Components:
Rain coats don’t protect you from anything but water (are useless in acid rain), so crafting a makeshift one shouldn’t be that hard. It could be a “primitive rain coat”, following the pattern of the new “primitive” tools.
EDIT: Actually, duck tape was/is a thing. The more you know… http://www.octanecreative.com/ducttape/duckvsduct.html
Add in bin-bags. I still don’t agree with most of the primitive stuff (come on-- you break into any house and you’re gonna find tools of some sort that would be much better than a rock on a stick. Exceptions would be crafting a hammer, axe or something out of a stick and lump of scrap metal.)
However I do agree with the raincoat idea. stick three holes in a bin bag, wear it. Hobo’s raincoat-- and like you say, no use against acid rain.
The primitive stuff was added so you don’t have to visit a town.
What about a “makeshift” class of objects, then? Actually, the current crowbar you can already craft would fit here. A pipe and a rock certainly isn’t the same as a real crowbar. It’s neither as efficient nor as durable (pipe can bend, rock can shatter or fall, etc).
On the other hand, if a crowbar like that is the same as a real crowbar in game terms I don’t see why the makeshift rain coat I propose couldn’t become a “real” rain coat.
When we implement tool durabilities and optimum tool usage, things like that will come into play.
Fair enough.
Yeah, right now the primitive tools are pretty unbalanced in their function (imo), but also nice to have and probably better than utterly RELYING on town access for basic supplies.
The whole item system needs some work though, and ultimately I imagine all of this is going to get swept away sooner or later… Resulting in primitive tools existing, but being properly primitive and inferior to a machined tool of some sort, in both terms of durability and effectiveness.