Now we all know the raging debate over keys, locks, and ridiculous "INACCESSIBLE OR I QUIT GAM" discussions.
But I have come up with a minor, but extremely effective solution.
LOCKS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Locks are of course, a mechanism which disallows access to certain liberties, as chests, doors, even handcuffs.
But locks in my way of thinking are much more simpler to crack, but are an arduous task involving a few other new implements.
HOW LOCKS WORK:
When you decide to lock up your valuables, you go to your workbench and click on it. when the menu pulls up, you make a design like so:
[iron] [iron] [iron]
[iron] [iron]
[iron] [iron] [iron] With Iron being ingots.
What this does is create a Metalworker's/Keysmith's bench. There are two tabs, one for keys and one for locks. This bench requires you to deposit multiple of a type of material. The material type determines your lock's difficulty to pick, but not the difficulty to forge a key. Once you deposit the required materials, a lock/key appears on the side out of the material you chose. You take it, and go to your chest. Your chest has a little independent square at the bottom. You use your key on your fresh lock, when then signifies your lock as ID-tagged to the key. Once you put the key-locked lock into the chest, it locks it, so that only if you right-click the chest with key in hand, it will open.
HOW TO PICK LOCKS:
When you are going to steal from someone, you sneak into their house and rattle the chest. Snap! It's locked! There are two ways you could bypass this situation.
LOCKPICKING:
You craft a Lockpick out of an iron/steel rod, 3 ingots vertically. With this lockpick, you can use this to open chests. BUT, since Minecraft is based on skill, a randomized puzzle or minigame depending on the lock difficulty will be triggered. If you lose the game, you lose your pick. If you win the game, you get the items inside. Once you close the chest, it re-locks. Now if you're looking for a quicker access to the person's chest, there's another option.
FORGERY:
You build a kiln, basically another EMPTY BOX, but made out of clay. Clay can be found by digging out deposits, from under lakes, or randomly from dirt. You construct a kiln and you're set. You take some unfired clay and take it to the said chest. You right-click the chest with the clay in hand, which gives you an unfired replica of the key. You take it back to the kiln, light it, and you get a solid replica of the key! Now, you just take ANOTHER piece of unfired clay, and combine with the replica. You got a key mold! Fire this key mold, then take it to the Metalworker's/Keysmith bench. In the keysmithing spot, there is ANOTHER space, but with a watermark of a key mold. Right under the material input. Put the mold here, and then craft a key. TADA! You now have a key, to access all your opponent's goods!
NOTE: I know Keyforging is a bit long, but that's the thing. Key forging takes a long time and is a complex process in real life.
---END OF IDEA---
Author's notes:
Now as you can see I was a bit flimsy on some things, like Metalworker's/Keysmith's bench. This is because maybe these items can be used as a precursor to other items and things, such as clay pots for holding water, metalworking could maybe be simple jewellry crafting or decorations, as I said, the new implementations I mentioned can also be expanded upon for precursor items and mechanics. Please take everything with a grain of salt and actually consider this. It is not set in stone, this idea. It is just one up for discussion.
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"It is always nice to have a sense of improbability in Littlebigplanet. FROGMORTON. Heh, you didn't expect that now did you?"
-Stephen Fry
You click different squares in the middle to pick the key pattern. Since there are 6 squares, the number of different combinations would be 64.
When you build a chest, you place your key in the middle of the chest, which creates an unstackable, key specific, locked chest. You also get your key back.
Keys could be recreated by you to give away to other people.
Also, someone suggested that there should be an indicator on a key to show it's combination, like the above would be "Key125", because square 1, 2, and 5 are selected. However, that also means that people you gave the key to could create even more.
To pick a lock, you have to figure out the combination, either by creating one key for every combination and trying them all, or by getting the combination from someone else.
I think that to be safe, any sort of chest can only be destroyed by their respective tool, diamond can only be destroyed by diamond, metal by metal, wood by wood. It garuntees no one can go around smashing every chest they see.
Then people will make keys with all possible combinations. :C
Exactly, and that's how you pick a lock, however, it takes a lot of time to try every key.
Or, even better, you could use a stackable pick and you are presented with an interface similar to the key design panel. You click the buttons and if you're wrong, your pick breaks.
Easiest locks would be sliding-tile puzzles. You know the type, you slide around tiles to make a picture?
Hardest locks made of diamond would be Four-dimensional Rubik's cube kinda thing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"It is always nice to have a sense of improbability in Littlebigplanet. FROGMORTON. Heh, you didn't expect that now did you?"
-Stephen Fry
I like Rubs' idea, but I'd nominate to change it to a 3x3 grid, which increases your permutations and makes lockpicking much harder, within reason. If there's not a set number of dots (Say, 3) then the number of permutations increases dramatically, perhaps making any sort of lockpicking impossible.
