Tutorial:TNT cannons/Straight trajectories

Straight trajectories describe all trajectories that are not influenced further, when leaving the cannon or barrel.

Due to the way how Minecraft treats entity motion (by first calculating the Y-Axis and then the axis in that the entity has more momentum) slanted trajectories never are really straight. Also gravity induced motion can influence trajectories to be approximately parabolic. Still all those types of trajectory will be counted as "straight" because mostly the same rules would apply if they were actually straight.

Ascend (A)

An Ascending cannon can hit above itself.

If you build a front or Flank cannon you'll usually want to add Ascend modes, they are easy to implement and pretty much their only drawback is a bigger barrel.

Descend (De)

A Descending cannon can hit below itself.

For those it's pretty much the same as with Ascend modes. One difference is, that TNT hitting the block from the top will induce additional 30% drag (normal is 2%) wich is bad for efficiency. Also the entry tends to be more diagonal, since gravity tends downwards so actually hitting the enemy before the hole is finished is quite possible. For this reason Descend modes are generally less popular than Ascend ones for normal Tunnlers.

An easy way to do vertical modes using the Displacement technique.
For changing the height just push the projectiles and Injectors earlier or later. The powder snow is always removed just before the Boosters explode.

Central (C)

A Central cannon can hit below as well as above itself.

As you have probably guessed by now, Central cannons are commonly found in the vertical center regions of a fighting machine. If the enemy have moving cannons those can also be found at the outer regions.

Shift (S)

Shifting describes the ability of a cannon to shoot sidewards. Flank cannons do not shift.

It is usually a good idea to give a cannon more cover and often Shifting is required to do that. Generally shifting is harder to achieve than vertical modes, with slanted shifting methods being only able to reach sideward speeds of about 2.5 blocks per tick.

Artillery (Arti)

An Artillery cannon uses the near parabolic nature of the projectiles flight path to hit the enemy from above.

Due to delay issues, when avoiding the enemies armor and shielding, an Arti is not commonly used anymore. That said, their higher efficiency compared to Downward cannons can make it devastating in the early game, if those defenses are missing.

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