However..., ever tunneling in the Nether is faster than in the "overworld" thanks to the properties of Netherstone (I can't seem to recall the official name...)
Being separated from your destination by an ocean of lava could be problematic indeed...
I've been tunneling and that's about how long it takes me, since click mining has been disabled in SMP
Off Topic:
Obsidian is indestructible with TNT. I think you should put it in the guide
It makes great walls, especially with lava as it takes a long time to mine even with a diamond pickax. An archer could shoot an arrow at someone mining your wall, move them and their cursor and their mining time will reset. = Obsidian
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
If Enemy did not know Obsidian blocks can not be destroyed by TNT the enemy just lost resources. Your canoneers can get the enemy while this is progressing without rushing.
BTW:
It is worth mentioning that the wood bridge can be burnt by a spy/scout/commando who is not on your side. This takes a long time and a fair amount of wood to make a new one. The same applies for your dense forest. Lots of waisted resources and time is something to be avoided.
To determine whether a floating base should by invaded you should look at how self-sustainable it is. Which really boils down to if it has mob, tree and wheat farms.
Also putting a mob farm at the bottom of a floating base could be very helpful in defending against attackers.
You need a mob farm with a switch below the normal base.
On and it kills/loots mobs and off it drops mobs onto invaders on small water areas surrounded by pressure plates so they dont get fall dmg = Water = Pressure Plate
[] [] []
[] []
[] [] [] []
Imagine trying to raid a base when a creeper hits your veridical cannon then skeletons start shooting you.
Meanwhile engineers have lava and TNT defense systems
TNT = Redstone =Redstone torch
[] [] [] [] [] [] [] []
The way above works is the person puts tnt where the block is, the TNT auto-ignights and falls. Rapid TNT
This can be substituted for lava to annoy = Lava
i love the burnable floor. I could even put lava under or some item farmer trap thing to add onto it. Also you could have a really nice hidden dispenser. You could hide it behind lava along with the wall so that when they approch it a pressure plate or something will activate it and shoot arrows on fire. This way the archers dont need to be there
I am sorry to inform you that you are wrong.
I made a TNT Cannon out of obsidian WITHOUT water to test this.
It held 2x4 TnT rows for a total of 8 TNTs I set redstone properly and they all went off at once.
The obsidian was in perfect shape after the explosion.
I am sorry to inform you that you are wrong.
I made a TNT Cannon out of obsidian WITHOUT water to test this.
It held 2x4 TnT rows for a total of 8 TNTs I set redstone properly and they all went off at once.
The obsidian was in perfect shape after the explosion.
My testing is sponsored by Toomanyitems
I once made a huge tnt block to bedrock and had an obsidian bunker right next to it.
My bunker blew up.
The best way, is to cover your base with water behind the main walls, that way the water isn't as obvious.
I am sorry to inform you that you are wrong.
I made a TNT Cannon out of obsidian WITHOUT water to test this.
It held 2x4 TnT rows for a total of 8 TNTs I set redstone properly and they all went off at once.
The obsidian was in perfect shape after the explosion.
My testing is sponsored by Toomanyitems
The issue with that is that in a 2x4 shape, any one Obsidian block isn't going to be hit by very many TNT. Preferably, a set up which exposed obsidian to as many TNT as as possible and detonated them simultaneously would be preferable.
I am sorry to inform you that you are wrong.
I made a TNT Cannon out of obsidian WITHOUT water to test this.
It held 2x4 TnT rows for a total of 8 TNTs I set redstone properly and they all went off at once.
The obsidian was in perfect shape after the explosion.
My testing is sponsored by Toomanyitems
The issue with that is that in a 2x4 shape, any one Obsidian block isn't going to be hit by very many TNT. Preferably, a set up which exposed obsidian to as many TNT as as possible and detonated them simultaneously would be preferable.
