Allow conveyors and pipes to branch in all 6 directions

[knotty ferry]

We can build splitters and branches in conveyors and belts as long as all connected routes are on the same floor. Can we please create splitters and mergers that go up and down as well?

I especially would appreciate this with pipes. The way conveyors are currently designed, there's a strong visual affordance that lifts can only connect in certain ways. But when I build with pipes, I constantly find myself trying to build intersections in 3D, only to have to awkwardly find extra lateral space when the connections I expect don't appear. Visually, pipes seem like a six-sided branch should work without issue.

[bitter solstice]

The challenge of the "puzzle" diminishes when you have more variations. The stacker's "diagonal" output makes for challenge, that would be lost if it had all variations with where the input & output gates are located. So that pipe-connections have a restriction is good for the challenge - IMHO

[knotty ferry]

I don't think finagling pipes by adding a couple extra units of length for vertical intersections is an interesting puzzle. It's almost always easy to work around from a logistical point of view. But it's a frustrating break in my focus when I'm building something out and pipes are suddenly and unexpectedly disconnected from each other.

I think the interesting puzzle-solving, which Shapez2 has in spades, is working out the correct order to assemble shapes and then making sure each individual part of the machine is always running at capacity and outputting just as well. Sometimes, figuring out how to cram everything you want onto a single platform is interesting too. But I haven't ever had a platform so full of buildings that being unable to connect pipes vertically forced me to rework my plans in interesting ways.

I'll admit that my style is to build out generic modules and then copy-paste them en masse. You might be right for players who like to build unique but aggressively optimized factories for each shape, though. And that is a very valid way of approaching the game.

If vertical connections aren't added to pipes for the reasons you brought up, I would at least appreciate a change in their design that gives a clear affordance that vertical intersections won't work, similar to the lifts that conveyors have.

[placid imp]

We can build straight pipes horizontally and vertically.
We can build elbows horizontally and vertically.
We can only build tees horizontally.
We can only build crosses horizontally.

Like OP, I'm not thrilled about the lack of consistency here. It feels cumbersome to have to work under these constraints just to add complexity to the routing.

I'm not so sure about needing changes like vertical splitters and mergers. I think the belting works exactly how I would want and expect it to.

[inland ether]

This is a technical restriction, we don't support vertical pipe connections in the engine right now