Some new official info from ubi forums

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by Stiboo

Sounds like a good idea for online play given the size of the skins, I don't think modded weathering templates will effect online play if it has the same file name?

They could simply leave them out of the online skin transfer and keep it offline only. After all, online problems only affect people playing online

An unfortunate decision and I hope they reconsider it. Having the rivets/bump maps and the weathering layers available for skinners would open up completely new possibilities, especially if it was possible to increase the size over the default ones. I don't see what possible problem that could be for anyone.