Actually, I have JUST set up obsidian to finally test it for myself, and it seems that indeed it is QUITE impractical to attempt to destroy Obsidian with TNT. I placed 9 blocks in a 3x3 pattern, the middle being obsidian and the outer blocks being TNT. I set off all the tnt at the exact same time, and the Obsidian survived. Effectively, obsidian is TNT-proof. Not that it wasn't already considered TNT proof, however I simply thought it would take much less TNT than it actually does to destroy it. More than 8 TNT per obsidian block is NOT worth it. 15 Seconds to mine with a Diamond Pick is a much beter tradeoff.
As far as obsidian goes, it doesn't matter if 10 or even 5 TNT can destroy it. If it can survive a good barrage of explosives, it is a good defense. (Perhaps cover it in dirt to surprise the enemy)
But something I noticed happening in this discussion is that people are getting a bit too far fetched in their tactics to a point in a lack of productiveness.
a
For example, I saw one mentioning "supply movement formation" consisting a a great deal of positions such as "Vanguard, light infantry etc..." who were supposed to defend the supply carriers. That might apply in real life, but if you think about it in minecraft terms:
1. The world is HUGE, and maybe a maximum of 120 people are in the war. If you had a good reason to move supplies, you can just have a few people fill their inventories and make a quiet movement over to your new location. There are probably no enemies between your old and new location if you decided to move there. And if there are, it won't take long to take a longer path.
2. The bow and arrow is like an SMG. If you move in a huge crowd like that, individual archers could pick you off easily, and in addition, friendly fire is an easy to make mistake. They can also retreat with ease.
But just like real life, but with different results here is what you need to ask yourself:
1. What is important to make and keep?
a. What do I need?
b. Why do I need it?
c. What is the most efficient way to get it?
d. Is it worth getting ?
1) Yes: Start getting that item. go back to a. If you are out of "needs" go to question 2 and you may come back with more "needs"
2)No: Don't get that item, go back to a. etc...
2. How am I going to approach the enemy?
a. What can I do?
b. What can my teammates do?
c. What can the enemies do?
d. What can I do to thwart what the enemy does?
e. Will that actually help me?
f. Is there an easier way of doing this?
g. What can the enemy do in reply?
h. Are the enemies actually doing that
(1). If No: Your hand is at the top of the baseball bat, and thus, if plans to this point are executed, you have won the battle.
2). If Yes: go back to d.
MAKE SURE: You approach those questions one at a time. MAKE SURE that you don't go into a spiral staircase: Where you're adaptations to the predictions of what the enemy does get's in the way of answers a-d. Don't try and do more than you are able to.
MAKE SURE: You don't get caught up in the later steps. The enemies won't always do what you think they will so you should focus on following through with your own plans/ incentives.
So here we go:
1. Think of an issue and if a potential solution comes up, think of this:
a. What do I need? Obsidian?
b. Why do I need it? It's the best defense block in the game and in reality the only one you can go straight through.
c. What's the most efficient way of getting it? Going deep into earth where there are many lava lakes, pouring a widespread water source on them, and taking some time mining the obsidian with a diamond pickaxe.
d. Is it worthwhile getting? Yes, although it takes some time, it's necessary for a good base.
a. Golden apples?
b. It heals all of your hp! That could help so much!
c. Make huge mines to get gold (72 required) and find dungeons to get apples.
d. Hell no. I'm not spending 3 hours for a single golden apple.
a. Bread?
b. You need food and bread is easy to get in numbers.
c. Make some grain farms
d. Yes. Although it doesn't heal THAT much, it makes itself.
So for some things we can accept are necessary already, let's post ways of getting:
TNT/Arrows:
Mob Towers
Iron/ Diamond:
Mine tunnels.
Porkchops:
Animal farms. (also provide cheap armor)
So you can see: We've developed some goals and important structures:
Mob Towers: Make enough to get a TON of sulfur and arrows.
Grain Farms
Animal farms
Enough obsidian to make a fortress.
So now you can set those up, and perhaps hide the bigger ones.
Now #2: Attacking the enemy. To avoid getting carried away, I'm gonna be more casual on this question.
