PC For a 1000+ hr player you get kind of bored with the gameplay loop. I made 6 mod changes that made the game feel new again

[Roland]

I think it has already been mentioned that modding doors to be pickable is simple and that there already exists such mods for download. It is easy for you and me to say that its no big deal if doors are pickable because we can already destroy them and there really would be no balance issue but that's because you and I aren't the designers. There are tons of mods that break the balance of the game and people happily play them without complaint but if the devs made the vanilla game with those imbalances they would hear about non-stop. The standard they are held to is greater and so they would check every POI and make adjustments to the pick tools and their rarity/price and whatever else would need to happen and it would take time. Id rather people just mod it since the mod already exists anyway.

 

[Jinx_DG]

Lock picking doors is something I never want to see in the vanilla game. While the action itself is a neat experience and noval the first few times, it became tedious and time consuming very soon after. Some may love it, some may not (like me), so I'm glad there's a way for those who love it to have it and a way for me not to. 

 

[Riamus]

Are you not aware that the player can already cut through a significant portion of the PoI by breaking the door, at less cost than it would be to lockpick? Breaking pre-steel doors is trivial even with stone tools and nearly instant with iron tools. It's like the argument against pickable door locks is coming from somebody playing a different game.

The difference I think is that a door that is barricaded door will be ignored by players who aren't specifically trying to bypass part of the POI.  A locked door you can pick is something players expect to be "supposed" to open... At least most players.  So they will usually pick it if they can and that means getting the pathing messed up.  Not being able to lockpick doors seems more a way to keep newer players from getting "lost" in a POI.  Anyone wanting to bypass stuff can easily break the door down.

It is like broken stairs. Sure, you can build a path up very easily, but most players don't except when trying to bypass stuff or after completing a POI when they want a quick up and down for looting.  They could just make the stairs solid all the way up since it is so easy for the player to do so, but that isn't the level design they want.

Honestly, I think they should just change one word in the game... "Locked" to "jammed".  They could also use barricaded.  For metal doors, they could use welded or rusted.  I don't there would be many places this would need changed and it is just a text change, not a code change, so is easy to do.  The result is that people don't expect to be able to pick those locks.  Gameplay remains the same, but you no longer hear people asking why you can't pick door locks.

If they do make door locks pickable, they'd want to redesign many POI with other barriers to keep people moving the "right" direction, such as barbed wire fences like they have in some POI.

 

[Blake_]

Lockpicking of doors has been brought of numerous times.  Keep in mind, although evervy POI is destructable, all quest POIs have an intended player path.  This path serves many purposes. Combat pacing, quest clearance without having to double back on previously visited areas.  Sure a player can knock down a door, but if they choose to do so, it will most likely make questing the POI take longer and/or situations where sleepers don't spawn correctly.

If locking picking was ever introduced, level design would have to revist every quest POI to analyze what adjustments are needed.

So your name is Lazman and you don't want to revisit every POI to do the change. Got it. Lol.

Jokes aside, it doesn't really matter, as blocked doors don't need to have a key, and we can break everything. It's exactly like asking for Bananas. Please implement bananas in farming, they are very nutritious and an important source of food. They can be on the edge of the forest/desert areas and they can be balanced to only give 10, 20 each week, like a workstation. The point is, bananas would be as useless as pickable doors because there are quite a bit of actions that give the exact same result design-wise. In the banana case we have lots of varieties, and in the 'picking door locks' case we've got lots of "breaking points", exploding points, 'chainsawable' points, nerd poling from outside the next window,  etc etc.

 

[Roland]

Honestly, I think they should just change one word in the game... "Locked" to "jammed".

Smart. But get in line behind me who thinks they should just change one phrase in the game...." Sealed Crate". Oh, to erase the whines of those who hate finding stone tools and pipe weapons in their factory sealed Shotgun Messiah crates I would ask them to delay whatever is necessary to make this change.

 

[Laz Man]

So your name is Lazman and you don't want to revisit every POI to do the change. Got it. Lol.

Jokes aside, it doesn't really matter, as blocked doors don't need to have a key, and we can break everything. It's exactly like asking for Bananas. Please implement bananas in farming, they are very nutritious and an important source of food. They can be on the edge of the forest/desert areas and they can be balanced to only give 10, 20 each week, like a workstation. The point is, bananas would be as useless as pickable doors because there are quite a bit of actions that give the exact same result design-wise. In the banana case we have lots of varieties, and in the 'picking door locks' case we've got lots of "breaking points", exploding points, 'chainsawable' points, nerd poling from outside the next window,  etc etc.

It does matter.  You guys will have to just trust the designers on this one.  We have watched enough POI playthroughs to see how disorienting / confused players can get when they decide to break through a door despite the path of least resistance.  It usually results in them getting lost, lots of doubling backing, sleepers not spawning correctly, etc.

It may seem futile given the world is fully destructable where the player can plow a hole anywhere they like.  However, I feel we are doing pretty well creating fun/memorable experiences despite that.

I'd like to add that most people would probably prefer level design add more T4/T5 POIs then revisit all existing POIs just to add lock picking to the vanilla game.

 

[Blake_]

It does matter.  You guys will have to just trust the designers on this one.  We have watched enough POI playthroughs to see how disorienting / confused players can get when they decide to break through a door despite the path of least resistance.  It usually results in them getting lost, lots of doubling backing, sleepers not spawning correctly, etc.

It may seem futile given the world is fully destructable where the player can plow a hole anywhere they like.  However, I feel we are doing pretty well creating fun/memorable experiences despite that.

I'd like to add that most people would probably prefer level design add more T4/T5 POIs then revisit all existing POIs just to add lock picking to the vanilla game.

You are correct and I totally agree, though I do not condemn the other way of thinking, as it is doable, though with too much work vs so little gameplay value. As a result, and seing as this was the way TFP chose, I was always a supporter for hashtag metoonodoors pick-able because of the borked POI exploring  results and general confusion. Even without them, confusion CAN happen. I've seen it happen in "not so newbie" players.  Now, there is always mods for many things. My tastes are vanilla flavour, but others might prefer more arcade and painfully unbalanced mods.