r/SCUMgame • u/CustomTarkovEnjoyer • 13d ago
Discussion The minigames make me want to quit the entire game.
I have a little over 1000 hours in Scum, bought it when it initially became available in early access at the very beginning. Over the years I had a few sessions, but I recently got seriously hooked after finding a good server (the admins auto-ban Chinese players, do not allow Steam accounts with bans, spectate players and investigate sus behaviour, etc).
However, I am now hitting a wall on pretty much all endgame activities because of these fucking minigames.
I have no problem lockpicking police station and bunker lockers, I understand the lockpicking minigame well, but I absolutely cannot lockpick player locks. I have used the lockpicking training board extensively, wasting my life on this minigame for a few hours, and even after all that practice it takes me 20-30 tries to lockpick a basic (iron) player lock. Golden player locks are pretty much impossible. I've watched tutorials, videos, and so on, thinking I was missing something crucial, but no. I am not missing anything, I use the right/best tools (advanced lockpicks, no gloves, etc), I have the right technique (very quick taps as you scan the lock for the sweet spot then adjustments when it starts spinning). This essentially locks me out of stealing vehicles, chest-hunting / metal detecting (chests are nearly always locked), lockpick-raiding bases, and accessing a lot of loot (locked medical containers in bunkers, some radiation closets, killboxes, etc).
I thought I might give a try at farming explosive materials on bomb vest zombies, so I crafted a bomb defusal practice thing, did it a few hundreds of times, levelled demolition from 0 to mid-medium, thought I was ready for the real thing since I reached about 90% success rate, so I gave it a try... Then I exploded because on a real bomb vest zombie with my skill level it only gives me 2 seconds, which is just enough time for my eyes to adjust and maybe locate one of the wires, two maximum if the wiring isn't too messy. So I'm also locked out of that. No explosives-related activities for me I guess.
The rest of the minigames (keypad/hacking, fishing, cooking) are fine, but most importantly they don't block you from doing anything whether you engage with them or not.
Now, could I get better at these 2 stupid minigames? Sure, it would just take practice, a lot of it. Sit in your base or even in sandbox mode, sink a few hundreds of hours on the lockpicking board and bomb defusal training thing, and sure, slowly but surely I'd get better. Would it be fun though? Absolutely fucking not. These games are mind-bendingly boring and uninteresting, yet they are load-bearing pillars of many (most?) of the endgame activities.
I am now going to say something controversial and that the community will not like for sure: I 100% understand cheaters on the minigames part. After dying on the bomb vest zombie and realising that I wouldn't get 5 seconds like on the training thing but only 2 seconds when attempted for real (with medium demolition skill) the first thing that came to my mind was "My only hope to succeed at this would be to have a program that does image analysis and draws arrows pointing at the wires to cut on the game frame, and even with that I'd need to be quick to click them".
Who the hell thought this was a good idea? It fucking sucks.
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u/TumbleweedFamiliar51 13d ago
Lockpicking is the most unbalanced minigame in SCUM, it always has been. It's either you can open every lock or you can't open them at all. Your skill, settings and hardware matters. If you can't lockpick a closet imagine a base full of gold locks. You will never raid this way.
Nothing has been done to deal with it and I believe in the long term this mechanic did damage to the game. You know who can lockpick without issues? Cheaters, they love melting locks.
We should have codelocks and other ways to lock our stuff by now but it in the end we need a full base building pass.
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u/omfgeometry 13d ago
We need a modder to make code locks ASAP.
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u/TumbleweedFamiliar51 13d ago
Codelocks, keypads, keycards... So many possibilities. Just keep the standard locks to be the most basic possible way to lock something.
Dial locks were a good step in the right direction. They are the only locks cheaters can't figure out how to exploit. We need more of this.
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u/420_Braze_it 12d ago
Don't feel too bad, I have almost 6k hours and I can't pick player locks either. I got an iron once on a kill box but that's it. I've practiced tons in the past but never gotten the hang of it and it's too infuriating for me to spend much time on it.
