I just saw a loading screen where a character was wearing leather armor but it looked very different, much more coverage overall. Does upgrading armor pieces (arms, chest, legs) make them look different? I haven't noticed a difference yet, but the combat armor mods for instance seem pretty sparse. I imagined there would be more coverage overall. Does taking the armorer perk make your armor look better? Just curious and I can't seem to find any solid info on this. Thanks in advance

yes

Adding material mods can change the look of armor, but not to the extent you see on the loading screens. Armor that we get in-game has significantly less coverage than what we see on the loading screens.

So, I just realized that I'm both right and wrong. The basic armors are very bare-bones: Metal armor arms are literally nothing more than a spiked elbow pad, for example. However, there are better versions of each type of armor. The progression is Standard -> Sturdy -> Heavy, and each one covers more than the previous tier. So the leather armor you saw was either Sturdy Leather Armor, or Heavy Leather Armor. So eventually, if you're using Light Armor, then you will be able to pick up a set of Leather Armor that looks like what you saw in the loading screens. That's where I was wrong. Where I was right is that upgrading basic Leather Armor won't get you the coverage you're seeing, even if it's fully modded out.

Ah ok thanks, this is exactly what I was wondering!