I dont really get why lockpicks need to break - at all.
There were some RPG's where skill use could fail, or even critically fail. Removing lockpicks was a way to "punish" the player in a logical way, and to sustain a form of economy, because the player would need to gain some, through buying, crafting, or whatever... But indeed you are right, in such an amazingly reactive world, if you have the skill level, you succeed. Makes things simpler. And at least it should not bug. Wait....
Where lockpick quality would function as a bonus to your lockpicking skill.
This is to be used cautiously, in a 1 to 5 range of ability level. Just a +1 would be a huge bonus. Already expressed myself about this. Just a reminder.
Even D&D had a 20 based system. +1 is then only a +5% increment, instead of being a +20% increment in DOS (taking a geometrical approach, although that can be discussed, because better abilities level need more character points, and we don't know the inner workings of the game)
Another way to say the whole character "development" is a misery from its very foundations, because it allows very little fine tuning as the various bonus can go. I am pretty sure even the devs are feeling the limits and heaviness of this lack of perspective.
But hey, there are no quest markers, and its possible to kill every NPC's to make money, so the game is great! Who needs a deep character development and interesting world interactions when you have talking shells and funny robots.
I don't approve Hiver's suggestion, because it is narrow minded , boring, and doesn't pay a tribute to the level of details that already went into this game.
