I liked the previous system more than this. I think they could easily have the best of both worlds by making each pipe its own segment that pulls fluid from segments that have less fluid in them proportional to how much fluid that segment has. That way there’s both a propagation lag (and closer buildings getting more throughput than farther ones) like the current system and high throughout if the entire pipe is filled like the new system. This even opens up the possibility of higher quality pipes forming larger segments to increase throughout when the pipe isn’t fully filled.

This would cause sloshing, but that can be fixed by each segment checking if the segment they’re pulling from pulled from them last tick and if so temporarily combining into a single segment for the next tick.

The evaluation order feels tricky for this to work and the fill amounts of the segments would need to be updated right after evaluation instead of at the end of the tick for full throughput, but I think that can be figured out

I knew there was some jank with the fluid system, but not to this degree. I now feel less bad about leaving some pipe setups in a “good enough” state instead of optimizing.

Oh wow I didn’t realize nearly any of that detail about the current system. That explains why my fluid systems would always be unbalanced crap and sometimes require inexplicable pumps be added.

I’m not currently playing the game (lots to do and, well… it’s Cracktorio, you know), but I’m wondering about the impact of those changes on my typical playstyle. It’ll be probably neutral or positive.

The key here is that I only use the fluid mechanics for short-range transportation, and even then I’m likely to force a priority system through pumps; in the mid- or long-range, I’m using barrels all the time, even for intermediates.

Perhaps those changes will force me to revaluate the role of pipes, that would be a net positive. If they don’t, the changes will be simply neutral.