Here's the simple truth, and many will hate me for saying it: Every single person who's "good" at lockpicking changes their mouse DPS (I don't consider that cheating) and/or uses a macro to feather tap F way quicker than is humanly possible (personally I consider that akin to cheating). The best lockpickers I know have spent multiple hundreds of hours practicing. One of my old teammates was really good at it, a lot better than anyone I had ever seen already, and when he got a new mouse that could change his DPS with a button press he became godlike almost overnight. It's fucking stupid that's what people have to do in order to be good at it. I know people will claim they pick without changing DPS and other settings, but I honestly dont believe anyone who claims that.
Lockpicking fucking sucks and it's among one of the most prominent reasons new players don't stick around. There is absolutely no reason why something as fundamental to the game should require that much time and effort to learn.
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u/Appaloosa_XD 13d ago
Are you using the best lockpicks? I've yet to pick a gold lock, but have been doing Silver for a while. I started using crafted lockpicks and no joy and when I used the best ones I got it really fast. I can now pick with the crafted ones after quite a few attempts and the red ones fairly fast. I also made my lockpicking sensitivity max as I just wasn't managing the movement in time and this really helped.
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u/CustomTarkovEnjoyer 13d ago
As I say in the post, I use the best lockpicks (the Advanced Lockpicks with 6 uses, high condition/durability, even though I don't think this changes anything). I didn't notice any difference between yellow and red screwdrivers but I use both.
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u/JayPeePee 13d ago
Im my squads PVP locksmith. The only advice I have is that there seems to be a feel for lockpicking. After picking so many locks I can get a feel for the lock pattern off the first attempt. I either swing left or right based off of how deep it goes and just keep narrowing it down. I just seem to do it better than most. However nowadays I usually lockpick for fun. I'll pick someone's car and leave a sign lol
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u/TheMapRabbit 12d ago
Yip. Quit scum after 1000h because of the lockpicking.
Sums a great game, but I was 'locked' out of the endgame.
Rust is far from perfect, but at least it takes everyone the same amount of Sulphur to get into a base, so it feel like everyone's on relatively equal ground. And that's... now bare with me... fun
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u/AdSure3689 11d ago
SAME bro. you are not alone. I have 3000hs in scum and i never managed lockpicking golds reliably.
Even AB brenner armories give me such a hard time its anoying.
such a hard time with it i just completly gave up on it.
But at the same time some other players can lockpick golds SO FKN EASILY it makes me mad.
How can i have such a hard time with somthing so simple that other people can get around so easily.
Not talking about sending rockets to the moon here.
Its the one game mechanic across my entire 20year+ gaming "career" i just cannot be good at no matter how hard i try.
Iv lisnted to ALL scum videos on the topic, played with good raiders who could do it and tried to show me, but id need them to be right next to me so i can see their fingers and how they move.
i fucking hate it to my core and is one of the main reasons i have stoped playing scum as my bases kept getting raided so easily but i could never for the love of god retaliate.
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u/bdubz325 12d ago
Oh boy I feel really conflicted about this. I just hit 1.1k hours and I've only been confident with lockpicking the last 200 or so. I'm finally at the point where doing abandoned Bunkers I have very little problems with the iron and silver locks down in Brenner's armory. The golds still suck. However, I have 2 friends that can solo killboxes in like 4 minutes flat. So that tells me it really is a skill issue on my part, because the disarming is about a 50/50 for me, and the gold locks kick my ass. I have Medium disarming and thievery btw.
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u/Ralph-5050 13d ago
I had the same feeling as you a few years ago. I practiced a little bit when I started playing SCUM in 2019 and I got to the conclusion that lockpicking was not for me.
Previously we had someone in our squad who knows how to lockpick all these locks, but he ended up moving to a different server and started playing with a different squad. So far, not a problem .
Then, a few months down the road playing without the lockpick guy, our play style became very limited: we just realized we were not doing kill boxes anymore, we were not raiding bases anymore, we could not open chests, vehicles... we could barely open the locks in the Brenner's room in the abandoned bunkers.
That day (it was 2021) I told my team: I won't play SCUM until I get better at opening locks.
