Create Big Cannons: Fire Control Ballistics

Create Big Cannons: Fire Control Ballistics

Fire control for Create Big Cannons — aim and fire an entire battery of cannons from a single console.

Every cannon solves its own firing solution, so mixed batteries (different materials, chambers, barrels or loads) still each hit their own correct elevation.

Blocks

• Fire Control Computer — Enter the target coordinates, choose the firing arc and the fire mode, then give the order to fire. Scans a 64 block radius and drives up to 4 coordinators. Needs a shaft on its back; 64 SU per RPM.
• Fire Control Coordinator — Registers every fire control node within 32 blocks (up to 10 cannons, nearest first) and relays the target to each of them. 32 SU per RPM.
• Fire Control Node — Place it against any face of a cannon mount. It probes that cannon (material, chamber length, barrel length, propellant, shell) and solves its own firing solution, then lays the gun and fires it. 8 SU per RPM.

All three require rotational power; the goggles tell you exactly what a node is doing and why it cannot shoot.

Fire control

• Two arcs plus AUTO — low arc, high arc, or AUTO, which falls back to the high arc when the low one is blocked by terrain or outside the gun's elevation limits.
• Terrain checking along the trajectory. It reports the real reason a shot cannot be taken: muzzle blocked, target too close, elevation limit reached, cannon not loaded, and so on.
• Simultaneous impact — the shots are staggered so that every shell lands at the same moment.
• Fire modes — salvo, simultaneous impact, rolling fire (adjustable interval) and area coverage (adjustable radius, the battery walks its fire across a grid).
• Loading safety — per-material charge limits, barrel-to-charge matching, jam and burst warnings, and an estimated spread.

Observation and spotting

• Artillery Indicator — Raise it to spot; zoom with the scroll wheel, mark a target with the middle mouse button and hold the left mouse button to fire. It binds to one Fire Control Computer. In the offhand it works together with the drone.
• Reconnaissance Drone + Drone Remote — Bind the remote to a drone, then fly it in first person to range, mark and fire at targets beyond your line of sight. The drone has durability: it loses some on impact, and it self-destructs if it flies beyond your view or the simulation distance.

Ballistics

If Create Big Cannons: Going Ballistic is installed, solutions follow its realistic ballistics (quadratic drag, real gravity). Without it, vanilla Create Big Cannons ballistics (linear drag) are used. Both are supported out of the box — no configuration needed.

Moving platforms (Create Aeronautics)

Cannons built on a Create Aeronautics ship or aircraft work as well. Because a shell fired from a moving platform does not inherit the platform's velocity, the mod applies a lead along the direction of travel and keeps refining that lead from the shots it actually observes. Moving platform against a static target is fully supported.

Nothing has to be enabled for this: if Create Aeronautics and Sable are installed they are detected at runtime. No code or assets from them are included in this mod.

Why shots scatter

Scatter is a vanilla Create Big Cannons mechanic, not an aiming error. A cannon's spread starts from the propellant it is loaded with (more charge, more starting spread) and is then reduced by every barrel block, down to a floor set by the cannon's material. A short barrel carrying a big charge therefore keeps a wide spread no matter how accurately the gun is laid.

This mod does not change any of that. It reads Create Big Cannons' own numbers and shows you the resulting spread — both across the line of fire and along the trajectory — so you know what to expect before firing. The goggles also warn you when the barrel is too short for the loaded charge, and how many more barrel blocks are needed to reach that material's minimum spread.

So if your shots scatter, look at the barrel-to-charge combination first: add barrel sections, or use less propellant. The mod can lay the gun as accurately as the gun and its ammunition allow — it cannot make a short barrel with a heavy charge shoot tight.

Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21.1
• NeoForge 21.1.0 or newer
• Create 6.0.0 or newer
• Create Big Cannons 5.11.0 or newer
• Ritchie's Projectile Library 2.1.0 or newer

GeckoLib is bundled inside this mod — you do not have to install it separately. If you already have a compatible GeckoLib, yours is used instead.

Optional: Create Big Cannons: Going Ballistic (realistic ballistics), CBC Advanced Technology, Sable — all detected at runtime, all optional.

Notes

• A firing solution is only as good as what is loaded. The goggles show the charge limit for the cannon's material, whether the barrel matches the charge, and whether the shell will jam.
• The terrain check only looks at blocks in the world. Blocks on a moving contraption are not checked, so firing from a ship will not warn you about hitting your own hull.

Credits and license

This mod is licensed under GPL-3.0-only. The source is available at: https://github.com/cangwuxiaoqi/create-ballistics-fire-control

It reuses art from open source projects, credited file by file in the NOTICE file inside the jar:

• CBC Ballistics by Felis (MIT) — the fire control node block model and several block textures.
• Superb Warfare by Atsuishio (GPL-3.0) — the artillery indicator icon and scope overlay, the drone model, animations, textures and engine sound, the remote icons, and the drone camera HUD textures.
• GeckoLib (MIT) — used to render the drone, bundled unmodified inside this jar.

