locksmith's kit?

[past caring]

Any ideas on where to find them? Livewire has just broken her last remaining kit - I'm at the Dump and have reunited the factions, so I'm not getting a new one via a drop there, so looking at having to hire either Reaper or Magic for the minimum term in order to get one (Vicki is MIA).

Alternatively, are there any locks which absolutely require a kit and cannot be forced with a crowbar? Because if a crowbar is all that's needed, I can can continue with Barry disarming traps and then forcing any locks.....

Cheers

[Sir Maelstrom]

Using a crowbar on a chest gets you less loot, you get a message telling you that some items broke when the lock was forced.

As for lockpicks, they tend to crop up as random (rare) loot from dead soldiers. I definitely found lockpicks somewhere in Pantagruel outskirts (the tile where Manny's hotel is) and in pretty sure I found some in Port Cacao docks too but I think some of the shelf/chest loot is determined by dice roll when you enter the sector rather than being predetermined.

When you say Vicki is MIA what do you mean? Dead or constantly offline? Her special item, the lockpick tool, is really what you need (and her other stats are pretty good)

[Trolleur_Durden]

Crowbars should be used on locked doors, lockpicks on locked chests.

If you lack lockpicks, you can buy some at the market on the far south-east corner of the map IIRC, SE of Wassenberg, but it's not exactly the most convenient place to reach. Otherwise, the Scrounge sector operation can produce lockpicks, so just do a few of those during one or two training sessions and you might get some.

[Red Bat]

Yeah, use crowbars on doors, lockpicks on everything else. You tend to get more crowbars than lockpicks, so if you don't want less loot, you have to be careful not to waste lockpicks on doors. Also there's a few places where you can avoid picking or breaking the lock on a fence door by just using wire cutters on a nearby fence.

You aren't guaranteed to get them from loot though. One of the random aspects of the game you have to play around. Vicki has a repairable one, which is one part of the reason she's considered one of the top mercs.

[past caring]

@Sir Maelstrom - by MIA I mean that is what the AIM website says (and has done for at least a fortnight) - I think it also says she's missing presumed dead if I hover over her portrait. So that's a no go. I've also fully looted Pantagruel and Port Cacoa, so that's also a no go.

@Trolleur_Durden - the scrounge sector operation? I'm sure the Harvest Junk operation is only available if you side with the Baronne and kill Dirty Henri, but I've United the two factions, so it's not an option. Or are you talking about another operation I can do in a different sector?

I may reload. I've a save just before I killed Biff to get the Green Diamond. I assumed I would need the diamond in order to get Chimugeira to give up fighting and hand over the mine - only I'd gone to the sector where Biff is without first meeting Larry and without Biff radioing for help. So I won the fight without the final wave of enemies containing Chimugeira and the Maquis. Chimugeira later gave me the mine but didn't ask for the diamond so i cashed it in.

I might go back to that save and see if Vicki is available. If so, it would have the additional benefit of allowing Biff to walk.....I'm not sure whether it was killing Biff or the fact I took too much time, but when I got to the Refugee Camp, everyone apart from Larry was dead so I've missed out on all those side missions (I managed to recruit Larry and leave before speaking to the Colonel so not got the massive attack from the army - I'm just leaving that area well alone).

[Trolleur_Durden]

I'm talking about a new operation available in towns exclusively, called scrounge sector or something like that. It makes you send up to 2 mercs to try to find some loot around and takes 6 hours or so to complete.

[past caring]

OK - and that's available even if you unite the two factions at the dump? Only I'd read it wasn't? Not at home at the moment to test - I'll try later.

[Trolleur_Durden]

It has nothing to do with the dump, it's a basic operation available in every town.

[past caring]

OK cheers - weird I've not noticed it.

[Aeon]

The scrounge operation is one of the sample mods with patch 1.1.0. Be aware if you haven't enabled it, it won't be in your game.

[past caring]

@Aeon - ahh, that will be it. I'm a long-time JA2 player but only very recently discovered there was a JA3 - as I've come to the game late, I didn’t follow patch history or realise there were mods within the patches that needed to be enabled - I just assumed that the patches automatically updated everything and that was it.