Clothing issue, in my opinion: The moose cloak doesn’t have much practical use in difficult game modes. It doesn’t really win on any useful metric. Pretty much every Interloper player goes for double bear coats.
Bearskin Coat: 6C warmth, 5C wind, 80% water resist, 20% protection, -20% mobility, 5kg. 1.20C/kg inner slot, 2.20C/kg outer slot.
Wolfskin Coat: 4C warmth, 4C wind, 60% water resist, 12% protection, -15% mobility, 3kg. 1.33C/kg inner slot, 2.67C/kg outer slot.
Moose Cloak: 3.5C warmth, 4C wind, 90% water resist, 20% protection, -10% mobility, 4kg. 1.875C/kg outer slot only.
For the outer slot, the wolfskin coat has the best temp/kg, and the bearskin has the highest raw boost (11C). For the inner slot, the wolfskin coat has the best temp/kg, and the bearskin again has the highest raw boost.
Water resistance, wind resistance, and protection are fully irrelevant for the inner slot. Water resistance is irrelevant unless you travel during a blizzard, which is fairly easy to avoid, and the high water resistance of a bear coat makes it almost as good as a moose cloak. Protection is generally never worth optimizing for, unless you plan to get in struggles, but the bear coat matches the moose cloak.
I’ve never used a moose cloak, since for only one extra kilogram, you gain 3.5 degrees of extra warmth on the outer slot, one of the best bargains in the game, only losing 10% water resist and 10% mobility.
So how do we make the moose coat useful? Some ideas:
- Nerf the bear coat’s water resist. Make it much more likely to get soggy.
- Buff the moose cloak’s weight. If it was 3kg, the weight ratio would be 2.5, making it more weight-efficient than the bear coat, almost as warm as the wolf coat, but substantially more water-resistant and slightly better for mobility and protection. It would then be at least a sidegrade for the wolfcoat, and might make sense in some situations.
- Make the moosecoat more appealing. Give it say 3.0C warmth and 8.0 wind, so that it matches the bearcoat for the outside slot. Then, the moosecloak-bearhide combo would be the same, but 1kg lighter, and it would add additional logistical challenges for survival, forcing you to bag the odd moose in addition to the bears.
Another option: Mobility is kind of an underused mechanic. As far as I can tell it only effects the red part of your sprint meter, it doesn’t change your overall speed or encumbrance or anything. It doesn’t even change how fast your stamina recharges, meaning that the only thing mobility changes is the maximum length you can sprint all in one go. Over time you can still sprint the same amount, just in shorter spurts.
Not to mention, due to the way cold works, once you’re “freezing”, your health loss is static, and temperature basically stops being relevant, so you can just unequip your bearcoats and you don’t have any of the disadvantages anymore, except protection. It only means your inner clothing gets wet/damaged, which only really matters in a bllizzard. Don’t be in blizzards.
If mobility were more important, the wolfskin coat could win out.