Deus Ex Machina in an exploration into a fan remake and modernisation of the original in Unity, redesigning systems and game mechanics to conform to modern iterations of the franchise and the genre as a whole. Not designed to be an exact remake of the original but instead and evolution of it with the intention being at this early stage to produce a reimagined Liberty Island as a portfolio piece.
Even in a futuristic world, there would still be a need for conventional locks as while less secure than their digital counterparts, they are cheaper to purchase and install, plus it wouldn't be realistic to think that every lock gets replaced with a shiny new ubiquitous digital keypad the as soon as they hit the market.
Therefore lockpicking will be retained and improved upon. The originals take on it was to use a prodding animation into thin air close to the lock you wish to open, where by lockpicks quickly ware out and reduce the amount of lock to be picked represented by a diminishing bar. The lockpicking skill increases the effectiveness of a lockpick allowing the player to open stronger doors with less picks.
What I think would be a better way of doing it would be to implement a FPP minigame similar to ones featured in Thief, Fallout 3, NV, 4 and TES Oblivion and Skyrim (No doubt there is more but you get the idea).
The players skill and difficulty of the lock comes into play effecting the likelihood of a successful outcome. Lockpicks do gradually degrade as to keep the need to aquire more but at a much slower rate as I was not a fan of the throw away nature of the original's. However failing an attempt at the minigame breaks the pick.
The details regarding the minigame itself are TBD at a later stage.