since factorio officially has shallow water now, would it not make more sense to simply place that shallow water instead of coming up with a new mechanic?

Woah, that is awesome, however doesn't naturally generate: https://wiki.factorio.com/Water: "Shallow water is not generated by the default map generator so in the base game it can only be found in the tutorial."

I really want to replace the mechanics in this mod with that though, sure it doesn't generate naturally but I think it'll work if I just change it to place shallow water with waterfill. However, I'm pretty sure a fair amount of people expect it to work like it currently does. I could add an option to change modes... But I think I'll make a different mod for it

Any opinions? I've just had a look, and I don't see any waterfill mods that use the pump waterfill placer that this mod does, nevermind using the shallow water as well...

Maybe you could make it so that if you make a big enough area with your water, it will turn into a shallow water pond? Like canals are limited to 3 wide, but once you place a 4th it turns into shallow water and limited throughput or something. It would be cute to be able to make little ponds with lillies and stuff :)