Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Newbie Questions

Sep-5-2007 14:10

When do you get lockpicking? How many points is it? I want it, but can't find a link to tell me skills

Sep-5-2007 15:32

Taken from the 'skills' thread I answered a couple posts down....

Quote:

"Lock-picking allows you to open those closed doors you get in cases, and get the answer to one motive or alibi question for up to two suspects. "

There ya go. It's a rather handy skill to have. When do you get it? Whenever you want to. How many points is it? 12, but the price varies, depending on what archetype you have. It can be anywhere from 8 to 12. To find it, go click on your Detective page. Bout a third of the way down, you'll see a section that says "Skill Points", and after that, a tab that says something like, "Learn Skills". Click on that, and it'll take you where you need to go. ;-)

Sep-5-2007 23:00

Does it work every time like Research regardless of what clothes you're wearing?

Sep-6-2007 00:25

Yes, it sure does work every time no matter what clothes you are wearing!

Sep-6-2007 14:32

Also, if you ever find no useful information, the suspect is a "no alibi" suspect. The question will still be there to ask if they have an alibi, but if you do they will reply "It's none of your business but I don't have an alibi" and you have just wasted a question.

Sep-6-2007 23:02

I'm thinking of buying this skill instead of advanced sweet talking...is that advisable? I didn't find my intermediate sweet talking that useful, I think it made my advanced rule bending work less! Hehehe. How about surveillence? That's not as useful is it?

Sep-7-2007 00:11

Sweet-talking and rule-bending have no influence over each other. One, sweet-talking, deals solely with suspects. The other, rule bending, deals solely with townies. There are several things that can influence rule-bending. Your level of sweet talking's not one of 'em.

From your uniform, you appear to be a 'charming' detective. So you NEED sweet-talking. Lock-picking is a useful tool for all detectives, not just tough ones. Surveillance is a faction skill which lets detectives 'unclam' one detective per case (it doesn't always work, unlike lock-picking, but you do have the chance to use it for any case).

Now, which one should you get? Only YOU can answer that best. Since it sounds like you're not having much success with the intermediate level of sweet-talking (I assume you mean you're getting clams galore), it sounds to me like you could really use Advanced Sweet-Talking. It boosts your charm factor by a total of +35. Intermediate S.T. only boosts your charm factor by +20. Lock-picking and Surveillance are both useful skills to have, but I'm not sure that they're gonna help you as much as the top level of S.T. will.

That's my two cents worth....;-)

Sep-7-2007 00:13

And I did a boo-boo in my explanation. Surveillance lets detectives 'unclam' one SUSPECT per case. ;-)

Sep-7-2007 01:29

There isn't any other charm skill for townspeople higher than advanced rule bending is there?

Sep-7-2007 01:47

Come to think of it, I'm not having much trouble with the suspects clamming. I always get all suspects and I get maybe 1 or 2 suspects with clammed alibis maybe in 5 cases per day...the rest of the time they give me new suspects/motives and alibis no problem...it's the townspeople I have trouble with. Any ideas on what I can do with them? I have advanced rule bending but it doesn't always work well...sometimes I get townspeople who clam after 2 questions... I'm working IH cases so when that happens it gets annoying...

Sep-7-2007 01:55

Come to think of it, I'm not having much trouble with the suspects clamming. I always get all suspects and I get maybe 1 or 2 suspects with clammed alibis maybe in 5 cases per day...the rest of the time they give me new suspects/motives and alibis no problem...it's the townspeople I have trouble with. Any ideas on what I can do with them? I have advanced rule bending but it doesn't always work well...sometimes I get townspeople who clam after 2 questions... I'm working IH cases so when that happens it gets annoying...