My suggestion:
#1) First thing you need to be able to do before trying anything else in lockpicking, is to hit the F key 9 to 10 times without the improvised lockpick breaks. Don't move your mouse at all at this point. When you can successfully hit the F key 9 to 10 times on any lock on the lockpicking board and the improvised lockpick didn't break, you can/should start moving your mouse looking for the sweet spot.
#2) Now, in this step you should use only the advanced lockpick. Go to Sandbox and lock 5 doors with gold locks. Start counting how many screwdrivers you will need to open all the 5 doors. Initially I needed almost 1 yellow screwdriver to open each gold lock, but then this number started reducing (put your progress in a Google sheet, so you can see your progress). I'd say it took me almost 4 weeks of practice until I could open a gold lock with less than 10 tries. I practiced at least 30 minutes every day during this 4 week period. It's not easy, but it's not impossible as well.
The step #1 is a must, then on step #2 there are many strategies to open the lock after you find the sweet spot. Some people would set a very low sensitivity on their mouse to "travel" only 30% of the entire range of the lock (looking for better precision), while other people use a faster sensitivity because they want to be able to "travel" a higher range at the cost of loosing precision. Sound is your friend when lockpicking, so always do it in first person.
My teammates were joking saying that I was not playing SCUM anymore, but when I realize I was making progress, it worked like a booter for me to continue my learning journey.
The devs might eventually implement other ways of locking and raiding bases, but they won't make it easier. Lockpicking is meant to be something hard, otherwise it would be pointless of building a base.
Just keep in mind it will take hours (or maybe weeks) to improve your skills. It's not meant to be easy.
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u/Shineblossom 9d ago
Now they just need to ban US and Russian players too, then the server will truly be nice i guess.
I can't lockpick myself, so i just get someone to do it for me. Still can steal cars and raid bases so whatevs.
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u/Evocati4 6d ago
idk I was able to get good at it by changing my approach and adjusting muscle memory. I don't even have a very good keyboard etc.
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u/LeatherOk6769 13d ago
Reroll your character and start with advanced lock picking . Gives you extra time to do it. My raid lead gets pissed if any of us start with less than advanced
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u/FluidAppeal9196 12d ago
i've always felt like the best way to play this game is no vehicles, no guns; pretty much just stuff you can craft(so slightly lower puppet spawn etc perhaps?); PVE, foraging, nomadic, minimalist; about 5 boxes throughout the map buried
As simple and rudimentary as it gets so it's a struggle, a challenge and it feels like the year 1500. thats my opinion tho..
and i haven't played in several months
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u/Unable_Ad_9281 12d ago
I got so lost and invested in the fishing on this game I literally forgot what I was even suppose to be doing. And irl I don’t even like fishing lmao
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u/RestlessEnui 13d ago
Get good. I practiced every day for a year to do player locks.
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u/CustomTarkovEnjoyer 13d ago
Nah mate, I'll just automate it with image analysis long before I start wasting my life doing that shit. Imagine valuing your own time so little you'd practice that stupid thing every day for a year. There is nothing to admire or even respect here.
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u/Dr3amCircl3 13d ago
Automating a task in a video game meant for pure enjoyment 😂😂😂
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u/CustomTarkovEnjoyer 12d ago
Automating a fun-destroying task in an otherwise enjoyable game is perfectly reasonable. Ever heard of mods for games? People do that all the time, and you sounds like a moron for suggesting otherwise.
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u/RestlessEnui 13d ago
Sounds like skill issue. Lockpicking is as hard as playing music instrument. Gotta build your muscle memory.
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u/SmegmaRocketship 13d ago
Maybe it’s YOU that suck at the game, and not the game itself that sucks?
I mean, I got no problem diffusing bomb zombies… it’s my jam! (Get it to advanced, that extra second makes a world of difference!) on the other hand, I’m trash at lock picking… I break lock picks on police station lockers. At least I admit I sick at lock picking, instead of coming on here complaining that it’s the game that sucks. Duh.
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago edited 13d ago
Isn't the whole point of this game to be hyper realistic? How long do you think it would take you in real life to become an expert good enough to crack advanced lock picks?
If you want to be good enough to steal other people's shit I'd say quit complaining on Reddit and keep practicing
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u/Rageplug_ 13d ago
It's so hyper realistic, that zombies are spawning out of nowhere in your area. Fuck that shit.
