Newbie questions

[LeBurns]

So I got the game, and tavern, and pirates. Played for a while last night and have a few questions.

How can I put horseshoes on my horse? The only way I see to do it is to take the saddle bags off. But saddle bags don't go on a horse's feet, and horseshoes don't go on a horse's back, so the two should be independent of each other, but I can't figure it out.

When do I pay the troops? I've camped about three times now and while I can feed the troops, I don't have the option to pay them. I've got the coin, but I get a message saying "You do not have any wages to pay to your Companions". So, when do I pay them?

Lockpicking. For a long time I though Oblivion had the worse lock mini-game, but I was wrong. I don't know how many lockpicks I've broken, but I've used up all my iron making them and they've all broke trying to open the chest in cave where some refugee/bandits where hiding. I've read what it says, but I've never seen anything jiggling or looking like I'm close. I honestly don't know what being close would look like. What am I looking for here?

Is there a way to breakdown items for materials? Sometimes I'd rather have more materials than coin.

I've been feeding my troops raw meat. I mean it looks raw, and I've got no cook to make it into cooked meat. Is this going to make my troops sick? And what is the shelf-life of the food I'm carrying? I want to use the food items that will spoil first, but I can't tell which those are. I also had the option one time to feed my horse straw which saved me on food. When does that become an option again?

As a general tip, what items should I always have on hand in my inventory? Right now I'm trying to keep at least 10 repair kits, 5 meds, and food for 4 days.

Thanks.

[mrak20105]

To shoe a horse, you need to remove the saddlebag. What is the connection between the back and the hooves - no need to analyze and understand. This is not a zoology lesson.
You need to pay the troops when in the upper right corner, under your number of crowns, a warning appears "You will have to pay money to mercenaries." If you do not pay, they will have a debuff fortunately. During the shoeing, click on "pay" and a "green" check mark will appear. The check mark does not mean "bird" but a sign.
Picking locks - navigate by the sound in the headphones and by how high the master key has risen. Make short clicks with the mouse.
There should always be -- shackles (chains for prisoners" ropes - at least 5. Iron -- min 6. Climbing hooks 1-2. Food, money and alcohol. Wood 1-10. Salt 10 -20. Carrying capacity reserve. It is better to carry horseshoes, so that in case of overload, you can exchange them for saddlebags. A supply of medicines and repair kits is required, depending on the size of the squad. Chests sometimes contain useful items, and sometimes useless. For breaking into a chest, your "thief" gets experience. This experience is valuable, the moment will come and you will dream of chests, even absolutely empty ones.

[Rielke]

Great tips, thanks, I kinda had the same issues starting out.

One thing though: Is there any way to lockpick without audio cues? Any kind of accessibility option for bad hearing?

[LeBurns]

I'm also curious if the lock-picking game gets easier when you level up thieving.

[mrak20105]

Originally posted by Rielke:

Great tips, thanks, I kinda had the same issues starting out.

One thing though: Is there any way to lockpick without audio cues? Any kind of accessibility option for bad hearing?

Sound signals, unfortunately, play a big role. But as for locks, it is better to practice with saves at the very beginning of the game. I generally strongly recommend playing ONLY with saves. Otherwise, you will not understand the mechanics of the game and will get caught in a bug. I usually start at 12 o'clock, with a very short click, then go further clockwise. At the same time, in some areas the lockpick begins to rise higher and higher. In these areas, I make longer clicks with the mouse. Even at the maximum level of the "Thief" profession, lockpicking does not change. There are improvements for the backpack "Hearing tube" (Vertrus, the task to find the old man in the forest) and "Velvet bag" (somewhere in the chests). They make hacking easier. But of course the main thing is the player's experience. In the forge, as well as when forging and changing items, there is a sound warning before the anvil flashes white light. But it's very difficult to catch the moment even if you have the ear of a master musician. Very short flashes, and forging 3 stars of armor, a blatant mockery. But the game allows you to win even without high-class armor. The main thing is the correct positioning on the battlefield.

