Torso encumbrance penalty

I get encumbrance penalties in somewhat odd situations. For example “Army jacket” + “Kevlar Vest”, gives you an extra point of encumbrance on top of whatever you get from the two items being fitted or not.

I think it’s a bit odd, especially when the Vest’s description even says “Suitable for wearing under clothing”. Interestingly enough, the vest does not add penalties when used in conjunction with any of the “close to the skin” items.

Is this intentional?

I’m not entirely clear on how it works, but there are sort of… “Slots” to each area, perhaps? And vests and army jackets take up the same slot. This is why you can wear a trenchcoat over an army jacket as well as a runner pack with no encumbrance, but trying to wear two trenchcoats or two bags or two jackets or a jacket and a vest makes things go all nutty.

That’s how it works as far as I know, but maybe the vest should use the same slot as compression tops and the like?

I guess it would depend on what kind of vest it is too, given that it has zero storage and its description, I think it’s the standard civilian vest that you can hide under clothes

As opposed to army/police style combat vests that are worn over fatigues and usually have pockets/straps/etc.

Blame the guy who stacked 2 trenchcoats and proceeded to annihilate hulks and turrets without getting a scratch on him.

Also the -50% armor reduction.

Encumbrance and armor make little sense now.

There’s different layers (under, normal, over, and belted IIRC) and each one will only cause layer stacking encumbrance with things that are in the same layer as it. What layer things are in is listed in their descriptions, if it doesn’t say anything that means it is in the normal layer.

That particular pairing seems a bit odd, will try to remember to take a look.

Thanks.