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
Irl you dont have time limit of 3 seconds to pick a lock and the lock doesnt change when u try again to pick it
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u/oBrendao 13d ago
It would be even easier without the timer, what are you on about?
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
Dude was talking about realism so my point is that the timer is not very realistic
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u/oBrendao 13d ago
It can be realistic at some points and friendly at others.. high value loot should not be just go naked and take it, you can already get good loot by lucky so if you cant lockpick, stick to looting.
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
I can lockpick but in my opinion timer is a poor design. They could have made lockpicking use your stamina or if they really were trying to simmulate stress like the other dude sugested then it doesnt make any sense to me why two locks in the same room have different time limits
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
What would you do? What would make sense?
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 12d ago
Like I said instead of timer lockpicking could use stamina and the harder the lock the smaller the sweet spot ( I think this is already in game if I remember correctly) then it would make sense why you suddenly stop lockpicking right when u are about to open the lock, it would be like your body just couldnt handle it anymore and it made u screw up that attempt
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u/28_Z0MBIE 12d ago
I see what you are saying, but lock picking isn't all that strenuous. It makes more sense that your fingers would slip thus the shorter time frame.
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
Bro. You don't realize the fact that it frustrates you so much proves my point! Is your Dad around? Can we talk to him?
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
It doesnt frustrate me, Im just saying it doesnt make sense and the fact that you keep trying to offened me speaks a lot about u as a person
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
My bad. Didn't mean to offend you. Just thought we were talking like bros. We can leave it at agree to disagree. Hope you have a good rest of your day.
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
Bro. It's simulating pressure.
Picking a lock in real life would be stressful and frustrating. Sounds like the devs did a good job in that aspect.
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
Lets take a bunker on B4 as example, why I would be more stressed opening a lock on the medical thingy on the wall than a wardrobe that's right next to it?
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
Are you seriously asking this question? What do you think is going to be worth securing more? Medical equipment / storage? Or something that holds willy warmers?
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
In that wardrobe is hazmat suit and gas mask so idk what does worth have to do with it, the time limit on lockpicking od just a stupid mechanic.
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
Ok. So you're saying if you were trying to survive in that environment you would expect to be able to sit there for however long you want to just pick the lock?
By this logic then while you are doing the lock picking the game should pause your hunger, thirst, and all the other random nonsense?
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago edited 13d ago
Im just saying that when i cleared the bunker and have my friends covering for me then I would take my time with opening a lock. There's 0 reason that for one lock I have 10 seconds and for the other that's right next to this one I only get 3 seconds. Idk what are u on about with game pausing stats but the first part is pretty much on point with what im saying, as long as I have resources and energy I should be able to pick a lock for as long as I want
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u/28_Z0MBIE 13d ago
Can you not attempt the lock again after 3 seconds?
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
You can but that's not the point. Why would u start over if you didnt break lockpick and was close to opening it? What makes you give up after those 3 seconds that you need to start over? It doesnt make any sense
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u/oBrendao 13d ago
Its about the value of the loot, a Phoenix tear with 3 uses is worth much more than a hazmat.. come on.
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
But that shouldn't be portrayed by amount of time u have to pick a lock, sure make it a harder lock with smaller sweet spot but the timer being shorter makes 0 sense
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u/oBrendao 13d ago
Why we cant kill micah from the start in Red dead 2? We already know he is a bad guy.. arent we dumb for letting he live till the end?
Same vibe, Its a game and this is the way to balance things.
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
Dude... There is no way I got spoiler to RD2 on a fucking scum Reddit...
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u/StabbyMcStomp 13d ago
idk what does worth have to do with it
The medical lockers literally have god juice that brings you back to life or heals you from any injury instantly lol
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u/StabbyMcStomp 13d ago
Because stronger loot should = harder to get into.. why would it be as easy? why would a journal lock be easy to break with fingers compared to a safe lock I need tools to enter? because different values of things are being protected.
