My problem is that if at the end of the day a tailor can sit down and make Lady Gaga’s outfits, I don’t exactly see it being a stretch that a sufficiently skilled tailor could go “Yup. I’m stuck with tentacles now. It’s 40 below with the windchill, better make SOME BLOODY GLOVES.” rather than “WELP. FUCK. ALL THIS CLOTH, FUR, AND LEATHER. BETTER LAY DOWN AND DIE”
I can understand that for balance reasons people don’t want Powered Armor, etc to work for mutants but there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to make winter clothes, etc with sufficient skill. Especially considering we can sit down and build Plasma Rifles, Uber-Vehicles, Mini-Nukes, and others with sufficiently advanced skill.
What’s also worth mentioning that while the assorted ‘new skin’ provides various ups and downs, almost every mutation tree removes your ability to wear armor that protects you from Radiation, Bullets, and Fire. I’m not asking for power armor, but it’d be nice to be able to take a bullet, or just not die from radiation sickness after staying in a radiated area for a few seconds because “You can’t wear a hazmat suit over your Large Talons”
Which is why the whole mod-kits for clothes thing could be a nice solution. Either a blanket “Apply kit, get upgrade” for the low-end of the effort scale, a percentage of the item’s “volume” to upgrade it (EG to armor a Trenchcoat you’ll need 15 Kevlar plates. (Trenchcoat has volume of 17, coverage of 90%, 90% of 17 is 15.3, round to nearest whole number is 15.))or at the most complicated level a list of requirements in the JSON. Some kit ideas (mostly expanding on what others said already):
Waterproofing: Made with Chemistry. When applied it gives “As long as you don’t go swimming” water protection.
Light Armor Kit: Made with Fabrication. Requires Kevlar and doesn’t increase encumberance, increases weight by 25% adds the durable tag.
Medium Armor Kit: Made with Fabrication. Requires Ceramic Plates, increases encumberance by 1, increases weight by 45% adds the durable tag.
Heavy Armor Kit: Made with Fabrication. Requires Steel Chunks, increases encumberance by 2, increases weight by 90% adds the durable tag.
Winterization: Made with Tailoring. Requires Fur. Increases weight by 15%
Light Cargo Kit: Made with Tailoring. Requires Cloth, adds pockets.
Heavy Cargo Kit: Made with Tailoring. Requires Cloth, adds pockets, increases weight by 25%
Fancy: Made with Moderate level Tailoring. Requires Silver.
Ultra-Fancy: Made with High level Tailoring. Requires Gold.
Mutant-Kit: Made with Tailoring. Requires different materials to fit the primary material type to adjust. Deals with most "You can’t wear x over your mutation"
XL Kit: Made with Tailoring. Increases weight by 50% Deals with the post “You burst out of your clothing” mutations.
Obviously, some of these kits can’t be applied to certain things (EG you can’t make something that’s fancy, fancy again. Or waterproof a raincoat.) and you’d need a tool to apply the kit.
Fortunately, someone said that it’d eliminate the survivor gear. In actuality I think it’d only cut down on it, it’d still be useful to have suits, all in one masks, as well as the assorted worn tools.
