Arrows are much lighter, so they travel much much further than tnt block.
16 blocks of TNT can easily boost arrows to at least 700 blocks away (I had to use MCedit to find them). Imagine using hundreds of booster TNT like those super epic cannon, it would fly almost 10000 blocks.
Been developing this for a little while now, I'm not saying its practical in fact for the amount of tnt it does use its incredibly impractical. How ever it does have some interesting features that I thought I would share.
The cannon uses a drop block magazine, This one is set up for 10 consecutive shots but theoretically one could be set up to fire over 20. the downside is there really isn't a way to compact this sort of reloading set up though it could probably be hidden pretty easily.
A close up on the magazine just so its clear, all this does is push out a block of tnt and retract allowing a block of sand to drop in the open space and setting the magazine up to push the next block of tnt into the chamber.
A shot of the chamber, I had to make it two wide and walled all the way down to prevent tnt from catching the edge of the blocks. As the tnt is pushed into the chamber wall a line of red dust sets it off and it drops down, simple stuff.
Finally, I wanted to avoid a mess of repeaters and pulse gates so I set the cannon up to run on this. Its just an oval track of powered rails with a detector rail on one side. The cart continues to run the track triggering the cannon every time it hits the detector rail. Through a little tinkering I have it timed to reload the chamber as soon as the shot before it has been discharged.
This cannon is really large atm a more compact set up is easily possible I just set it up this way to make identifying problems easier. Unfortunately the range of the cannon seems to max out around 100m(from the top of a decent hill) on a good shot so like I said its not very practical but it is fun to watch.
OMG i tried to build a magazine fed canon for some time it fails at its "timeing"
Hello Everybody! I have a new cannon. I call it a Multi-stage Railgun Compression Cannon (MRCC)
With water unable to compress TNT I sought out new methods of compression. I discovered the "Railgun" which used TNT to compress TNT but it was never maximized. I was able to maximize compression and used it in a massive cannon. I believe I broke a distance record, 1729 Meters!
Here is the Video! Got to 2:45 for test firing and 7:45 for the start of range calculations.
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I learned that if there’s a loophole, someone’s going to drive a truck through it, and the people in the truck will get paid better than the people under it. –Scott Adams
Yeah, I've been on and off.. But what has really discouraged me from continuing the cannon projects is that last time cannons were exploding without an acknowledged reason. I think before we continue this thread or even make a new thread, we should really get down the current, most up-to-date facts about Minecraft TNT Cannons in one clean organized sheet.
I'll be willing to update the first page with that, just for the sake of up-to-date information.
Heck with something like that, I'd be willing to press forward with my projects (if it's still possible).
This cannon is designed to defend against foot soldiers traveling over flat terrain. It uses up to 4 TNT to fire multiple arrows an average of 135 blocks. It's range can vary based on the Choke (amount of spread), the amount of TNT, the placement of said TNT, and the aim of the cannon.
This cannon can aim at any target that is not behind it or directly to the sides. It's variable choke allows you to adapt to different situations. A tightly knit group of attackers? load the arrows close together. a more spread out attacking force? load the arrows far apart.
Images:
the unloaded cannon:
a linear shot loaded:
the linear shot being fired:
The greatest advantage of this cannon is that it is very cheap. It only requires arrows and 4 TNT or less, which are easily obtained from a mob trap.
It can also shoot TNT projectiles!
As tweeted by Jeb_, arrow damage is now based on speed!
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!? An arrow cannon that launches arrows at mach 2 can be a 1 hit kill >8O
So, I have been playing around with cannons recently and have made my newest monster. I am looking for any constructive criticism or help on improving the design. As of right now its a rather large device taking 9TNT(8charge +1 projectile) to fire and it goes 115 blocks in the air before detinating ~15 blocks below the barrel(this can be modified by changing the block that the projectile lands on after triggering). In addition to the standard delay systems i have built an auto reloader for the charge(projectile is still manually loaded) with an 8 shot capacity and a barrel sealing mechinism that covers the charge TNT just before detonation which increased the range.
The projectile is delayed past the charge using 8 repeaters on full delay.
EDIT: it was only built out of bedrock for the sake of testing. In its current form it could be built out of anything without an issue.
Good idea to try out some of the MOAC's. (mother of all cannons)
Ill try out creative mode and use some of those primitive beasts and try to make the best one that I can. Just a way to honor history, eh?
