Locks and their mechanisms

Securing locations against intrusion/unwanted theft and nefarious prescences is achieved via dozens of key defences but no barrier is more important than the trusty locked door. New buildings are constructed without doors and doors must be added afterwards, per owner or builder's plans. See HELP DOORS for more info on the making and fitting of doors. The door itself will need to be kept strong and repaired if ever damaged by - for instance - persistent intruder trying to barge it down. As important as the door, however, is the lock and in nine cases out of ten, it is the complexity and effectiveness of the lock that holds the key to a door's ability to withstand enemy/forced entry.

WARNING: before you have a lock mechanism fitted to a door, particularly if it is a private/personal residence or location being protected, ensure you have a master key made while the lock is openly visible. It becomes far more difficult once a lock has gone through the professional improvements and upgrading necessary to render it a formidable obstacle.

Syntax: DOORS
Shows you all doors in your current location and, depending on your professional and specialised skill training, provides an info summary of the door strengths, lock complexities and active protections.

Syntax: STRENGTHEN <direction> and STRENGTHEN <object>
Those with the Thievery or Forging skills to a suitably high level can STRENGTHEN to apply their talents to improving the state-of-repair of a door (if a direction is specified) or the overall resilience of an object if a lockable item is targeted instead. The extent of your skill and the suppor from your lockpicking kit will determine how much you can strengthen.

Syntax: UNLOCK/LOCK DOOR <direction> or UNLOCK/LOCK <lockable object>
If you have the key or if you are appropriately privileged (e.g. part of a city's Justice Ministry and on homeland soil) you can use the UNLOCK and LOCK commands to make your way through locked doors and ensure they are locked behind you. You can use LOCK/UNLOCK followed by a lockable object to use your key (if you have one) to open and close the item - to reach whatever may be inside.

NOTE: see your ability helpfiles for details on such profession-based skills as the picking of locks and the increase of a lock's complexity (and therefore its ability to resist being picked).

Syntax: UNFIT LOCK <direction> or UNFIT LOCK <item>
The UNFIT commands is the available-to-all way to remove a lock from a lockable object or from a fully exposed door (i.e. open, unlocked, ready for removal). You cannot use UNFIT against a closed or locked door/object since the lock mechanism is not exposed; it is not a substitute for lockpicking. You will need a lockpicking kit to UNFIT a lock from an open lockable item and, it should be noted, you will unable to UNFIT on doors if your location is neither homeland nor homeguild.

NOTE: State Minister, Deputy State, Justice Minister, Prime Minister and Prince/Princess have authority over city locks; Guildmaster, Deputy Guildmasters and Head Tutor have authority over guild locks.

See HELP LOCKSMITH for info about city locksmith facilities, HELP KITS for details of the all-important lockpicking/lockworking kits and HELP DOORS to discover more about door construction, strengthening and upkeep.