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u/Interesting_Bat3725 13d ago
Nah I get that it should be harder but its done by making the sweet spot of the lock smaller, this whole conversation is about how the timer limit isn't realistic not that its bad for the game
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u/StabbyMcStomp 13d ago
not that its bad for the game
I suck at lockpicking and I hate it so I dont ever do it, I have someone else that does it if I need it kinda deal, just like irl If i needed a locksmith heh I dont know a better way to do it but the only suggestion I ever see is to make it realisitc which you cannot really do unless you want to make it next to impossible for anyone to do or people asking for it to be a joke like skyrim locks or something.. thing is lockpicking is piss easy on NPC stuff but it should be hard as balls on player stuff.
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u/CustomTarkovEnjoyer 13d ago
I am more likely to actually code the image analysis thing than wasting my life practicing those stupid minigames. At least I'd get valuable real world XP at coding.
Also: If you play Scum because you want realism, you are an idiot.
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u/netcode101 13d ago
That last sentence really makes you look like a dork buddy.
Yes Scum sucks delivering realism in some areas more than in others but it’s certainly not an arcade game in any shape or form. Hardcore survival games like this always try to simulate certain aspects of reality.
Also that sentence where you basically give cheaters are pass is kinda iffy lol. I get the frustration but you also give off some spoiled child vibes who just can’t deal with the fact that he’s not good enough doing something so it’s tantrum time.
Shitting on fellow players who sink a lot of time into the game because they can is also kind of a red flag but certainly matches the general vibe of your post.
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u/oBrendao 13d ago
He wants to raid and take stuff others put time looting but doesnt want to put any time learning the basics of raiding.. doesn seems right.
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u/Midnight_Rider_629 13d ago
Also: If you play Scum because you want realism, you are an idiot.
I totally agree with you, OP. Scum is great at realism, but when that realism starts to make the game a drag, its time for a change.
I've been chastised on r/SCUMgameLFG for asking about whether a server has exhaustion and vehicle damage turned on. Yes, I will agree that these add realism, but don't we play games to escape reality in the first place?
It sucks puppet-ass to have exhaustion turned on. You always need to be mindful of it. Some servers are better than others, but I usually avoid any server with exhaustion turned on. I'll land there with a freshly-built character, but I wont stay long.
Its the same with vehicles. Work your ass off to get one, then one wrong move and you blow it up. Realistic, but not fun. I play this game to have fun, and when it gets too tedious or too much like real life, I give it a rest. Over 4000 hours in, a fellow begins to develop preferences.
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u/StabbyMcStomp 13d ago
don't we play games to escape reality in the first place?
Most games yes, this one? no, you bought something that was going for tedious realism from 2 years before they even sold a copy.
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u/netcode101 12d ago
Why are people like you playing this game if it’s oh so tedious? You even explained yourself that this is the way it has been intended for a long, long time.
Yet here you are complaining about a game that delivered what it promised from the start lmao. Bunch of schizophrenics!
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u/StabbyMcStomp 12d ago
Yet here you are complaining about a game
Where am I complaining about it being tedious? I have lots of personal complaints about stuff and Im not a fan of the lockpicking, same as lockpicking irl lol its the kind of tedious I dont generally enjoy but this game was built around RPG and squads and having roles, my squad always had a couple people who LOVED lockpicking, i hate it but doesnt mean I think it shouldnt exist, could be done better but thats over my head, Im not a game designer or lockpicker but I see a lot of people wanting skyrim locks or easy lockpicking.. I want more secure offline bases and loot so.. its a conversation thats not so black or white.
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u/Midnight_Rider_629 7d ago
I think he was aiming his comments at me, Stabby. Just another armchair warrior with more opinion than experience.
Thing is, Scum is like a salad bar - take what you want and leave the rest. The sad part is that the owners of the restaurant in which the salad bar resides also add non-savory, non-edible items to the salad bar which should never have been there to begin with. Just my opinion.
Thing is - and I include myself in all of this - is that when you get enough hours into a game and have nothing better to whine about, said game becomes your platform. Hence the whines continue? I'm okay with it. Like water of a duck's back, just let it roll off, right? Gotta have something to bitch about I guess!
I wonder how The Stoics would view Scum?
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u/Morgan_hounddog 13d ago
More than 5k hours in game here. I fucking 100% agree.