I believe war in minecraft by nature is going to be more guerrilla/ saboteur style. Groups of no more than 3, well equipped should approach the bases how they see fit. If they aren't protected by obsidian, and you prepared for this with your mob towers, you should have enough TNT to make a cannon and make short work of your enemy's structure quickly from a distance. That is why obsidian is so important.
If there base is well fortified with obsidian, you can approach from atop by pillaring and bridging and rappelling down , using as diamond pick to mine out the obsidian shell. (Now one should think "Ooh, I need many blocks to pillar with" Back to question 1 =) )
So of course the rest is up for discussion, but just remember to keep the goals in mind, and how something is going to help you.
I was experimenting with some bunker designs and reading the TNT cannon science thread, and got an idea of how to harden bunkers against blasts.
If you put a layer of half-blocks on the roof of your bunker, then if a TNT charge lands on it, its blast will only destroy the half-blocks that the tnt is actually sitting in. This adds a layer of "ablative armor" to your bunkers. In order to be busted open, your bunker will have to be hit multiple times in the same spot. You could also make the roof of your bunker out of just a single layer of half-blocks and repair the holes from below as you are manning your station. The holes shouldn't be any bigger than 2x2, which can be filled back in faster than a cannon can be reloaded. This only protects the roof, though.
Another bunker-related idea I thought of actually generalizes to the greater construction of fortifications: Stair-blocks take 3 seconds to destroy. Doesn't matter what tool you use, stone diamond or gold, they still take 3 seconds to get through. If you then build a wall out of stair-blocks, it will take a full 6 seconds for somebody to dig through 2 blocks to open a passage for themselves. Best of all, the back-side of a stair is indistinguishable from cobblestone, so you can't tell whether the wall of a building is going to take 2-3 seconds to dig through or 6. You can more than double the resistance of your wall to digging while only increasing its materials-cost by half.
Another thing you can do with stair is to make small view-ports in your wall by placing two stairs facing each other. You'll get a 1-meter slot to look through, but which won't let arrows through and doesn't present a weak-point in your
Lastly, I've figured out a good way to fire arrows from inside a bunker while keeping yourself as protected as possible: If you are behind a 1.5 block high wall and crouch, you can't see over the wall to shoot. HOWEVER, if you crouch behind the wall while standing on top of a Repeater block, that gives you just enough height that you can see over the wall and fire arrows while only having the barest sliver of your helmet showing.
So, all of these innovations will allow defensive structures to be more effective and resilient...but so what? Ultimately, why would anybody care that you've built yourself a nice little bunker to hide in? Can't they just walk around or ignore it? Burrow under it? Just how useful will any static defenses actually be in Minecraft warfare? I'm rather uncertain about this, but what I DO know, is that bunkers look cool.
edit:
Oh, it looks like I didn't read all the preceding posts before I wrote this.
Matthew, you make some very good points there about what's actually WORTH DOING in Minecraft. One more question I'd like to add though is whether, given the expense and inherent inefficiencies of working with obsidian, it is actually worth it to build any large-scale structures out of the stuff? You're looking at 16 solid minutes of solid mining to just produce one stack of it, and if you ever need to abandon a base and move-on, you can't recoup your costs by taking the obsidian with you.
All in all, a very good post.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Hans Lemurson's Thread of Links:http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/371610-hans-lemursons-thread-of-links/
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
I am sorry to inform you that you are wrong.
I made a TNT Cannon out of obsidian WITHOUT water to test this.
It held 2x4 TnT rows for a total of 8 TNTs I set redstone properly and they all went off at once.
The obsidian was in perfect shape after the explosion.
My testing is sponsored by Toomanyitems
The issue with that is that in a 2x4 shape, any one Obsidian block isn't going to be hit by very many TNT. Preferably, a set up which exposed obsidian to as many TNT as as possible and detonated them simultaneously would be preferable.
