Create Wiki · Create Big Cannons

Shells and shots

Create Big Cannons offers about ten projectiles for big cannons. Shells carry a filling and need a fuze; shots are solid and hit through their mass. Each one goes into the cannon in front of the powder, tip towards the muzzle. Here is what each one does, with the mod's numbers.

Create 6.0.10 · Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 · Minecraft 1.21.1 · updated on

Three steel cannons fire at three thick walls 40 blocks away: the HE shell digs a crater, the AP shot goes through the wall and flies on, the smoke shell blankets the area (2× slow motion during the flights).

Quick facts

HE shell
Power 8 against blocks (TNT: 4), 30 damage on contact
Penetration
A block breaks if its blast resistance is below the shell's momentum (mass × speed)
AP Shot
Mass 8, 50 damage: goes through a stone brick wall
Shrapnel
50 fragments, spread 0.6
Smoke
10 × 10 × 10 block cloud, 300 ticks (15 s)
Fluid Shell
2,000 mB, 500 mB per blob
Gravity / drag
-0.05 block/tick² and 1% per tick for every big cannon shell
Version
Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 · Create 6.0.10 · Minecraft 1.21.1

Solid Shot (crafting table)

Iron NuggetIron IngotIron Nugget
Iron IngotIron IngotIron Ingot
Wooden Slab

→ 1 Solid Shot

The projectiles

CBC shells placed as blocks: HE, AP, shrapnel, smoke, fluid
ProjectileEffectMassFuze
High Explosive (HE) ShellExplodes: power 8 against blocks, 12 against mobs2impact (nose)
Armor Piercing (AP) ShellPierces, then explodes: power 5 (7 against mobs)6base
Armor Piercing (AP) ShotInert shot that goes through walls8—
Solid ShotInert shot, less piercing3—
Shrapnel Shell50 fragments in a cone, explosion 22timed or proximity
Bag of Grapeshot25 balls straight from the muzzle——
Smoke Shell10-block cloud for 15 s, no damage2impact
Fluid Shell2,000 mB thrown in 4 blobs; explosion 22impact
Traffic ConeAn authors’ joke: mass 3030—

Mass is what pierces: the larger it is, the more blocks the projectile goes through before it stops.

The HE shell

Three steel cannons fire at three thick walls 40 blocks away: the HE shell digs a crater, the AP shot goes through the wall and flies on, the smoke shell blankets the area (2× slow motion during the flights).

The all-round shell. With an impact fuze it bursts on first contact with a power of 8 against blocks: against a wall standing on dirt it opens a deep crater and cracks the stone around it. Without a fuze it just buries itself without exploding.

Piercing: AP shots and shells

The AP shot coming out of the wall

For each block it hits, the game compares the projectile's momentum (mass × speed, with a bonus above one block per tick) with the block's resistance. If it wins, the block breaks and the projectile loses some mass. The AP Shot (mass 8) thus goes through a three-block stone brick wall and flies on. The AP Shell does the same, then explodes thanks to its base fuze.

Smoke and fluid shells

The Smoke Shell cloud

The Smoke Shell breaks nothing: it spreads a white 10-block cloud that lasts 15 s, enough to hide an advance. The Fluid Shell is filled with 2,000 mB of a fluid, with a Spout for instance, and throws it in blobs on impact: water puts out a fire, lava starts one.

Shrapnel and grapeshot

Shots, grapeshot, Mortar Stone and Traffic Cone

The Shrapnel Shell bursts into 50 fragments thrown in a cone, which crack blocks and hit everything in front. Give it a timed or proximity fuze so it bursts above the target. The Bag of Grapeshot opens right at the muzzle into 25 balls: a short-range weapon.

Crafting

Shots and bags are made on a crafting table. HE, shrapnel and fluid shells need a Mechanical Crafter: iron, a wooden slab for the base and the filling, powder or nitro. Fuzes are added afterwards, by hand or with a Deployer.

Blocks that resist

To pierce, every block opposes its blast resistance, except a few “armoured” blocks that have their own value: a Block of Iron counts as 9, Create's Item Vault 6, obsidian, concrete and terracotta 4, sandstone 4.5. So obsidian, untouchable by an explosion, can be pierced by a shot. Dirt (0.5) stops almost nothing, which is why craters dig deep into the ground.

Which shell for which target

Against a building, the HE shell. Against a thick wall or armour, the AP shot or shell. Against mobs in the open, shrapnel set to burst above them. To cover a move, smoke. Keep in mind that they all share the same ballistics: only the effect on arrival changes.

Fuzes and tracersFuzes and tracersCreate Big CannonsPowder and rangePowder and rangeCreate Big CannonsLoading a cannonLoading a cannonCreate Big CannonsCreate Big CannonsCreate Big CannonsCreate Big CannonsMechanical CrafterMechanical CrafterLogisticsSpoutSpoutFluidsDeployerDeployerProcessing

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Sources for the numbers (Create 6.0.10 · Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 code)
  • Projectiles: munition_properties/projectiles/*.json (durability_mass, penetration, toughness, block_damaging_explosive_power, entity_damaging_explosive_power, shrapnel_count, smoke_scale, smoke_duration, fluid_shell_capacity)
  • Penetration: AbstractBigCannonProjectile.calculateBlockPenetration (blast resistance, block_armor, speed bonus 0.1)
  • Recipes: recipe/solid_shot.json, he_shell.json (mechanical crafting), shrapnel_shell.json, fluid_shell.json
  • Code and data: Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 (github.com/Cannoneers-of-Create/CreateBigCannons, tag v5.11.7+mc.1.21.1, MIT licence), identical to the Create France modpack jar
  • Shots: scenes written for this wiki; trajectory computed tick by tick with the mod's formulas (AbstractCannonProjectile.tick: drag 0.01, gravity -0.05 block/tick², speed = charges used, MountedBigCannonContraption.fireShot), explosions from Explosion.explode plus CBC's block transforms
  • Images: CBC munition blocks placed on the plate and rendered by our engine

Original texts and animations by Create France, rendered from the mod's Ponder scenes. Create is a mod by the Create Team, not affiliated with Create France.