Oblivion Blog

You are browsing the archives of 2006 May.

Ok so lets say that you haven't done the quest yet to get the Skeleton Key. You need a way to get past those locked doors and into those locked chests. Well I was having a nightmare with lock-picking (I'm only a 19 in Security) until I realised something. Now some of you out there will go "dur, yeah of course that's how it works" but I've discussed this with a few people in my friends list and none of them had sussed it so I supposed there must be more poeple out there who haven't. Also what I write here is what I have found to work for me. I can't guarantee it will work for anyone else but I'll share the knowledge and you can all try it for yourselves! The first thing to realise is that lock-picking relies on pushing the pins up and getting them to lock into place. This relies on pressing the A button (Xbox 360 version of course) when the pin is as high as it will get, and this needs to be done at different times depending on how strong the spring is (different spring strengths mean that the pins move at different speeds and therefore the A button needs to be pressed at different times). Right that's the easy bit out of the way. This whole process becomes far more simple when you realise that the strength of the spring is randomised each time you move the pin (and not just set for each pin). There is one particular setting of strength which means that the pin will move much slower (relatively speaking) and these are the ones that you need to find. It means that you need to have fairly good reactions and also not be drawn in if you're not happy with the speed of the pin. I always start at the right-most pin (I don't know if you have to or not, that's just how I do it) and I keep pushing the pin up until it moves at the slow speed and then I lock it in. Then move to the next left pin, rinse and repeat. To give you some idea of how successful I've found this, before I used this method I would break around 6-8 picks per lock. Since I've been using this method I've picked around 12 locks and not broken a single pick. I never press the button if I'm not happy as I'd rather save the pick and try again. Like I say it might not work for everyone but I've found it helps me…

So my travels have taken me to Skingrad. I've been a member of the Fighters Guild for a while now (hey show me a weapon wielder who isn't in the damned guild nowadays!) and so I found myself in the Guildhall in Skingrad when I overhear a conversation between a couple of other members about a couple of good goblin-hunting spots. Not wanting to miss out I decided to check a couple of them out. The first was a doddle, a gallop in the meadows if you will. It seems that goblins don't like my Dwarven longsword and many fell upon my blade. So here I am now in the second (and I'm not telling you where - this treasure is all mine), and the reception here was a little more heated shall we say. Fortunately it seems that I've managed to cause some confusion. I don't know if it's the bad light or not but it seems that the goblins are far happier to fight amongst themselves than take me on. It even seems that one of them preferred to fight one of their own war chiefs than try to battle me. Of course he fell, but it made the war cheif even more simple to dispose of, I even ended up unarmed to finish the job just to show my strength and power. So theres another dead goblin at my feet. And that's where things took a turn for the better. Wandering around after slaying the war chief I found a couple of chests that were no match for my lock-picking. Turning the corner I could see a shape on the ground but couldn't quite make out what it was. As I moved closer I realised that whatever it was it was very lavishly decorated with the faces of animals and goblins. It was also slightly buried in the ground so I thought I'd best uncover the rest of it. As my hand moved down to move away some of the earth I felt a tingling. I haven't felt such a feeling since I looted that Dispelling Warhamer from another ex-adversary. I'm guessing this thing could be magical. It also looks stunning. Not beautiful, it's covered in goblin faces of course, but stunning. The craftmanship is a thing to behold. It looks like a staff and being a basher rather than a blaster I reckon I'll have little use for it. But I am sure that it's worth a good couple of thousand coins if i can find someone interested in it. I hope the merchants of Skingrad have plenty of money left as this little beauty will go to the highest bidder. Now all I need to do is get out of here alive…