Actually, I have JUST set up obsidian to finally test it for myself, and it seems that indeed it is QUITE impractical to attempt to destroy Obsidian with TNT. I placed 9 blocks in a 3x3 pattern, the middle being obsidian and the outer blocks being TNT. I set off all the tnt at the exact same time, and the Obsidian survived. Effectively, obsidian is TNT-proof. Not that it wasn't already considered TNT proof, however I simply thought it would take much less TNT than it actually does to destroy it. More than 8 TNT per obsidian block is NOT worth it. 15 Seconds to mine with a Diamond Pick is a much beter tradeoff.
Makes sense, based on how I'm coming to understand Minecraft explosions. It seems like most instances of TNT destroying Obsidian are in cases where massive amounts of TNT are detonated. I've heard that TNT, at most, can damage blocks up to 7 Blocks away through air (might actually be six, I don't quite remember). In any case, its clear that what is occurring in massive TNT explosions is that, after an initial detonation (as these are usually set off by one block), enough activated TNT is blown into this radius of the Obsidian to destroy it- likely far more TNT than could be activated simultaneously placed around it.
I'm now rather curious as to a certain phenomenon I've witnessed. In large scale TNT explosions, activated TNT is sent flying in all directions. How does this actually work? I understand that a piece of activated TNT can be pushed by an explosion... but say you have some giant mass of TNT. Generally, rather than extensive redstone systems, these are detonated by setting off one piece of TNT. This piece of TNT explodes, and activates TNT within its range. These TNT then explode... and its around now that stuff starts flying around. Do pieces of TNT farther from the blast's center detonate later? I'll admit to having never actually observed this closely- generally the explosion is far more prominent than when blocks start blinking.
Whether or not blowing up Obsidian is feasible, looking into the exact features of TNT explosions is certainly an interesting idea. I'd kind of like to get an idea of how large scale TNT explosions occur in waves... I guess the easiest way would just be to lay out a line of TNT and see when what pieces go off.
You probably need to set it up using the same principles as a Plutonium-based nuclear weapon, detonating an outer ring of TNT to push a large amount into a small area.
Destroying blocks
Start linearly in the direction from the explosion point to each of 1352 points that uniformly distributed on the surface of a cube centered at the explosion with an edge length of 2. Let blast force on each line equal the explosion power multiplied by a random number in [0.7, 1.3].
Check current block every step of 0.3. A non-air block absorbs (blockResistance / 5 + 0.3) * step of the blast force; if the blast force is not completely absorbed, the block is destroyed (air blocks can also be marked as destroyed).
The blast force is attenuated by step * 0.75 each step, if the blast force is completely absorbed or attenuated, perform the same process on the next line.
The maximum travel distance in the air of a TNT explosion is 6.9, 5.1 for a creeper explosion, and 1.5 for a fireball explosion. For example, a TNT explosion can destroy a torch 7 blocks away. The minimum block resistance required to absorb maximum blast force of TNT explosion (with at least attenuation of 2 steps) is 77.67, 63.5 of creeper explosion, 20.17 of fireball explosion. So water, stationary lava, obsidian, and bedrock are always indestructible, and furnaces and less resistant blocks can be destroyed by fireballs.
Destroyed blocks have 30% chance of being dropped as items.
Am I an idiot, or does this mean the strength of an explosion has a certain amount of randomness to it? It'd be interesting to see how different values of .7 are from 1.3.
I've been tunneling and that's about how long it takes me, since click mining has been disabled in SMP
Obsidian is indestructible with TNT. I think you should put it in the guide
It makes great walls, especially with lava as it takes a long time to mine even with a diamond pickax. An archer could shoot an arrow at someone mining your wall, move them and their cursor and their mining time will reset.
If Enemy did not know Obsidian blocks can not be broke by TNT the enemy just lost resources.
If Enemy did not know Obsidian blocks can not be destroyed by TNT the enemy just lost resources. Your canoneers can get the enemy while this is progressing without rushing.
BTW:
It is worth mentioning that the wood bridge can be burnt by a spy/scout/commando who is not on your side. This takes a long time and a fair amount of wood to make a new one. The same applies for your dense forest. Lots of waisted resources and time is something to be avoided.
