Seems like all possible fluid weirdnesses are fixed with this. A bit sad that the fluid became less realistic. But I think now we can make use of the predictable logic of the fluid system in our designs, and can actually reason about why some designs work, and some others don’t.
I see it as the other way around, the simulation might run on a less realistic model. But the results are more inline with real life behavior of pipes. They eliminated a lot of weird glitches and strange behaviors that just weren’t real at all. Thus, for me it seems like a more realistic implementation.
Yeah, stuff like where the direction of flow depends on the order you’ve built the pipes isn’t realistic at all.
I’m looking forward to try the new mechanics and I don’t think the new system will make trains obsolete. Using tons of pipes will create large buffers, which will have low throughput until the pipes are filled sufficiently. You might still need to build pumps regularly to prevent backflow into large buffers, e.g. to not cause huge backflow into the entry pipes when connecting another new oil pumping outpost.
They could also add other mechanics for balance, for example if a pipe gets destroyed that could empty out the whole associated buffer (as the fluid would’ve leaked out), again making huge pipe networks dangerous.