In oblivion I was a little disappointed when you couldn't wear armor over clothing anymore. And as I played the game, I wondered why they didn't just make clothing apart of light armor. It doesn't have to be great protection mind you, I'd be happy if it was the same as fur armor, or even less. But something would be better then nothing at all. Especially for robes. With mages having little health as they do, coupled with the penalties to magic for wearing armor, I don't see what's so bad about giving them a little bit of defense.

Why does armorless clothes have to become "useless"? It's a cold place, it should protect from the coldness in various ways (cold, wind chill, wetness) and give bonuses to disposition or whatever.

Your poll is confusing....

Anyway.
I don't think clothing should be light armor.
I think it should be useful in another way. Preferably something new that the devs have cooked up.
Here's hoping for a "character temperature" meter in a hardcoe mode....

EDIT:
Oh, and Hoblak, that's an awesome idea!
Certain kinds of clothes should give varying disposition bonuses.
If you walk around looking like a King, people should notice, right?
And if you walk around in sandals and some sackcloth pants, people should look down on you....

I don't reckon there should be armour classes, just have everything be an armour of various weight and protection value.

EDIT: And freedom of mobility and health and the other stats armours have.

Clothes can not, and should never be assosiated with light armor. Light armor is the weakest type of armor that surve as protection from minor strikes. Cuirasses of chainmail can not protect you from a heavy swordstrike. Chainmail is considered a weak type of armor, often used underneath armorplates for extra protection along with leather. Clothes does not offer the least bit of protection against weapons.

Enchanted clothes could offcourse offer protection against magic

Yup, but if their ruler is "bad nobility", the commoners might not like you for it.

Makes you look like a beggar, and increase their disposition towards you.

So, for disposition classes, maybe something like:
Merchants, commoners, scholars, nobility, low lifers.
And add in stuff like guild reputation, faction statuses, culture, family history etc.

And illusion (thaumaturgy) magic shouldn't be such an easy way out. It helps, sure, but not a solution. Regenerative magic combined with always successful pretty much ruined the magic from magic. In MW you might fail the casting, and you didn't regenerate. Reload now would actually make you *feel* like a cheat.

OP:
There's a chance that your problem becomes void in Skyrim, that all Armor is simply "Armor" and not divided into generalizations like "Light" or "Heavy", due to the new perk system. And even with perks in mind, they could be more specific to polarity rather than generalizations. For instance:

- "Armor Mobility" perk reduces the mobility penalty of all armor by a percentage (effective with heavy armor but almost (if not entirely) useless for unarmored)
- "Combat Reflexes" perk improves your ability to dodge an attack, by a percentage (effective with light armor due to the mobility penalty of heavier armor)


Generally, armor works like this:

Leather protects against daggers and other minor piercing attacks, a little protection from swords but not by much.
Chainmail protects against both piercing attacks from daggers, spears and arrows and has high protection against the cutting effect of sword strikes, but almost no protection against blunt damage or damage that is converted to blunt damage (like that sword or spear).
Plate protects against cutting and blunt damage, but can have reduced effect against spears and arrows. Also, due to the construction of plate, they're susceptible to backstabs etc from small blades.

The best type of protection is a combination of the three - leather, chain AND plate on one and the same armor. The downside is that such armor also weighs a lot more, hampering your mobility in the process of protecting you.

Nope, clothes are clothes and armor is armor.