... Will this only work if you make the change before starting your fort? I'm wondering what would happen if I go ahead and edit the raws now with my current fort.
I am not sure. I rarely change the raws. Hopefully someone will answer.
When I can play the fort some more, I also plan to test if the value of the high boots matters compared to the value of the shoes. All the boots the dwarfs wore this time were more valuable and that might be a factor in the dwarf putting on the high boots.
Okay so that seemed to work but it's important to note that I had to add Shaped to both High Boots and Shoes before it would work. So in "item_shoes.txt":
item_shoes
[OBJECT:ITEM]
[ITEM_SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_SHOES]
[NAME:shoe:shoes]
[LAYER:OVER]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:20]
[LAYER_PERMIT:15]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:1]
[SOFT]
[LEATHER]
[STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_WOVEN_THREAD]
[SHAPED]
[ITEM_SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_BOOTS]
[NAME:high boot:high boots]
[ARMORLEVEL:1]
[UPSTEP:1]
[METAL_ARMOR_LEVELS]
[LAYER:OVER]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:25]
[LAYER_PERMIT:15]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:2]
[METAL]
[LEATHER]
[HARD]
[SHAPED]
[ITEM_SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_BOOTS_LOW]
[NAME:low boot:low boots]
[ARMORLEVEL:1]
[METAL_ARMOR_LEVELS]
[LAYER:OVER]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:25]
[LAYER_PERMIT:15]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:1]
[METAL]
[LEATHER]
[HARD]
[SHAPED]
[ITEM_SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_SANDAL]
[NAME:sandal:sandals]
[LAYER:OVER]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:25]
[LAYER_PERMIT:15]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:1]
[SOFT]
[LEATHER]
[STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_WOVEN_THREAD]
[ITEM_SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_CHAUSSE]
[NAME:chausse:chausses]
[UPSTEP:MAX]
[LAYER:UNDER]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:10]
[LAYER_PERMIT:15]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:3]
[SOFT]
[LEATHER]
[STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_WOVEN_THREAD]
[ITEM_SHOES:ITEM_SHOES_SOCKS]
[NAME:sock:socks]
[LAYER:UNDER]
[COVERAGE:100]
[LAYER_SIZE:10]
[LAYER_PERMIT:15]
[MATERIAL_SIZE:1]
[SOFT]
[STRUCTURAL_ELASTICITY_WOVEN_THREAD]