Trying to make a key of every combination and using them all on the lock would be interesting, but time-consuming.
Please please please no lockpicking minigames in a multiplayer setting. I don't care how hard they are, they can be mastered or exploited. Rub's idea was easily one of the best solutions to locks and keys I've ever seen, assuming that we even need them.
I don't know about you guys, but locks or no locks, I'm just going to hide my treasure.
I like Rubs' idea, but I'd nominate to change it to a 3x3 grid, which increases your permutations and makes lockpicking much harder, within reason. If there's not a set number of dots (Say, 3) then the number of permutations increases dramatically, perhaps making any sort of lockpicking impossible.
Trying to make a key of every combination and using them all on the lock would be interesting, but time-consuming.
That would make it too hard.
6 bit binary codes is enough, and has vastly less amount of copy/pastes.
Besides, have you ever seen a key that has digits on three sides?
It allows for the good stuff, but it'll still take a long while to do it, the right balance of jubilation/grief!
I think something like Oblivion's lockpick system's pretty cool. Or, my idea, is you set the tumblers of the lock when making it to a certain height, and you get a key after that. The key can never leave your inventory (unless pickpocketing gets implemented), and the thief then has to go through the owner's hoops to open the lock. Or, maybe as an added bonus, make a safe container that has a combo? Not sure how you would crack that one though...
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Quote from TurtleeyMC »
I wouldn't pee my pants.
I would explode them with a fiery explosion of ****.
I don't know, that only nets you 64 different combinations so, on average, you could guess the combination in 32 guesses, which wouldn't take that long at all.
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Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
I don't know, that only nets you 64 different combinations so, on average, you could guess the combination in 32 guesses, which wouldn't take that long at all.
Keep in mind that you would also be wasting 32 picks' worth of materials trying to pick the lock. Not to mention, decoy chests. How would you even know if the lock is worth picking?
Quote from Rubs10 »
Also, someone suggested that there should be an indicator on a key to show it's combination, like the above would be "Key125", because square 1, 2, and 5 are selected. However, that also means that people you gave the key to could create even more.
Realistically, if you give someone a key, that person would have the ability to duplicate that key if he so chose. You would only give keys to people you trust anyway.
How would you even know if the lock is worth picking?
Espionage. Observe how often a chest owner visits each of his chests. Unless he goes out of his way to spend the same amount of time at each chest every time he goes to get something, you'll have a pretty good idea of which chest is worth picking.
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Never attribute to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence.
Why can't you just rattle the chest? maybe a text menu can show up with comments like
"It doesn't seem like there's anything in here"
"When you shake it you hear a few ores rattling"
"The chest isn't bolted to the ground, but its way too heavy to lift!"
It would make decoy chests harder to utilize, but still applicable. Fill them with junk ore so their weight matches your main chest's weight or something.
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Mind clicking the Egg after you click the adult? I still need to perform some CALIBRATIONS.
Or, even better, you could use a stackable pick and you are presented with an interface similar to the key design panel. You click the buttons and if you're wrong, your pick breaks.
I really, really like these ideas. It provides a good display of tradeoffs - breakable picks are the penalty for a failed lockpicking, with the rewards being obvious and plentiful. If you want to keep your chest locked, you have to sacrifice an inventory space for your key. A very good design idea.
I think that fire should destroy chests, so if anyone tries to exploit locked chests then you can still destroy them, but it also destroys the items inside, so it's sort of a mixed blessing.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"It is always nice to have a sense of improbability in Littlebigplanet. FROGMORTON. Heh, you didn't expect that now did you?"
-Stephen Fry
I think that fire should destroy chests, so if anyone tries to exploit locked chests then you can still destroy them, but it also destroys the items inside, so it's sort of a mixed blessing.
I think we should have different types of chest that can only be destroyed by their respective tool. or higher.
So wood can be destroyed by wooden tools. Wood is more of a common use chest anyway.
Metal can only be destroyed by metal or higher. This is probably the common safe chest. However, most people will probably be carrying around metal tools and weapons.
Diamond is the most secure, so it can only be destroyed by diamond.
And whatever Notch plans to do with Gold is up in the air. Gold chest could be enchanted perhaps?
I still think that the best thing to do is that when a locked chest breaks, it turns into one of those little blocks, but it still has all of it's contents. So you can either destroy the little block with fire, or place the chest somewhere else and figure out the combination to get it's contents.
However, people can abuse this and store tons of items in their inventory this way.
SOMEBODY CALL THE LOCKSMITH. CAAAALLLL THE LOCKSMITH.
