Mass as intrinsic property to drive Transport Mechanics

[Soliton]

References:

• Baluranne; Forum: Frequently Suggested; Worldgen and Mechanics (very appreciative for this summary)
• Devlog; Roadmap; More game play content
• Vintage Story: Feature Wishlist 2020; Transport Mechanics

In reading the Forum posts, I found the on-going discussions about Transport Mechanics (TM) interesting but I couldn't find (yet) a clearly described reason (i.e. game mechanic) for implementing them.  To state the obvious TM (animals/carts/boats) are used to carry heavy things.  But why bother when your character can conceivably carry hundreds of tons of weight in their inventory?  So having a TM avoids having to make multiple trips but it may be just easier to make those trips rather than the cost of the TM (i.e rails for minecarts).  This leaves TM as mostly aesthetics (which would still be totally cool) for all but a limited number of situations.

But what if terrain blocks had mass? 

The primary complaint is probably that doing so would make building a nightmare as you would be running back and forth for every block.  This could be overcome by making the TM's inventory an extension of your personal inventory (essentially the same concept as the reed basket) so long as you are within some number of blocks of it.  This motivates the player to use the various TM characteristics to overcome a realistic limitation.  Examples are as follows:  wheelbarrows are only useful on paths that are only so steep and can carry a moderate amount, horse drawn carts are only useful on surfaces of a certain sturdiness and can turn only so fast but carry more far more than a wheelbarrow, boats are only useful on in water of a certain depth and still need something to move them but carry far more that a horse cart, minecarts are only useful with a rail system but would be necessary to clear mine tailings, and so on ...  This drives infrastructural improvements as the player's world expands.

This then makes TM the way to move terrain blocks between places that have a local block distribution system.  

I apologize if I am re-hashing previous discussions and just missed them in my review.  Thank you for your patience and consideration.