Cargo in terms of MASS and VOLUME as opposed instead of merely mass

[stoicfury]

The fact that every commodity takes up equal space in the game can be somewhat justified under the notion that when you buy clothing, for example, that you are buying a bulk quantity of it. A metric ton of "clothing", however, won't actually take up the same amount of space (volume) as a metric ton of gold.

Concordantly, I think it will add a richness and a welcome complexity to the game if there were considerations of volume and mass ("weight") in terms of trading profits, especially as volume shouldn't alter the performance of the ship in terms of jump distance / acceleration, whereas weight certainly would.

 

[aspiringexpatriate]

The quick answer to this is to claim that the metric tonnage of goods are all carried across the galaxy in standardised containers. For instance, a tonne of gold does not need the life support capacity of a tonne of slaves, nor even a tonne of liquor or grain.

Although, the Volume capacity of a Class 7 compartment would go a long way towards us speculating about Sidewinder storage bays onboard ships.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Suggestion already posted here.

My contribution: I assume that it's not that we can hold 100 tons in our cargo bay, it's that we can hold 100 canisters. The canister is the important bit, and all machines and what nots that interact with the canister are calibrated to interact with exactly one ton of the stuff.