A few ideas to encourage using different armors:
1. magic and craft can't traverse armor type boundary. the best leather armor isn't as protective as chain but the best chain doesn't enable stealth like leather.
2. a unique modifier for each armor type which makes it super strong or super weak in certain situations. for example hide armor gives a huge stealth bonus in jungles, and plate armor super slows movement in cold regions. that way when going to the ice caves you need to think if you want to keep that great plate or buy a normal chain for this mission only
3. non combat effects for armor - like npc attitudes, map movement, maybe less stamina regeneration with heavy armor, etc. this requires something to prevent constant switching, for example only carry one extra suit, or can only switch into/out of plate while resting or maybe only in town (could be different for different armor types)
(sorry if this is similar to something written before, couldn't read all 200+ comments carefully...)
thx for a great update and interesting discussion
