Security Skill and Lockpicking, Does it affect the minigame Options

[VGER]

We know that when picking a lock, you have the option to either play the minigame, or to have your success determined automatically. If you take the automatic route, your success is determined randomly, with your Security skill acting as a modifier.

My question is, will the difficulty of the lockpicking minigame be affected by your Security skill level, or will the Security skill only benefit your chance to succeed when opting for the automatic lockpick option?

So if I (the player, not the character) become really good at performing the minigame manually, will it make any difference if my Security skill rating is high?

I'll be playing as a Thief-Fighter hybrib, and I'm trying to figure out if I should use Security as one of my Majors. Since I'll probably want to play the minigame everytime anyway, I don't know if the Security skill is worthwhile for me.

Thanks for your help

[DoomedOne]

The way I believe I heard it is security makes your lockpick move much faster so it's easier to save it from being smashed and complete the pick.

So yes, it is a good thing to major in, like most of oblivion it's all balanced between player skill and character skill.