Also putting a mob farm at the bottom of a floating base could be very helpful in defending against attackers.
You need a mob farm with a switch below the normal base.
On and it kills/loots mobs and off it drops mobs onto invaders on small water areas surrounded by pressure plates so they dont get fall dmg
[] [] []
[] []
[] [] [] []
Imagine trying to raid a base when a creeper hits your veridical cannon then skeletons start shooting you.
Meanwhile engineers have lava and TNT defense systems
TNT
[] [] [] [] [] [] []
The way above works is the person puts tnt where the block is, the TNT auto-ignights and falls. Rapid TNT
This can be substituted for lava to annoy
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
[] [] [] []
obsidian is NOT indesteuctible with TNT. It just needs 3 or more going off simultaneously.
I hate to be rude
but you are completely wrong, i covered a single block of obsidian in 24 blocks of tnt, nothing
Dont matter... INdestructable
The tnt has to be set off at the exact same instant, not simply by hitting one of the blocks, but with redstone. It's definitely possible... I think.
I made a TNT Cannon out of obsidian WITHOUT water to test this.
It held 2x4 TnT rows for a total of 8 TNTs I set redstone properly and they all went off at once.
The obsidian was in perfect shape after the explosion.
My testing is sponsored by Toomanyitems
I once made a huge tnt block to bedrock and had an obsidian bunker right next to it.
My bunker blew up.
The best way, is to cover your base with water behind the main walls, that way the water isn't as obvious.
The issue with that is that in a 2x4 shape, any one Obsidian block isn't going to be hit by very many TNT. Preferably, a set up which exposed obsidian to as many TNT as as possible and detonated them simultaneously would be preferable.
Actually, I have JUST set up obsidian to finally test it for myself, and it seems that indeed it is QUITE impractical to attempt to destroy Obsidian with TNT. I placed 9 blocks in a 3x3 pattern, the middle being obsidian and the outer blocks being TNT. I set off all the tnt at the exact same time, and the Obsidian survived. Effectively, obsidian is TNT-proof. Not that it wasn't already considered TNT proof, however I simply thought it would take much less TNT than it actually does to destroy it. More than 8 TNT per obsidian block is NOT worth it. 15 Seconds to mine with a Diamond Pick is a much beter tradeoff.
Here is my setup
This is a side shot
Layer one
Layer 2
EDIT: I was beaten to it while I was typing
Layer three was the same as one.
Top down view:
I detonated all at once. The obsidian block was still there.
But something I noticed happening in this discussion is that people are getting a bit too far fetched in their tactics to a point in a lack of productiveness.
a
For example, I saw one mentioning "supply movement formation" consisting a a great deal of positions such as "Vanguard, light infantry etc..." who were supposed to defend the supply carriers. That might apply in real life, but if you think about it in minecraft terms:
1. The world is HUGE, and maybe a maximum of 120 people are in the war. If you had a good reason to move supplies, you can just have a few people fill their inventories and make a quiet movement over to your new location. There are probably no enemies between your old and new location if you decided to move there. And if there are, it won't take long to take a longer path.
2. The bow and arrow is like an SMG. If you move in a huge crowd like that, individual archers could pick you off easily, and in addition, friendly fire is an easy to make mistake. They can also retreat with ease.
But just like real life, but with different results here is what you need to ask yourself:
1. What is important to make and keep?
a. What do I need?
b. Why do I need it?
c. What is the most efficient way to get it?
d. Is it worth getting ?
1) Yes: Start getting that item. go back to a. If you are out of "needs" go to question 2 and you may come back with more "needs"
2)No: Don't get that item, go back to a. etc...
2. How am I going to approach the enemy?
a. What can I do?
b. What can my teammates do?
c. What can the enemies do?
d. What can I do to thwart what the enemy does?
e. Will that actually help me?
f. Is there an easier way of doing this?
g. What can the enemy do in reply?
h. Are the enemies actually doing that
(1). If No: Your hand is at the top of the baseball bat, and thus, if plans to this point are executed, you have won the battle.