On another note, I think that we really should put some more research into arrow cannons. They are more feasible for anti-player defense. They serve their purpose when defending a base, whereas TNT cannons are used to attack a base.
Let's try to come up with the best arrow cannon, and try to figure out just how much range they have.
I would like to see some other versions, as it stands i have hit a bit of a wall. I got up to ~100 block range with the 2nd or 3rd rev and since then only marginal range improvments. Most of the information i have found has been made obsolete by patches.
On another note arrow cannons seem like a bit of a &*%&# to load now with the change to how bow/arrow work.
I tend to prefer arrow machine gun style devices, less coverage area but more reliable and simpler to operate. Plus i like to make creep traps with them and laugh as they step on the pressure plate and die horribly.
EDIT: Just finished fully automating the reloading process(the projectile now reloads as well) without sacrificing any range. It was pretty tricky to navigate the piston maze to get it to the barrel safely without triggering it(had one catastrophic failure there). But it is now fully rebuilt and capable of rapid fireing 8 shots just by pressing a button.
I think I have an idea on how to use a dispenser to load an arrow cannon.
Fire the arrows onto a hanging piston, then have that piston close the instant before the TNT explodes. That should let the arrows be launched while they fall, so it would decrease loading time dramatically.
Hello Everybody! I have a new cannon. I call it a Multi-stage Railgun Compression Cannon (MRCC)
With water unable to compress TNT I sought out new methods of compression. I discovered the "Railgun" which used TNT to compress TNT but it was never maximized. I was able to maximize compression and used it in a massive cannon. I believe I broke a distance record, 1729 Meters!
Here is the Video! Got to 2:45 for test firing and 7:45 for the start of range calculations.
WOW that's an impressive piece of engineering! Since water doesn't push TNT anymore, booster charges are even more effective than they were before since over-compression isn't as common.
Ugh I hate to double post but I couldn't wait any longer for someone to post!!!
I have developed two methods of Auto-Loading after urgent requests from a friend. One is for standard TNT cannons and the other is for an arrow cannon. I have never been much for arrows, personally I am a sword-fighter long before an archer. Anyway don't make fun of me about its weird design, I only built it for the challenge.
Your Techno-Babble hurts my brain. Get off my grass! Don't Hug the creepers! (Etc, Etc) (Old time Minecraft player, for those of you who haven't caught that.)
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Back after a long while, so yay? Because the forum is being picky over 12 pixels over the limit in width, here's a link to my signature!
Ugh I hate to double post but I couldn't wait any longer for someone to post!!!
I have developed two methods of Auto-Loading after urgent requests from a friend. One is for standard TNT cannons and the other is for an arrow cannon. I have never been much for arrows, personally I am a sword-fighter long before an archer. Anyway don't make fun of me about its weird design, I only built it for the challenge.
Oh poo that's almost exactly what I was going to do DX
However, my idea removed the retracting piece at the bottom, and just dropped the arrows right before the TNT exploded.
I was going to try attaching a timer so that I could make the arrows fire on a high or low arc. How do you guys think that would work?
However, my idea removed the retracting piece at the bottom, and just dropped the arrows right before the TNT exploded.
I was going to try attaching a timer so that I could make the arrows fire on a high or low arc. How do you guys think that would work?
I was going to do that at one point, but I decided I liked the ability to recover your arrows after they have been loaded instead of trying to catch them and being vaporized in the process.
Attaching a timer could change your arc, but fine-tuning would be an issue because of the limits of the tick based time system, considering it takes only about 3 ticks at max for the arrows to fall . . . which actually, now that I think about it, isn't too too bad. Getting it perfect would not be fun though.
Edit: Started messing around with the idea. . .my test cannon just left this plane of existence in a puff of white pixelated particle effects.
Anyway. . . In my intense distaste of double-posting and impatience, I have edited the current post and I have another video to present. For a long time now, cannon development has been at a standstill, mostly because of Same-Plane Cannons self destructing and there being no crystal-clear reason why. The general consensus is that the engine TNT is shot out of the water and the barrel. The immediate solution is to simply put something in front, but a full block completely negates and force and a half-block tends to halve the force of the engine. I was making a booster test cannon based off of the Hyperion/Imperial Avenger and may have stumbled across a solution . . .
Also the arrow rain looks much cooler than just 2 blocks of TNT, as especially when the arrows are on fire.
