Create Wiki · Create Big Cannons
Cannon materials
A Create Big Cannons cannon is built from a single material, and that choice decides almost everything: how much powder it takes without bursting, how much barrel a shell can travel through, its weight on the mount and the way it breaks. Here is the anatomy of a cannon, then the six materials compared with the numbers from the code.
Quick facts
- Materials
- Log, wrought iron, cast iron, bronze, steel, nethersteel
- Safe charges
- Log 0, wrought iron 1, cast iron 2, bronze 4, steel 8, nethersteel 10
- Breech limit
- The lower of the two limits applies (e.g. Steel Sliding Breech 4)
- Maximum length
- 64 blocks (maxCannonLength)
- Weight
- Log 1, wrought iron 2, bronze 2, cast iron 3, steel 5, nethersteel 6 (stress on the mount)
- Bursting
- Beyond the safe charges: a 50% chance on each shot; “fragment”: the whole cannon, “rupture”: 5 blocks
- Version
- Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 · Create 6.0.10 · Minecraft 1.21.1
Anatomy of a cannon
From back to front: a breech or a closed Cannon End, then one or more Cannon Chambers, which hold the powder, then Cannon Barrels, which the shell travels through. Every Powder Charge must sit in a chamber: a charge left in a barrel can make the cannon burst. All blocks must be of the same material and connected to each other.
The six materials
| Material | Safe charges | Minimum speed per barrel (blocks/tick) | Weight | Failure | Weldable |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Log (wood) | 0 | can always get stuck | 1 | fragments | no |
| Wrought iron | 1 | 2 (1 charge) | 2 | rupture | no |
| Cast iron | 2 | 2 (1 charge) | 3 | fragments | yes |
| Bronze | 4 | 1.33 (2/3 of a charge) | 2 | rupture | yes |
| Steel | 8 | 1 (1/2 charge) | 5 | fragments | yes |
| Nethersteel | 10 | 0.67 (1/3 of a charge) | 6 | fragments | no |
“Safe charges” is the number of Powder Charges beyond which the cannon may burst. The minimum speed per barrel tells how much power the shell needs to avoid getting stuck.
Log and wrought iron
The log cannon (chamber and end made of logs) has no safe charge at all: it fires Mortar Stones and can always jam. Wrought iron is mostly used for the drop mortar, with a single safe charge. These are early-game cannons, without a breech.
The breech matters too
The real limit is the smaller of the material's and the breech's. A steel cannon (8) with a Steel Sliding Breech (4) only takes 4 charges; with a Steel Screw Breech it goes up to 8, and to 10 in nethersteel. Quick-Firing Breeches are limited to 2. See breeches.
Why a shell gets stuck
For each barrel crossed, the game compares the charge's power with the material's minimum speed times the number of barrels travelled. Below that, the shell may get stuck: a 25% chance per shot. In cast iron, count one charge per barrel; in steel, half a charge is enough. A long cast iron cannon with little powder is therefore a bad idea.
When a cannon bursts
Beyond the safe charges, every shot has a 50% chance to burst the cannon; a charge sitting in a barrel, 20%. What happens then depends on the material. With “fragment” materials (log, cast iron, steel, nethersteel), the whole cannon is gone in an explosion of power 2 per charge that breaks the blocks around it. With “rupture” materials (wrought iron, bronze), only the five blocks around the weak point are lost, the rest disassembles, and the explosion breaks nothing.
Which material to choose
Cast iron comes early, by compacting iron with coal in a heated basin: ideal for a first 2-charge cannon. Bronze doubles the useful powder and weighs little. Steel, made from iron and coal, gives the best power for the price: 8 charges with a screw breech. Nethersteel, with netherite, is for the heaviest pieces. Weight matters: a long steel cannon puts a lot of stress on the mount.
Related pages
Sources for the numbers (Create 6.0.10 · Create Big Cannons 5.11.7 code)
- Materials: index/CBCBigCannonMaterials.java (maxSafePropellantStress, minimumVelocityPerBarrel, weight, failureMode, isWeldable)
- Breeches: data/createbigcannons/big_cannon_breech_strength
- Length: config CBCCfgCannons.maxCannonLength (64)
- Failure: CBCCfgFailure (overloadBurstChance 0.5, barrelChargeBurstChance 0.2, squibChance 0.25, failureExplosionPower 2), MountedBigCannonContraption.fail (RUPTURE / FRAGMENT)
- Cast iron and steel: recipe/compacting/iron_to_cast_iron_ingot.json, recipe/mixing/alloy_steel.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
- Images: CBC 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.