2). If Yes: go back to d.
MAKE SURE: You approach those questions one at a time. MAKE SURE that you don't go into a spiral staircase: Where you're adaptations to the predictions of what the enemy does get's in the way of answers a-d. Don't try and do more than you are able to.
MAKE SURE: You don't get caught up in the later steps. The enemies won't always do what you think they will so you should focus on following through with your own plans/ incentives.
So here we go:
1. Think of an issue and if a potential solution comes up, think of this:
a. What do I need? Obsidian?
b. Why do I need it? It's the best defense block in the game and in reality the only one you can go straight through.
c. What's the most efficient way of getting it? Going deep into earth where there are many lava lakes, pouring a widespread water source on them, and taking some time mining the obsidian with a diamond pickaxe.
d. Is it worthwhile getting? Yes, although it takes some time, it's necessary for a good base.
a. Golden apples?
b. It heals all of your hp! That could help so much!
c. Make huge mines to get gold (72 required) and find dungeons to get apples.
d. Hell no. I'm not spending 3 hours for a single golden apple.
a. Bread?
b. You need food and bread is easy to get in numbers.
c. Make some grain farms
d. Yes. Although it doesn't heal THAT much, it makes itself.
So for some things we can accept are necessary already, let's post ways of getting:
TNT/Arrows:
Mob Towers
Iron/ Diamond:
Mine tunnels.
Porkchops:
Animal farms. (also provide cheap armor)
So you can see: We've developed some goals and important structures:
Mob Towers: Make enough to get a TON of sulfur and arrows.
Grain Farms
Animal farms
Enough obsidian to make a fortress.
So now you can set those up, and perhaps hide the bigger ones.
Now #2: Attacking the enemy. To avoid getting carried away, I'm gonna be more casual on this question.
I believe war in minecraft by nature is going to be more guerrilla/ saboteur style. Groups of no more than 3, well equipped should approach the bases how they see fit. If they aren't protected by obsidian, and you prepared for this with your mob towers, you should have enough TNT to make a cannon and make short work of your enemy's structure quickly from a distance. That is why obsidian is so important.
If there base is well fortified with obsidian, you can approach from atop by pillaring and bridging and rappelling down , using as diamond pick to mine out the obsidian shell. (Now one should think "Ooh, I need many blocks to pillar with" Back to question 1 =) )
So of course the rest is up for discussion, but just remember to keep the goals in mind, and how something is going to help you.
If you put a layer of half-blocks on the roof of your bunker, then if a TNT charge lands on it, its blast will only destroy the half-blocks that the tnt is actually sitting in. This adds a layer of "ablative armor" to your bunkers. In order to be busted open, your bunker will have to be hit multiple times in the same spot. You could also make the roof of your bunker out of just a single layer of half-blocks and repair the holes from below as you are manning your station. The holes shouldn't be any bigger than 2x2, which can be filled back in faster than a cannon can be reloaded. This only protects the roof, though.
Another bunker-related idea I thought of actually generalizes to the greater construction of fortifications: Stair-blocks take 3 seconds to destroy. Doesn't matter what tool you use, stone diamond or gold, they still take 3 seconds to get through. If you then build a wall out of stair-blocks, it will take a full 6 seconds for somebody to dig through 2 blocks to open a passage for themselves. Best of all, the back-side of a stair is indistinguishable from cobblestone, so you can't tell whether the wall of a building is going to take 2-3 seconds to dig through or 6. You can more than double the resistance of your wall to digging while only increasing its materials-cost by half.
Another thing you can do with stair is to make small view-ports in your wall by placing two stairs facing each other. You'll get a 1-meter slot to look through, but which won't let arrows through and doesn't present a weak-point in your
Lastly, I've figured out a good way to fire arrows from inside a bunker while keeping yourself as protected as possible: If you are behind a 1.5 block high wall and crouch, you can't see over the wall to shoot. HOWEVER, if you crouch behind the wall while standing on top of a Repeater block, that gives you just enough height that you can see over the wall and fire arrows while only having the barest sliver of your helmet showing.