16 blocks of TNT can easily boost arrows to at least 700 blocks away (I had to use MCedit to find them). Imagine using hundreds of booster TNT like those super epic cannon, it would fly almost 10000 blocks.
OMG i tried to build a magazine fed canon for some time it fails at its "timeing"
not true sting-auer's tnt arrow canon is cheap and efficient
With water unable to compress TNT I sought out new methods of compression. I discovered the "Railgun" which used TNT to compress TNT but it was never maximized. I was able to maximize compression and used it in a massive cannon. I believe I broke a distance record, 1729 Meters!
Here is the Video! Got to 2:45 for test firing and 7:45 for the start of range calculations.
I learned that if there’s a loophole, someone’s going to drive a truck through it, and the people in the truck will get paid better than the people under it. –Scott Adams
Well, most of these cannons are built with TooManyItems and the like. Anyway, isn't this a REALLY old topic?
Thanks, if it's not too much trouble.
Fluttershy? I'd tap that!
Would anyone be down for restarting the thread? Zirums isn't around anymore, so we need someone to upkeep the archive. I volunteer if anyone agrees.
I'll be willing to update the first page with that, just for the sake of up-to-date information.
Heck with something like that, I'd be willing to press forward with my projects (if it's still possible).
As tweeted by Jeb_, arrow damage is now based on speed!
DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!? An arrow cannon that launches arrows at mach 2 can be a 1 hit kill >8O
Time to test!
The projectile is delayed past the charge using 8 repeaters on full delay.
EDIT: it was only built out of bedrock for the sake of testing. In its current form it could be built out of anything without an issue.
Good idea to try out some of the MOAC's. (mother of all cannons)
Ill try out creative mode and use some of those primitive beasts and try to make the best one that I can. Just a way to honor history, eh?
On another note, I think that we really should put some more research into arrow cannons. They are more feasible for anti-player defense. They serve their purpose when defending a base, whereas TNT cannons are used to attack a base.
Let's try to come up with the best arrow cannon, and try to figure out just how much range they have.
On another note arrow cannons seem like a bit of a &*%&# to load now with the change to how bow/arrow work.
I tend to prefer arrow machine gun style devices, less coverage area but more reliable and simpler to operate. Plus i like to make creep traps with them and laugh as they step on the pressure plate and die horribly.
EDIT: Just finished fully automating the reloading process(the projectile now reloads as well) without sacrificing any range. It was pretty tricky to navigate the piston maze to get it to the barrel safely without triggering it(had one catastrophic failure there). But it is now fully rebuilt and capable of rapid fireing 8 shots just by pressing a button.
Fire the arrows onto a hanging piston, then have that piston close the instant before the TNT explodes. That should let the arrows be launched while they fall, so it would decrease loading time dramatically.
WOW that's an impressive piece of engineering! Since water doesn't push TNT anymore, booster charges are even more effective than they were before since over-compression isn't as common.
BTW, I love the sound of your cannon!
I have developed two methods of Auto-Loading after urgent requests from a friend. One is for standard TNT cannons and the other is for an arrow cannon. I have never been much for arrows, personally I am a sword-fighter long before an archer. Anyway don't make fun of me about its weird design, I only built it for the challenge.
Oh poo that's almost exactly what I was going to do DX
However, my idea removed the retracting piece at the bottom, and just dropped the arrows right before the TNT exploded.
I was going to try attaching a timer so that I could make the arrows fire on a high or low arc. How do you guys think that would work?
I was going to do that at one point, but I decided I liked the ability to recover your arrows after they have been loaded instead of trying to catch them and being vaporized in the process.
Attaching a timer could change your arc, but fine-tuning would be an issue because of the limits of the tick based time system, considering it takes only about 3 ticks at max for the arrows to fall . . . which actually, now that I think about it, isn't too too bad. Getting it perfect would not be fun though.
Edit: Started messing around with the idea. . .my test cannon just left this plane of existence in a puff of white pixelated particle effects.
Anyway. . . In my intense distaste of double-posting and impatience, I have edited the current post and I have another video to present. For a long time now, cannon development has been at a standstill, mostly because of Same-Plane Cannons self destructing and there being no crystal-clear reason why. The general consensus is that the engine TNT is shot out of the water and the barrel. The immediate solution is to simply put something in front, but a full block completely negates and force and a half-block tends to halve the force of the engine. I was making a booster test cannon based off of the Hyperion/Imperial Avenger and may have stumbled across a solution . . .