(n.b. These suggestions are a little more "out there" in terms of PNC's scope but I figured it wouldn't hurt to suggest them for consideration).

1. Vertical Vacuum Pumps. Right now, Vacuum Pumps can only be placed horizontally. It would be really cool if they could be "wall-mounted", so they can exist in the world vertically in addition to the current horizontal mode.
2. A "Tube Junction". This would be a block that carries pressure from one side to the opposite side, much like a regular Pressure Tube. However, it can have 4 Pressure Tubes connected to it, and it will keep the two networks independent. Excuse my crappy art, but it could work like this (where A and B are separate pressure tubes, each with their own independent pressure):
   

These aren't necessarily just for making things in PNC more compact, there are two other reasons I'm suggesting these, 1) there is some utility here that appears in emergent gameplay should the player ever want to have one tube network monitor a completely independent tube network - I've found myself in a situation twice now where I wanted to have two separate tube networks with overlapping channels monitor the same machines, a junction block like the one I suggest would make this incredibly simple) and 2) It feels more "in-line" with PNC's themes in regards to block rotation (something I think the Vortex Tube is a good example of, as it can be rotated in a number of ways) and multiple actors that each do a small unit of logic.

Just leaving this here

As for the vertical pump, instead of having another block, why not adding another a Tube Module instead? Something like the Flow Detector for example, and have it requiring a Vacuum Pump to craft. Either/Or, it is a new model to design, but it can be done, not a problem. Just say the word @desht and I'll work on it.

Looking good! I'm not sure if a tube module makes sense... I mean it does make total sense thematically, but given the comment desht provided earlier on the complexity of all the permutations of a new vertical pump tile entity, I imagine a tube module would have all the same complications?

Not sure... it might be doable, but I need to take a closer at the code and see how easy (or not) it would be...

As it turns out, pretty easy :)

Note: not final model. Rid will make it better!

D: Wow, this has taken large scale builds and reduced their footprint by so much. Love to see it

Thinking about this some more:

• Tube Junction will be in 1.18.1 release
• Rotatable Vacuum Pump won't be, sorry

As for the why - I started looking at this, and realized it would be a lot more complex than it might initially appear, since the pump would need to have 24 different model rotations & block shapes (and the air connections need to be calculated for each of those 24 rotations). 24 = 6 x 4; 6 block faces the pump base could be on, and 4 rotations for each position.

This level of complexity for one block (and why just the pump? why not every machine?) is just too much, I'm afraid.

That does seem a bit overkill, sorry I hadn't considered all the permutations. I do still think some builds could be made a lot prettier with it, so before dismissing the concept entirely, would you consider a different approach, such as introducing it as a separate item entirely, the Vertical Vacuum Pump? You could just craft it by putting a regular Vacuum Pump in your 2x2 crafting grid? That way you don't have to consider all permutations, just the vertical ones.

That's a possibility, yeah, as long as @Ridanisaurus doesn't mind making another model 😆

For simplicity, I'd say give it 2 rotation states only: + up, and + down. Model would need to be symmetric around the Y axis.

Only + up and + down still covers pretty much 99% of the use cases I had in mind, so I'm cool with that!

1. Yeah this would be good, but it would also require a completely new model for Vacuum Pump. Fortunately, someone's already working on a mod retexture :) I'll mention this one to Rid and see if he can come up with a nice model which can rotate on all axes.
2. This is a neat idea, but why stop at just the X/Z axes? The block could have connections on all six faces (which also means it doesn't need to be rotated). This would actually be quite easy to do with 3 internal air handlers, each just offering connections on one axis. Would probably also want to have low and high pressure versions. And unconnected faces wouldn't leak air.

How would the junction look visually? Might be neat (and more self-explanatory) if it just included two bent pipes crossing around another, instead of a mysterious cube. In that case 3 might be a little noisy.

1. Yeah this would be good, but it would also require a completely new model for Vacuum Pump. Fortunately, someone's already working on a mod retexture :) I'll mention this one to Rid and see if he can come up with a nice model which can rotate on all axes.

Sounds great, let's hope he's up for the challenge 👍 those textures are looking sweet already. ...but just for the sake of my own curiosity on technicalities, a completely new model is necessary for this? If we pretend for a second that there's no retexturing happening, supporting a vertical block is not as easy as just rotating the existing model?

2. This is a neat idea, but why stop at just the X/Z axes? The block could have connections on all six faces (which also means it doesn't need to be rotated). This would actually be quite easy to do with 3 internal air handlers, each just offering connections on one axis. Would probably also want to have low and high pressure versions. And unconnected faces wouldn't leak air.

Ah yes, I had actually intended for it to work vertically as well. I thought I remembered to include a note about that. Supporting up to 3 internal handlers... I feel like that would be antithetical to PNC, imo. I think it should stay a maximum of 2, just so players don't go too crazy with it and there's still an element of puzzle solving left. That's just what I think though, I'll leave the decision to you 👐

1. Maybe not a complete new model, but the existing model is significantly done with a TER rather than a static model. So it's more work than it might appear :)
2. I don't really see the problem of having 3 air ways through the junction block, personally. Doesn't really feel antithetical to me... shrug. Could go either way on this tbh.

1. Maybe not a complete new model, but the existing model is significantly done with a TER rather than a static model. So it's more work than it might appear :)

Oh, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

2. I don't really see the problem of having 3 air ways through the junction block, personally. Doesn't really feel antithetical to me... shrug. Could go either way on this tbh.

I don't mind having 3, I just think that with support for two junctions in one (so, 3 pressure handlers) the block might get spammed everywhere and 2 is a good number to cull that a little. At the end of the day it's your mod, I'd just be happy to see a suggestion of mine in it, regardless of how it's implemented :D

How would the junction look visually? Might be neat (and more self-explanatory) if it just included two bent pipes crossing around another, instead of a mysterious cube. In that case 3 might be a little noisy.

I did envision/consider it looking like you describe. The image in my comment was just to demonstrate how it works, not necessarily how it looks. Though a mysterious cube is not that bad in all honesty. That's basically what Create did with the gearbox, and it worked.

Having spoken to Rid, these two will happen once the retexture is done, mainly because new models will be needed. We'll go with the original suggestion of 2 tubes crossing like in the drawing at the top, and the "tube crossover" or whatever it gets called will be rotatable on all axes, so it'll easy enough to make it have tubes on either X/Z, X/Y or Y/Z axes.

Sounds good!

Just had an idea for the way the Tube Junction could look.

Basically, modelled after the Creative Compressor, but instead of a weird sphere in the middle, it has two tube sections crossing each other, each color coded differently (I think the same colors that have been added to the Thermostatic Compressor in the retexture would fit well, thematically)

That is the plan