So, all of these innovations will allow defensive structures to be more effective and resilient...but so what? Ultimately, why would anybody care that you've built yourself a nice little bunker to hide in? Can't they just walk around or ignore it? Burrow under it? Just how useful will any static defenses actually be in Minecraft warfare? I'm rather uncertain about this, but what I DO know, is that bunkers look cool.
edit:
Oh, it looks like I didn't read all the preceding posts before I wrote this.
Matthew, you make some very good points there about what's actually WORTH DOING in Minecraft. One more question I'd like to add though is whether, given the expense and inherent inefficiencies of working with obsidian, it is actually worth it to build any large-scale structures out of the stuff? You're looking at 16 solid minutes of solid mining to just produce one stack of it, and if you ever need to abandon a base and move-on, you can't recoup your costs by taking the obsidian with you.
All in all, a very good post.
Look here to find links to my inventions, creations, and my Youtube channel featuring Amazing Creations of Mine (Redstone engineering FTW!!!) and charming Music-Videos about clones. I also made "Minecraft in Minecraft" (2D platformer/building game). I'm currently trying to make a computer.
Makes sense, based on how I'm coming to understand Minecraft explosions. It seems like most instances of TNT destroying Obsidian are in cases where massive amounts of TNT are detonated. I've heard that TNT, at most, can damage blocks up to 7 Blocks away through air (might actually be six, I don't quite remember). In any case, its clear that what is occurring in massive TNT explosions is that, after an initial detonation (as these are usually set off by one block), enough activated TNT is blown into this radius of the Obsidian to destroy it- likely far more TNT than could be activated simultaneously placed around it.
I'm now rather curious as to a certain phenomenon I've witnessed. In large scale TNT explosions, activated TNT is sent flying in all directions. How does this actually work? I understand that a piece of activated TNT can be pushed by an explosion... but say you have some giant mass of TNT. Generally, rather than extensive redstone systems, these are detonated by setting off one piece of TNT. This piece of TNT explodes, and activates TNT within its range. These TNT then explode... and its around now that stuff starts flying around. Do pieces of TNT farther from the blast's center detonate later? I'll admit to having never actually observed this closely- generally the explosion is far more prominent than when blocks start blinking.
Whether or not blowing up Obsidian is feasible, looking into the exact features of TNT explosions is certainly an interesting idea. I'd kind of like to get an idea of how large scale TNT explosions occur in waves... I guess the easiest way would just be to lay out a line of TNT and see when what pieces go off.
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Explosion
It has TNT resistance among other things
Destroying blocks
Start linearly in the direction from the explosion point to each of 1352 points that uniformly distributed on the surface of a cube centered at the explosion with an edge length of 2.
Let blast force on each line equal the explosion power multiplied by a random number in [0.7, 1.3].
Check current block every step of 0.3. A non-air block absorbs (blockResistance / 5 + 0.3) * step of the blast force; if the blast force is not completely absorbed, the block is destroyed (air blocks can also be marked as destroyed).
The blast force is attenuated by step * 0.75 each step, if the blast force is completely absorbed or attenuated, perform the same process on the next line.
The maximum travel distance in the air of a TNT explosion is 6.9, 5.1 for a creeper explosion, and 1.5 for a fireball explosion. For example, a TNT explosion can destroy a torch 7 blocks away. The minimum block resistance required to absorb maximum blast force of TNT explosion (with at least attenuation of 2 steps) is 77.67, 63.5 of creeper explosion, 20.17 of fireball explosion. So water, stationary lava, obsidian, and bedrock are always indestructible, and furnaces and less resistant blocks can be destroyed by fireballs.
Destroyed blocks have 30% chance of being dropped as items.
Am I an idiot, or does this mean the strength of an explosion has a certain amount of randomness to it? It'd be interesting to see how different values of .7 are from 1.3.