Boots & Greaves use the same slot?

If both cover the shins, yes.

...so my hero has to go barefoot if there's greaves involved? are there magic lowtop shoes that i've missed?

I admit it seemed odd to me also, but I guess this makes sense.

how do you tell which bit it covers?

before you buy it that is. obviously not an issue in designer.. but a bit stupid to have to go inside designer every time a hero buys kit

Lol boots cover the foot while greaves covers upper and lower legs, what were they thinking?

I am ok with this, but can we place have the boots and greaves placed next to each other in the unit design process.  Make the fact that a tradeoff exists more obvious please.  Same thing with cloaKs.

Wouldnt besurprised can wear cloak over our forehead, or from waist down like a skirt.

I suppose you look at the paper doll and lower leg between the knee joint and the ankle joint...

The reason they do this (because they don't HAVE to do this) is because of graphical clipping issues with the boots. It looks weird (but acceptable) when boots are worn with greaves because they can poke through.

Personally, I'd like to have both boots and greaves... or at least adding boots to the greave models. It just doesn't look right to me. Luckily, there is an Armor Mod that allows for "thigh guards" which work well with boots.