Thanks to the authors of Create, Create Big Cannons, CBC Ballistics and Superb Warfare.

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中文说明（简体中文）

机械动力火炮：火控计算弹道学 —— 为《机械动力：火炮》（Create Big Cannons）提供火控系统：在一台操控台上解算整个炮群的射击诸元，并统一下达开火。

每一门炮各自解算诸元，所以材质、装填、身管长度不同的混编炮群，也能各自瞄准正确的仰角。

三个方块

• 火控计算机 —— 输入打击坐标、选择弹道与火力模式、统一下达开火。识别半径 64 格，最多带 4 台协调器。背面接传动轴，每 1 RPM 消耗 64 SU。
• 火控协调器 —— 登记 32 格内的火控节点（最多 10 门炮，超出时取最近的），把目标坐标下发给每一门炮。每 1 RPM 消耗 32 SU。
• 火控节点 —— 贴着炮座任意一面摆放。它会探测这门炮（材质、炮腔格数、炮筒长度、装药、弹种）并独立解算诸元，然后伺服瞄准并击发。每 1 RPM 消耗 8 SU。

三件都需要转速；戴上护目镜就能看到每个节点正在做什么、以及打不出去的原因。

火控功能

• 低伸 / 高抛 / 自动 —— 自动模式在低伸被地形挡住或超出射界时，改走高抛。
• 弹道遮挡校验 —— 会给出打不了的具体原因：炮口被堵、目标太近、仰角到顶、未装填等。
• 同时弹着 —— 按每一发的飞行时间错峰开火，让所有炮弹同时落地。
• 火力模式 —— 齐射、同时弹着、轮射（可设间隔）、范围覆盖（可设半径，落点按网格铺开）。
• 装填安全 —— 材质装药上限、炮管与装药的匹配、卡弹与炸膛预警、落点散布估算。

观测与校射

• 火炮指示器 —— 举起后作为观测镜使用：滚轮缩放、中键标记目标、长按左键开火；可与一台火控计算机绑定，放在副手时能与无人机配合使用。
• 侦测无人机 + 无人机遥控器 —— 绑定后进入无人机视角，飞到视距之外测距、标记并开火。无人机有耐久，撞到东西会扣，飞出视距或模拟距离会自爆。

弹道

装有《Create Big Cannons: Going Ballistic》时，按它的真实弹道（二次阻力 + 真实重力）解算；未安装时按 Create Big Cannons 原版弹道（线性阻力）解算。两者开箱即用，不需要改配置。

航空学载具上的火炮（Create Aeronautics）

架在《机械动力：航空学》的船或飞机上的炮同样可用。由于平台在动、而炮弹不继承载具速度，模组会沿行进方向自动施加提前量，并根据实际观测到的落点不断修正它。「动平台打静止目标」已完整支持。

不需要任何配置：装有 Create Aeronautics 与 Sable 时自动识别、运行期接线（没有包含它们的任何代码或素材）。

为什么打不准／散布为什么大

散布是 Create Big Cannons 本身的机制，不是瞄不准。一门炮的散布从所装发射药起算（药越多、起步散布越大），然后每增加一格炮筒递减一次，一直减到这门炮材质的散布下限为止。 ⇒ 炮筒短 + 装药多 ⇒ 散布一直很大 —— 这时就算瞄准完全正确，落点也会散。

本模组不修改这个机制，而是读 CBC 自己的数值、把最终的散布估算显示出来（沿射线的横向分量＋弹道方向的分量），让你开火前就知道大概会散多大；护目镜还会在「炮筒对当前装药太短」时预警，并告诉你再加几格炮筒才能压到该材质的散布下限。

所以散布大时，先看炮筒与装药的搭配：加长炮筒，或者减少装药。火控能把炮瞄到「这门炮 + 这份弹药允许的最准」，但改变不了炮与弹药本身的散布。

前置

• Minecraft 1.21.1 · NeoForge 21.1.0 及以上
• 机械动力（Create）6.0.0 及以上 · 机械动力：火炮（Create Big Cannons）5.11.0 及以上
• Ritchie's Projectile Library 2.1.0 及以上

GeckoLib 已内嵌在本模组内，不需要单独安装（若你已装有兼容版本，则使用你那份）。

注意事项

• 诸元的精度取决于装填：护目镜会显示这门炮材质的装药上限、炮管与装药是否匹配、以及是否会卡弹。
• 遮挡校验只检查世界中的方块；载具（contraption）上的方块不在检查范围内，因此在船上开炮时不会提示会打到自己船体。

鸣谢与许可

本模组以 GPL-3.0-only 分发，源码地址：https://github.com/cangwuxiaoqi/create-ballistics-fire-control

它使用了两个开源项目的素材（已在 jar 内 NOTICE 中逐文件署名并附许可全文）：CBC Ballistics（作者 Felis，MIT）与 卓越前线 Superb Warfare（作者 Atsuishio，GPL-3.0）；GeckoLib（MIT）内嵌用于渲染无人机。

感谢 Create、Create Big Cannons、CBC Ballistics 与卓越前线的作者。