Locks honestly don't sound like a bad idea, actually, but then you'd have to implement doors along with them, because putting locks on inanimate, unbuilt objects is just weird (Yeah, just locking up my pieces of wood that I hold together to make a door). And then one day, with the implementation of Notch's pressure buttons and gears, someone is going to recreate the Brink's home security system, in the most awesome of ways (not for free, of course). And then that person is the same thief stealing stuff, using his own product to bypass everything and be rich.
Have Locked chests have less space than regular ones, and chests with items in them not stack or be able to be placed in other locked chests. That way you can't carry infinite items.
Have the keys have the two by three combination sequence, but make the chests have a slot for activation items like weapons or alarms that activate when a lock fails. Alarms would be very hard to make, but worth it. The Weapons would shoot into the thief dealing damage, but then the chest would be open for them to steal from. That way you can have trap chests that are empty and will damage the thief, and ones with alarms to alert you to the thief.
Lockpicks as items- They would be possible to make, and work 1/8th of the time, times the item degree. This means that on a wooden chest, wood picks work one eighth, stone ones one fourth, iron ones one half, and diamond picks work every time. ON stone locks each tool is half as effective as on wood- iron chests make the effectiveness one fourth that on wood, and diamond chests eight times more effective. Each pick works one eighth of the time on it's own type of chest, which I think is a fair amount. They also take damage when picking, and twice as much on a failed attempt. A wooden pick would be able to get 33 correct pickings, or 16 failed ones.
But I have come up with a minor, but extremely effective solution.
LOCKS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Locks are of course, a mechanism which disallows access to certain liberties, as chests, doors, even handcuffs.
But locks in my way of thinking are much more simpler to crack, but are an arduous task involving a few other new implements.
HOW LOCKS WORK:
When you decide to lock up your valuables, you go to your workbench and click on it. when the menu pulls up, you make a design like so:
[iron] [iron] [iron]
[iron] [iron]
[iron] [iron] [iron] With Iron being ingots.
What this does is create a Metalworker's/Keysmith's bench. There are two tabs, one for keys and one for locks. This bench requires you to deposit multiple of a type of material. The material type determines your lock's difficulty to pick, but not the difficulty to forge a key. Once you deposit the required materials, a lock/key appears on the side out of the material you chose. You take it, and go to your chest. Your chest has a little independent square at the bottom. You use your key on your fresh lock, when then signifies your lock as ID-tagged to the key. Once you put the key-locked lock into the chest, it locks it, so that only if you right-click the chest with key in hand, it will open.
HOW TO PICK LOCKS:
When you are going to steal from someone, you sneak into their house and rattle the chest. Snap! It's locked! There are two ways you could bypass this situation.
LOCKPICKING:
You craft a Lockpick out of an iron/steel rod, 3 ingots vertically. With this lockpick, you can use this to open chests. BUT, since Minecraft is based on skill, a randomized puzzle or minigame depending on the lock difficulty will be triggered. If you lose the game, you lose your pick. If you win the game, you get the items inside. Once you close the chest, it re-locks. Now if you're looking for a quicker access to the person's chest, there's another option.
FORGERY:
You build a kiln, basically another EMPTY BOX, but made out of clay. Clay can be found by digging out deposits, from under lakes, or randomly from dirt. You construct a kiln and you're set. You take some unfired clay and take it to the said chest. You right-click the chest with the clay in hand, which gives you an unfired replica of the key. You take it back to the kiln, light it, and you get a solid replica of the key! Now, you just take ANOTHER piece of unfired clay, and combine with the replica. You got a key mold! Fire this key mold, then take it to the Metalworker's/Keysmith bench. In the keysmithing spot, there is ANOTHER space, but with a watermark of a key mold. Right under the material input. Put the mold here, and then craft a key. TADA! You now have a key, to access all your opponent's goods!
NOTE: I know Keyforging is a bit long, but that's the thing. Key forging takes a long time and is a complex process in real life.
---END OF IDEA---
Author's notes:
Now as you can see I was a bit flimsy on some things, like Metalworker's/Keysmith's bench. This is because maybe these items can be used as a precursor to other items and things, such as clay pots for holding water, metalworking could maybe be simple jewellry crafting or decorations, as I said, the new implementations I mentioned can also be expanded upon for precursor items and mechanics. Please take everything with a grain of salt and actually consider this. It is not set in stone, this idea. It is just one up for discussion.
-Stephen Fry
You click different squares in the middle to pick the key pattern. Since there are 6 squares, the number of different combinations would be 64.
When you build a chest, you place your key in the middle of the chest, which creates an unstackable, key specific, locked chest. You also get your key back.
Keys could be recreated by you to give away to other people.
Also, someone suggested that there should be an indicator on a key to show it's combination, like the above would be "Key125", because square 1, 2, and 5 are selected. However, that also means that people you gave the key to could create even more.
