As you wanted! I'm not exactly sure what would be considered "weird" so I'll just make this a bit of an ongoing thread to drop any layouts I make on particularly complex fields, using the new experimental planner. Also, I'm using the "short" undergrounds setting so it doesn't spam quite so many underground pipes.

Here's one from an acid field on Vulcanus: https://qimg.techjargaming.com/f/XE6e2jU5.json

Thank you! Much appreciated :-)

I would say "weird" if it puts down a pipe somewhere where you really, really, would not put it down if you did it manually. I won't pretend I can get P.U.M.P. to do it as good as a human could with a bit of patience. But I'd like to keep the obvious poor decisions to a minimum.

In this example I can see there's a bit of a cluster of pipes on the left-middle side of the field; that would be a good example of something I'd do different if I were to do it manually. So this is great test case for me 👍

I see! Honestly, as long as it saves me from having to manually lay out a rat's nest of pipes I'm happy. ^.^ That being said, I really respect your desire to make it as good as it can be, and I'm happy to help however I can!

Uploaded v2.1.5 with a bunch of improvements; including finally adding a fallback using pathfinding, instead of just straight lines. Been meaning to add that for years now.

If you're still up for helping out; would you mind running it through a couple of fields?
It survives every test-case I've gathered over the years. But with infinite layout variations, it's hard to tell how many tests are enough. 😅

It's still behind the setting, but I think I'll make it the default planner pretty soon; if no oddities arise in the coming days.

Sure! I'll update the mod and report back on how it does. :)

I don't have any particularly difficult test cases at the moment, but here's one from a pretty big oil field on Nauvis: https://qimg.techjargaming.com/f/5iTvXsGG.json

I think the new planner is actually making even nicer looking layouts than the old one! Specifically, they look a bit more organic, as in how a player would just run pipes between wells somewhat arbitrarily until they're all connected. It doesn't have the "spine" that I don't think most players would design around.

Good observation; Where the original routine would search religiously for main system of pipes to connect all pumps to, the new system is a bit more relaxed and makes it less elaborate. It does try to make a spine; but tries to find an obvious spot; if it cant find one, it tries some tunneling, and if it can't find that, it'll just skip that part of the spine entirely and instead rely on more organic pathfinding.

It's also not garantueed to connect to the main spine. If another pump nearby is already connected to the spine, it might connect to that pump instead.

That combination of routines make it look a bit more organic, but still relatively straight compared to fully organic. I am really pleased with the outcomes I've seen so far. And I'm happy to read you are too. :-)