Cannoning

TNTs exploding within sand blocks to evade water-protected walls.

Raiding or simply a raid is a faction vs. faction event whereby an initiator (i.e., the attacker) breaches a defending faction's base. Damage dealt is largely determined by the valuation of spawners ceased and destroyed. Raiding is an offensive method to climb up the /f top leaderboard. Raids are largely (if not exclusively) conducted using TNT cannons by exploiting the property that water-protected walls can be breached by causing a TNT to explode when inside a block (particularly, sand).

Raiding mechanics differ across minecraft faction servers—what works on other faction servers may not necessarily function 1:1 on CosmicPE. CosmicPE hosts a free Cannon Planet creative-mode server with TNT and redstone enabled, whereby players can collaborate and build full-fledged cannons on their 40x40 chunk plots before rebuilding the same on the main factions planet.

Redstone mechanics on CosmicPE are coded from scratch, meaning they are neither at par with Minecraft: Bedrock Edition nor Minecraft: Java Edition. However, Java 1.8.8 is used as a reference to test logic of the mechanics.

Block Behavior

In raiding mechanics, obsidian and enchantment tables are considered specialty blocks because they have a different durability mechanism. Blast resistance of both blocks is lowered, meaning obsidian is not immune to explosions. Obsidian has 4 durability points (DP), while enchantment tables have 6 DP. Explosions reduce DP by 1 and a block breaks when it loses all DP. These specialty blocks can be queried for their DP by right-clicking them using a potato. There is a 5-minute accruement period from the time a durable block is placed, prior to which the block has effectively 0 DP.

Fence gates, brewing stands, carpets, daylight sensors, spawners, and player heads blow up even when water protected. Water will not flow into lava (hence not form stone or obsidian as a result). Water and lava can both be sponged. Water flows instantaneously along Y axis. In raiding, the process of refilling dispensers is often tedious. Players can use the /fill command to auto-fill dispensers in their vicinity.

TNT

TNTs can be lobbed over Y255, however they will not explode nor deal durability damage if the explosion occurs at any point above Y255. There is a TNT limit of 500 on the server, including any custom TNT spawned by custom enchantments and world events (e.g., bosses). TNT is not affected by water currents. An explosion that occurs underwater will not damage blocks, but will supply knockback to surrounding entities. Besides normal (vanilla) TNT, there are 8 other types of custom TNTs on the server relevant to raiding.

• Gigantic TNT: Explodes in a much larger radius. Spawns 2 extra explosions at y+3 and y-3 of TNT, and another 3 explosions at either x+3, z+3 or x-3 and z-3.
• Lethal TNT: A more dense explosion. Creates 4x extra TNT explosions at the same location of the original. This effectively destroys 4/4 obsidian in one explosion.
• Lucky TNT: Increases chances of a spawner dropping from the explosion by 2x.
• Tactical TNT: Explosion only affects spawners. No other blocks are affected.
• Mimic TNT: Repeats an explosion many times. Spawns a TNT explosion at the same location every 5 seconds for the total of 15 seconds (i.e., 3 explosions).
• Hex TNT: Weakens block durability of any durability blocks it damages. Durability blocks take 2x damage for 30 seconds since this explosion.
• Silent TNT: Quiet, makes much less noise. Explosion can only be heard by players with 16x16 blocks (horizontally).
• Anti-Gravity TNT: Explosion only affects blocks with gravity (e.g., sand), and do not cause any physical events.

Creeper Egg

A creeper egg is a portable source of explosion. Unlike TNT, a creeper egg can be placed even in enemy territory. This makes it possible to collect spawners and other blocks in enemy land, which otherwise cannot be mined using tools. Like custom TNTs, custom creepers exist. A lucky creeper is the most effective method to collect spawners from enemy land. Creeper eggs cannot break obsidian blocks.

Creepers are neutral, meaning they will not explode soon as they are spawned or are in the vicinity of a player. Instead, they explode upon being attacked. A creeper has an explosion radius of 4, however this can be increased to 6 by using the /smite command to charge the creeper. Creepers have a lower mass than vanilla, meaning they are less influenced by gravity and will appear to float (to some extent) when in air. A creeper may be killed before it explodes, causing it to drop as a creeper egg.

Raid Session

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