Okay so I’ve finally gone down the cephalopod mutation line and have found that the limitations imposed on you when it comes to wearing items in the feet and hand slots only halfway make sense. On one hand it makes sense that you wouldn’t be able to wear them, tentacles can’t quite wear things designed for hands or feet, but on the other hand nothing is stopping something with tentacles to wear them anyway even if the most they could do with gauntlets is slap something with them.
The encumberance thing also makes sense, but also only if you happen to wear something not made for your tentacles. It’s not like you don’t know how to use them, maybe for the first few days but after that everything should be kinda peachy in handling them except when wearing something you’re not supposed to. If you get to 8 tentacles then you should also, with some effort, be able to stuff all your tentacles into the glove or gauntlet and move each finger individually. barring the pinky or thumb or whatever, for the extra protection they offer, at the cost of losing the extra 7 attacks and raking. Same thing with tentacle legs. You COULD stuff all your tentacles on the left into a left boot and vice versa and walk in them. but it’s going to be incredibly awkward to move around in them and should incur bonus encumberance for the extra protection and disabling the tentacle bracing effect if the player does actually decide to wear them afterall. Or instead of extra encumberance give the “uncomfy gear” negative moodlet that you get for being a plant. I’m just glad that so far I’m only barred from equipment that specifically goes into those slots and not ones that are more full-body.
That being said, I think there should be mods for wearables like there are for weapons. 1 slot for each body part they cover. Something covers the torso, arms and legs? It has 3 slots, and each slot only counts for the mod type that fits into that slot. Some simple mods would be armor plating sewn directly onto or welded on top of the piece, but more complicated mods can offer protection against specific threats or offer some kind of utility like extra or less warmth, more encumberance for more protection, or less encumberance for less protection. Mods that tie into the above two paragraphs are things that modify gear in order to fit mutated anatomy. Something too small to wear? Attach the “Extra-large” mod and now you can wear it even if attaching it causes the piece to become more expensive to repair materials-wise and incurs some cost in the piece’s materials to install it. Something not fitting your tentacles or gets in the ways of your claws? Attach the “Tentacular” or “Claw-friendly” mod at the cost of some material and now those gauntlets can be worn by the player and NPCs who have tentacles, like the sleeves, or who have claws, like fingerless gloves.