Does the quality of the skis effect usage?

[affert]

I use the self sufficiency mod.

I made some poor skis and a poor ski stick (carpentry isn't a strong suit)

Does using poor quality skis effect the use?  (IE I move slower or more fatigue etc)

[LoLotov]

I'm not sure about your particular situation with modding, but as it is in the current vanilla version, skis are basically unusable other than short distances (due to the weight of carrying the items lowering your stamina faster than the increased speed can have effect). This is slated to be tweaked in the next update if I recall correctly.

[PALU]

Ski quality has no effect whatsoever, unfortunately. As LoLotov mentioned, the skiing is tweaked from being a drag on the character to hopefully be useful in the next version. I will certainly try out skiing again to see if it has become useful.

The problem with skiing in the current version is that skis are heavy, and all of their weight is considered carried even when the skiis are on the feet. This weight causes fatigue build up (in particular for small characters), which quickly causes you to move slower with skis (due to fatigue) than without. The benefits of using skis is currently a marginal speed increase (initially), and there isn't enough of a penalty to trying to walk through deep snow without skis (or show shoes, which aren't featured in UrW).

[affert]

Ah, good to know. 

It's been a few versions since I've played, so I was wondering why skiing didn't seem to be helping like it previously did.  Thanks!

[LoLotov]

I wonder if the easiest fix would be to reclassify the ski item so that it works similarly to punts and rafts. You drop them on deep-enough snow covered ground, are told you can only move with a ski stick equipped (ala a paddle), and then move on them without the actual ski item being factored into your equipment weight. The only thing would be making sure there wasn't a bug where your dropped items on the skis would be moved weightlessly like on a boat, destacking a single item so conditionally might be tough.

There's probably already a better fix in the works that keeps the apply feature, but this seems like fairly low intensity coding. Could be harder to do but more realistic if the skiing skill effects the speed of stamina build-up.

[PALU]

The way I'd do it is to apply a weight bonus to fatigue for equipped skis in the same vein as a certain amount of clothing is "free" if worn. The drawback to that is that the skis would still count towards your total carry weight, but if you're weighted down that much it doesn't matter much: you're going to move at a snail's pace in no time regardless, with frequent and lengthy stops to regain the breath.
I wouldn't mind to also have higher quality skis weigh a little less than lower quality ones, but that's probably hard to fit into the current crafting system.