Have armor impose penalties to non-combat (work) skills.

[Vandala]

Kinda the same idea as with poor lighting conditions giving skill penalties.

The different types of armor should force penalties on non-combat skills, heavier classes of armor should give higher penalties.

Because there is no real reason not to wear the very best and heaviest of armors on all your characters, player owned towns start to look very same-y when all the characters usually end up wearing the exect same outfits to maximize protection and strength gains. Its kinda silly to see farmers and smiths wearing heavy plate armor while they work.

You may want to think about weapons imposing the same kind of penalties as armor as well, the bigger and/or heavier the weapon the greater the penalty.

EDIT: You may also want to think about a characters weight carried to give the same kind of penalty. As it's silly to carry around stacks of raw iron in a backpack all day and still be able to work as well as a character who isn't burdened by the same weight. It works wonders for building stats but it would be nice if it came at some cost like work speed and quality.

[Grimmrok]

Non-combat skills, such as athletics and stealth?

Best armor stats lower your run speed and make you more noisy.
Those are non-combat stats.

Also, being encumbered further slows you down.

Unless with "non-combat skills" you're exclusively referring to "work skills"?

[Vandala]

Non-combat skills, such as athletics and stealth?

Best armor stats lower your run speed and make you more noisy.
Those are non-combat stats.

Also, being encumbered further slows you down.

Unless with "non-combat skills" you're exclusively referring to "work skills"?

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough, yes I mean that work skills should be penalised. Just as working in darkness currently has that effect on skills like Labor and Farming and Smithing, etc.

[Sol Lignum]

Man, is it good to be a roleplayer at heart. You will never have problems from powerplay. Every single one of my people have a small backpack with them, where they carry their shirt and sandals at time of battle and all of their armour at time of peace. Most of them are not heavily equipped in the first place, but still, problem solved, everyone look normal at any day

Penalties from carried weight make sense though, i'm with you on that one.