Create Wiki · Create Big Cannons

Cannon breeches

The breech closes the back of a Create Big Cannons cannon and lets you load it from behind. There are three kinds: the Sliding Breech, fast but weaker, the Screw Breech, the toughest, and the Quick-Firing Breech, which reloads a cannon without disassembling it.

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

A cogwheel spins the breech shaft: the breechblock slides, the shell goes in from the back, then turning the other way closes the cannon.

Quick facts

Sliding Breech
Cast iron, bronze, steel; strength 2, 4, 4 charges
Screw Breech
Steel, nethersteel; strength 8 and 10 charges
Quick-Firing Breech
Cast iron, bronze, steel; strength 2 charges; opened by hand
Opening (sliding, screw)
speed / 512 per tick: 0.8 s at 32 RPM, 1.6 s at 16 RPM
Stress
Sliding cast iron 16, bronze 12, steel 32; screw steel 16, nethersteel 40 (per RPM)
Quick-firing
Reload delay 40 ticks (2 s); opens in 5 ticks
Version
Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 · Create 6.0.10 · Minecraft 1.21.1

The Sliding Breech

A cogwheel spins the breech shaft: the breechblock slides, the shell goes in from the back, then turning the other way closes the cannon.

It has a shaft on the side. Spin it one way: the breechblock slides and clears the way. Each tick the opening moves forward by the speed divided by 512: at 32 RPM, 0.8 s is enough. Slide the munition in from the back, then turn the other way to close. It only closes if nothing is stuck inside: a half-inserted munition, a loader pole.

Loading from the back

A shell slid in through the open breech

With the breech open, the munition goes straight into the chamber without passing through the muzzle. Handy for a very long cannon. The Sliding Breech has a price: in cast iron it limits the cannon to 2 charges, in bronze and steel to 4. A stronger steel cannon needs a Screw Breech.

The Screw Breech

Rotation unscrews the lock of the steel breech, a piston moves it aside for loading, then puts it back and screws it shut.

Made of steel or nethersteel, it is the toughest breech: it lets the cannon go up to 8 or 10 charges. Rotation first unscrews its lock, which backs out a quarter of a block while turning a full turn. Then it has to be moved aside: a piston, a gantry or a pulley shifts it. Since version 5.11.4, counter-clockwise opens and clockwise closes, whatever the orientation.

The Quick-Firing Breech

On an assembled bronze cannon: the breech opens, a shell then a Big Cartridge slide in, it closes and the cannon fires; the spent case is ejected.

It opens by hand, with a click on its side, even on an assembled cannon. Slide in the shell, then the powder, and close it: the cannon is ready. On the next shot, the leftovers, such as an empty Big Cartridge case, are ejected. It is limited to 2 charges. Prefer a Big Cartridge: a single piece to slide in for all the powder.

Making the Quick-Firing Breech

A Deployer puts a Quick-Firing Mechanism onto a Sliding Breech, which becomes a Quick-Firing Breech.

Apply a Quick-Firing Mechanism (a lever, a cogwheel and a large cogwheel) to a Sliding Breech, by hand or with a Deployer. A Wrench click turns it back into a Sliding Breech.

Automating

A Mechanical Arm reloads the Quick-Firing Breech of a mounted cannon, shell then cartridge, and stores the empty cases.

A Mechanical Arm can reload a Quick-Firing Breech: select the cannon's mount as the arm's output. It only works with the breech closed and waits for the 2 s delay after each shot. Also give it a depot filtered on the empty Big Cartridge: it puts the ejected cases there.

Which breech to choose

For a cannon fired now and then, a plain Cannon End is enough. To load a cast iron or bronze cannon from the back, take the Sliding Breech. For a steel cannon that must hit hard, the Screw Breech is the only one that lets 8 charges through. For a battery that fires often, the quick-firing kind reloads without disassembling, at the price of powder limited to 2 charges. Every breech also adds stress to the network while it turns, so check your rotation source before building a whole row of them. A Stressometer on the line tells you at once.

And without a breech?

A Cannon End simply closes the back: the cannon is then loaded through the muzzle, disassembled. It is the cheapest solution, and it does not limit the powder.

Cannon materialsCannon materialsCreate Big CannonsLoading a cannonLoading a cannonCreate Big CannonsCannon MountCannon MountCreate Big CannonsPowder and rangePowder and rangeCreate Big CannonsMechanical ArmMechanical ArmLogisticsDeployerDeployerProcessingMechanical PistonMechanical PistonContraptionsWrenchWrenchTools and equipmentCogwheel and Large CogwheelCogwheel and Large CogwheelKinetics

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Sources for the numbers (Create 6.0.10 · Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 code)
  • Strength: data/createbigcannons/big_cannon_breech_strength (*_sliding_breech, *_screw_breech, *_quickfiring_breech)
  • Opening: SlidingBreechBlockEntity / ScrewBreechBlockEntity (getOpeningSpeed = speed / 512, convertToDirection)
  • Rendering: SlidingBreechBlockEntityRenderer (13/16 block), ScrewBreechBlockEntityRenderer (0.25 block, 360°)
  • Quick-firing: QuickfiringBreechBlockEntity, config quickfiringBreechLoadingCooldown 40, quickfiringBreechOpeningCooldown 5
  • Stress: CBCBlocks (CBCCfgStress.setImpact)
  • Opening direction: CHANGELOG 5.11.4 (“clockwise closes”)
  • 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
  • Videos: Create Big Cannons Ponder scenes (CannonMountScenes, CannonLoadingScenes, CannonKineticsScenes, CannonCraftingScenes) replayed by our engine; CBC models and textures (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Cannoneers of Create)
  • Screw Breech video: the Ponder scene predates 5.11.4; we show the opening it describes

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.