It requires the armor to have a soak of two... so a kamperdine armored tailored jacket (far horizons) would work, as would the protector armor (dangerous covenants), or heavy battle armor, or laminate armor, or armored clothing with the superior modification. But does the +1 soak from the armor master talent count toward the required +2?

The motivation is to have armor that blends in, e.g. armored clothing which could cause problems if someone discovered that you were "secretly" wearing armor, as would blatantly wearing armor, but an armored flight suit (defense 1, soak zero), wouldn't draw attention because it has a utilitarian function and you aren't trying to hide the fact that you are wearing armor. But it also won't draw the attention that a kamperdine armored tailored jacket would. So if you had a superior flight suit (defense 1, soak 1), and had the armor master talent, would that count as the soak 2 needed for improved armor master to function?

We let it. Not sure if it has been officially asked but the talent only says it has to be a 2 so I don't see why modified armor wouldn't count.

RAW, I don't think the +1 from Armor Master counts.

Armor Master, "When wearing armor, the character increases his total soak value by one."

Armor Master (Imp) "When wearing armor with a soak value of two or higher, the character increases his defense by one."

Since Armor Master increases total soak and not the soak value of the armor (semantics I know), your armor's soak would remain whatever it was for the purpose of triggering the Improved talent. That being said, I don't think 2P51's group is breaking the game here by any stretch of the imagination.

I would definitely allow the Superior Armor Customization mod to affect it though, so that opens the realm of possibilities to a PC try to remain a little more discreet in his armored clothing.

The same question came up in a game I play in. We read the descriptions and came to a consensus agreeing with Domingo.

With the release of stay on target there is a new armor option that is relevant to this discussion. The A/KT wing commander armored flight-suit has defense 1, soak 1 and 1 hard point which could be used to apply superior which would bring the soak up to 2 which would fulfill the requirements of improved armor master while not drawing undo attention (it's a flight suit, spacers wear them, no big deal, this one just happens to provide extra protection and he's not trying to hide the fact that he's wearing it).

Sort of related, years ago (during the era of Saga edition, I came up with a character concept of a pilot who typically wore a leather jacket (the ww2, style bomber crew jacket) over a flight suit. I would look a bit like the Antarian Ranger http://www.starwarsmini.com/res/jediacademy/12.jpg . say for instance that someone was wearing a kamperdine, armored jacket over a flight suit, would they get the defense of the flight suit and the soak of the jacket, I know that if you were to wear multiple armors you only use the best one but can you take the best defense and the best soak separately?

Also how would your encumbrances be figured if you wore a kamperdine, armored jacket over a flight suit? This is the encumbrance is 3 less if you're wearing it question (would it apply separately to the jacket and flight suit or you add their encumbrances and then subtract the 3)

Huh, that's an interesting question. It's also relevant for characters toting a deflector shield as well as their regular armour. If you don't total before subtracting 3, then almost all published armours are free to wear.

Personally I total the encumbrances of all worn armours before subtracting 3.

I would say that superior added to soak 1 armor would make improved armor master work. Superior says specifically that it adds one to the soak value of the armor where as the talent armor master states it increases the characters soak by one.