To pick a lock, you have to figure out the combination, either by creating one key for every combination and trying them all, or by getting the combination from someone else.
I think that to be safe, any sort of chest can only be destroyed by their respective tool, diamond can only be destroyed by diamond, metal by metal, wood by wood. It garuntees no one can go around smashing every chest they see.
You know what? Email that to Notch as a proposal.
-Stephen Fry
Exactly, and that's how you pick a lock, however, it takes a lot of time to try every key.
Or, even better, you could use a stackable pick and you are presented with an interface similar to the key design panel. You click the buttons and if you're wrong, your pick breaks.
Easiest locks would be sliding-tile puzzles. You know the type, you slide around tiles to make a picture?
Hardest locks made of diamond would be Four-dimensional Rubik's cube kinda thing.
-Stephen Fry
Trying to make a key of every combination and using them all on the lock would be interesting, but time-consuming.
I don't know about you guys, but locks or no locks, I'm just going to hide my treasure.
That would make it too hard.
6 bit binary codes is enough, and has vastly less amount of copy/pastes.
Besides, have you ever seen a key that has digits on three sides?
It allows for the good stuff, but it'll still take a long while to do it, the right balance of jubilation/grief!
I don't know, that only nets you 64 different combinations so, on average, you could guess the combination in 32 guesses, which wouldn't take that long at all.
Keep in mind that you would also be wasting 32 picks' worth of materials trying to pick the lock. Not to mention, decoy chests. How would you even know if the lock is worth picking?
Realistically, if you give someone a key, that person would have the ability to duplicate that key if he so chose. You would only give keys to people you trust anyway.
Espionage. Observe how often a chest owner visits each of his chests. Unless he goes out of his way to spend the same amount of time at each chest every time he goes to get something, you'll have a pretty good idea of which chest is worth picking.
"It doesn't seem like there's anything in here"
"When you shake it you hear a few ores rattling"
"The chest isn't bolted to the ground, but its way too heavy to lift!"
It would make decoy chests harder to utilize, but still applicable. Fill them with junk ore so their weight matches your main chest's weight or something.
Mind clicking the Egg after you click the adult? I still need to perform some CALIBRATIONS.
I really, really like these ideas. It provides a good display of tradeoffs - breakable picks are the penalty for a failed lockpicking, with the rewards being obvious and plentiful. If you want to keep your chest locked, you have to sacrifice an inventory space for your key. A very good design idea.
-Stephen Fry
I think we should have different types of chest that can only be destroyed by their respective tool. or higher.
So wood can be destroyed by wooden tools. Wood is more of a common use chest anyway.
Metal can only be destroyed by metal or higher. This is probably the common safe chest. However, most people will probably be carrying around metal tools and weapons.
Diamond is the most secure, so it can only be destroyed by diamond.
And whatever Notch plans to do with Gold is up in the air. Gold chest could be enchanted perhaps?
I still think that the best thing to do is that when a locked chest breaks, it turns into one of those little blocks, but it still has all of it's contents. So you can either destroy the little block with fire, or place the chest somewhere else and figure out the combination to get it's contents.
However, people can abuse this and store tons of items in their inventory this way.
This is so difficult.
Locks honestly don't sound like a bad idea, actually, but then you'd have to implement doors along with them, because putting locks on inanimate, unbuilt objects is just weird (Yeah, just locking up my pieces of wood that I hold together to make a door). And then one day, with the implementation of Notch's pressure buttons and gears, someone is going to recreate the Brink's home security system, in the most awesome of ways (not for free, of course). And then that person is the same thief stealing stuff, using his own product to bypass everything and be rich.
And joy and laughter will be had by all.
Have Locked chests have less space than regular ones, and chests with items in them not stack or be able to be placed in other locked chests. That way you can't carry infinite items.
Have the keys have the two by three combination sequence, but make the chests have a slot for activation items like weapons or alarms that activate when a lock fails. Alarms would be very hard to make, but worth it. The Weapons would shoot into the thief dealing damage, but then the chest would be open for them to steal from. That way you can have trap chests that are empty and will damage the thief, and ones with alarms to alert you to the thief.
Lockpicks as items- They would be possible to make, and work 1/8th of the time, times the item degree. This means that on a wooden chest, wood picks work one eighth, stone ones one fourth, iron ones one half, and diamond picks work every time. ON stone locks each tool is half as effective as on wood- iron chests make the effectiveness one fourth that on wood, and diamond chests eight times more effective. Each pick works one eighth of the time on it's own type of chest, which I think is a fair amount. They also take damage when picking, and twice as much on a failed attempt. A wooden pick would be able to get 33 correct pickings, or 16 failed ones.
What do you think?