckeye
I tried over a dozen times and got caught each time. I guess this is where my frustration comes in. They took the dice roles out of combat, pursuasion, and even lock picking. Even though Im not sure I want to be unseen no matter what I do, it just seems inconsistent with the rest of the game at times.
That's EXACTLY my experience with thieving. There just don't seem to be any rules. And you have a stealth of 117 you say? Sheesh. Stealth I understand and love, the thieving part just eludes me though.
RyushiBlade on 3/4/2006 at 20:17
If it's any consolation, I can pickpocket gold and keys with a sneak of around 17.
But they have to be asleep :(
EmilPags on 4/4/2006 at 02:50
RarRar -- There are rules to successfully stealing, but the game doesn't train you on them. We thought it would be intuitive enough; apparently we were wrong. :)
Basically, in order to successfully steal, yes, you definitely have to be in sneak mode, AND have the transparent "eye" -- meaning you're undetected.
Here's what's going on. When you go into sneak mode, and the eye is transparent, that's the system telling you that you're completely undetected -- you can't be seen, heard, or sensed by an NPC or creature. If you AREN'T in sneak mode, it may look like nobody is watching, but you could very well still be detected -- maybe not seen, but heard, sensed, whatever. And if you're detected, and you steal something, the crime WILL be reported, you'll get bounty, and you know the rest.
Pickpocking is the exception, since it does a success check with every item you try to steal.
Hopefully that will help improve your thieving.
SirBlade on 4/4/2006 at 07:23
Is it possible to finish the game with a pure sneaking character? I just finished Deus Ex again and tried to play through it without killing any humans. This worked fine untill near the end, then you got lots of big fights and almost no way to avoid them. Does oblivion suffer from the same flaw?
Huckeye on 4/4/2006 at 11:47
I feel pretty safe saying that you will have to fight in Oblivion. Even if you just ignored everything else and followed the main quest. I don't you think you could avoid ample combat without cheating.
I see the stealth in this game as a compliment to and not a sole means of the gameplay. If you havent played it yet, do yourself a favor, and play it. I'm at 90 hours on my first character (I had some sick days right after I bought it :) )
EmilPags on 4/4/2006 at 16:19
What Huckeye said. You will have to engage in combat, as Oblivion was never design to be that stealth-specific. So, you know, ghosting through the main quest was never a design priority; in fat, there are seveal places you HAVE TO kill. There was really no way around that.
BUT... you can certainly gain a lot from ghosting. I've gone through entire dungeons without so much as drawing my weapon, and I leveled up my Sneak skill as I did it. So I'd argue that while you can't go through the whole game like that, you can certainly employ total stealth a lot more than you can in most (any?) other RPGs.