[Doom_Cookies]

Originally posted by LeBurns:

I'm also curious if the lock-picking game gets easier when you level up thieving.

Actually...it gets harder. Chests will have two, then three bars to unlock up from one, and the correct area to lockpick will become more narrow.

Originally posted by Rielke:

One thing though: Is there any way to lockpick without audio cues? Any kind of accessibility option for bad hearing?

I do it without sound on all the time. The closer you are to the correct spot for the lockpick, the further you can push the lockpick without it getting stuck. So you can use this as a test to find out where the spot likely is. You can efficiently use process of elimination to find it.

This all reads in a lot of words, but it doesn't take long to get used to once you try it a few times. It's fairly intuitive after a few goes at it. And trust me, it takes far longer to read the instructions that it does to do it - I can bang out a lock in about 10-30 seconds depending on how many bars the lock has.

Refer to the lockpicking images in this guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3046544883

You can see a blue circle with four lines to mark equidistant positions along the lock. If you imagine a compass, the positions are SW, NW, NE, and SE. Try to push the lockpick in at each of those four positions and pay attention to which one allows you to push the lockpick in furthest before it gets stuck - the correct position will be closest to that one.

Let's say, for example, that you find that NW allows you to push the lockpick in the furthest. Check the surrounding cardinal directions - W and N - to see which one allows you to push the lockpick further than the other. If W allows you to go further, than you know the correct position is between NW and W. If N allows you to go further, than you know the correct position is between NW and N.

Let's assume that, between the two cardinals, N allowed you to push the lockpick in further. Starting from NW, slowly inch toward N, testing how far you can push the lockpick as you go. You'll inevitably find the correct spot along the way.

If you test all four starting positions - SW, NW, NE, and SE - and none of them seem to allow the lockpick to push further than the others, then that means the correct position will be one of the three available cardinal directions - W, N, E - or otherwise very close to one of them, so try them next.

[s_linkletter]

I've never heard any sounds when I was picking a lock. My hearing is not very good, I will admit that. I will have to try turning up some of the sound effects.

I am confused by the comment about shoeing the pony. I put the shoe on the pony's back but there is no option to shoe it offered after that. Or is that done at the stable?

Edit: I went back to the stable but there is no option there for putting the horseshoes on the pony, with or without green bird arrow.

[mrak20105]

Originally posted by s_linkletter:

I've never heard any sounds when I was picking a lock. My hearing is not very good, I will admit that. I will have to try turning up some of the sound effects.

I am confused by the comment about shoeing the pony. I put the shoe on the pony's back but there is no option to shoe it offered after that. Or is that done at the stable?

Edit: I went back to the stable but there is no option there for putting the horseshoes on the pony, with or without green bird arrow.

Be patient, when your pony reaches level 12, you will be able to forge it, even though it has a saddlebag on its back. And do not look for a green bird, this is a figurative expression. Look for a blue bird, then you will visit the planet K - Pex. (Joke)

[Astasia]

I don't play with headphones and haven't noticed any audio cues for the lockpicking, but I haven't had any issues solving them visually. It's basically exactly the same lockpicking as in skyrim, it just has different art. You have a 360 degree wheel, you move the lockpick around that wheel, the objective is to find the "pick zone" which is some degrees of said wheel, and the closer you are to it the more the pick "sinks into" the lock, when you get it right it goes all the way in and unlocks the bar. You just lightly tap the mouse while the pick is in various angles on the wheel until it jiggles with resistance and then try again until you find a spot where it starts going in, then move up or down from that spot seeing which direction it goes further in. The key is to just be gentle when "probing" the lock so you don't break the picks.

As for horseshoes, I wouldn't worry about it, just use the saddlebags. They are there for the carry weight, and the 3% bonus is pretty trivial. At pony level 12 you can pick a trait that gives them extra inventory slots, so you can use both the bags and horseshoe if you want at that point. There are a bunch of different animal items though, I don't know if there's something better at that point.