Under Lock And Key sounds like players won't use it. Only 5 pins max with 8 key types really seems trivial... esp with a bar that tells you which picks are needed. Perhaps useful as admin-created 'vaults' for player goodies or NPC stuff.
Pins go up for each lockpick that's in the right spot, but doesn't indicate
which pick is in the right spot. Also, the light-up indicator on the bottom signifies how many of the above are the right pick type, but again not
which is the right pick type. Mostly, that's to make the system a logical guessing game, instead of a combinatorics nightmare. Note too that each failed attempt will wear out your Lockpicking Kit for each pick you're using (thus faster for harder locks), and if the locked item is also trapped, it will send a Redstone Pulse out, so you can wire poison traps, or hidden spike traps, or instant-death pits, or flaming arrow traps, or whatever to them. Things should still be quite secure. The major allure of the keys and lockpicks thing is to let you use it in new world-spawned dungeons with Locked Chests in them, for creating dungeon-type adventure maps, and for use in enhancing security in Survival Multiplayer games.
Is there a mod pack that replicates the experience of the early Thief games?
* Enemies hear sounds which you make by throwing stuff or walking on surfaces, with loud noises traveling farther.
* Enemies spot you from farther away if you're poorly-hidden, but must almost touch you to spot you in darkness.
* Enemies take a lot more damage when not "alerted", which means they haven't seen or heard anything suspicious.
* Armor makes you much less stealthy and slower (which would encourage playing unarmored).
* Monsters generate when people are not around, if at all, not just in darkness. This way darkness is your friend.
* Lots of different arrows: water to put out torches and fires, fire to cause explosions and light fires, noisemaker to distract, rope to create hanging vines, gas to knock out enemies silently, moss to cover a loud floor with a quiet surface
Most importantly,
* Generates really nice dense towns with tenements, marketplaces, mansions, castles, police stations, prisons, vaults, temples, ruins.
* Mission or rumor generator, or map waypoints, or quest generation, or something!
Actually, the above mod is going to be bundled with a Stealth Overhaul to do something similar to Thief, though geared for the pseudo-clockpunk setting that is Minecraft, without the quest-style elements, and with other human players in mind as well as NPCs. Though, I suppose there's no harm in saying that most of these mods are building to a Procedurally-Generated RPG Overhaul mod... the idea is that players have to "tame" wilderness regions by finding and completing procedurally-generated dungeons and besting Boss Monsters, in order to unlock the region for harvesting and building. And NPC villages get a bit of an overhaul, offering gear and equipment, and procedurally-generated quests that mesh with the gods and artifacts and dungeons and currency and stealth overhaul system. The crafting would be enhanced with minigame style variants that allow for variable quality products based on player skill, and so on.
At least, that's the theory.