Create: Better targeting

Stop guessing. Start hitting.

Create Radars can point a cannon at a target, but it rounds off your charges, can't lead a moving ship, and doesn't know a friend from an enemy. Create: Better Targeting adds a Ballistic Computer that does the maths properly. Place it against a cannon mount and that gun hits what it aims at: a plane crossing the sky, a tank on the move, an enemy base over the hill, or a spot you marked on the map.

It works from the ground, and also from a ship, plane or tank that is moving, tilting and turning.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Exact ballistics: uses Create Big Cannons' own shell physics (drag, gravity, partial charges, dimension settings). In tests, the computer's predicted shell path matched the real one to within a tenth of a block.
• ✈️ Leads moving targets: ships, planes, players and mobs, using their real speed and acceleration. Shoots from moving, tilting, spinning vehicles too.
• 🧱 Picks the arc: a direct shot, or a high lob over walls and hills when the direct path is blocked.
• 🤝 Friend or foe: knows your team (FTB Teams, scoreboard teams, a friend list, IFF squad codes) and never shoots a friend.
• 🤖 Fully automatic: finds enemy aircraft, ships, players, mobs and even bases by itself, and engages the most dangerous first.
• 🚀 Missiles (CBC Aeronautics Missiles):
  • Launches from armed rails on its own.
  • Glue a computer onto a missile to give it intercept guidance.
  • Shoots down incoming missiles (point defense).
• 💥 Fights as a battery:
  • Time-on-target salvos (every gun's shells land at once).
  • Split fire or focus fire.
  • Counter-battery: traces enemy shells back to the gun that fired them and shoots back.
• 🪑 Command Chair:
  • Battle map with every contact, fire plans, no-fire zones and team pings.
  • Mini-radar and warnings (missile incoming, enemy locked on).
  • Each gun's shell path drawn in the world.
• 🔭 Camera Optics: look out from your vehicle, with zoom, a rangefinder, night vision and thermal, and gunner mode (aim with your eyes, click to fire).
• 📊 Hit log: shots, hits, kills and accuracy for every gun.
• 🎈 Practice Drone: a flying target for training your gun crews.
• ⚡ Light on the server: the heavy maths runs on its own worker threads. In a 24-gun test battle it cost about 0.03 ms per gun per tick on the server thread.

🚀 Getting started

1. Make a Targeting Processor on a Create sequenced-assembly line, starting from a Brass Sheet (2 loops): deploy an Electron Tube, deploy Polished Rose Quartz, deploy a Gold Nugget, press.
2. Craft the Ballistic Computer from Brass Sheets, a Precision Mechanism, Electron Tubes, the Targeting Processor and a Brass Casing.
3. Build a Create Radars weapon group (cannon mount, yaw and pitch controllers, fire controller) and place the computer touching the mount or any of its controllers.
4. Load the cannon. That's it: the computer finds targets, aims and fires. Right-click it to change what it shoots at.

The player who places a computer owns it. Only the owner, their team, their listed friends and operators can change it.

🧩 Blocks and items

🖥️ The computer screen

• Gun:
  • Arc: auto, direct or lob.
  • Fire mode: radar network, at will, or hold (aim only).
  • Aim point on ships, and shot spread.
  • A typed fire mission to X Y Z.
  • Time on target.
  • Split, focus or nearest-target fire.
• Targets:
  • Which targets to engage on its own: ships and planes, players, flying mobs, other mobs, enemy bases, incoming missiles, enemy guns.
  • Whether unknown targets count as enemies.
  • Weapon role: all, anti-air, anti-surface or artillery.
  • Missile auto-launch.
  • Friend list and IFF squad code.
• Stats: shots, hits, kills, accuracy and the last eight shots.

🗺️ Battle map (from the Command Chair)

The map shows friends in green, enemies in red and unknowns in yellow. It also shows each gun's shell path and landing spot, the guns' ammo, hull damage, and the parts shot off your vehicle.

🔭 Camera Optic

• Mouse: look around.
• Scroll: zoom 1x, 2x, 4x or 8x.
• Right-click: next optic.
• G: gunner mode.
• N: night vision, then thermal.
• Sneak: leave.

The view rides the vehicle, tilt and roll included. A seated driver can keep driving while looking.

⚙️ Server config

firecontrol-server.toml in world/serverconfig/:

• Accuracy and timing: firing latency, longest flight time, clear-path check, aim tolerance.
• Sensors: sensor range, bases (how big a base must be, how far to look, your home radius), counter-battery range, radar stealth.
• Missiles: auto-launch range and cooldown, intercept guidance and steering gain.
• Threads: asyncSolver (default on) runs the heavy maths on worker threads; solverThreads (default 0 = half your CPU cores, 1 to 4).

❓ FAQ

Do I still need Create Radars? Yes. The computer takes over the aiming of a Create Radars weapon group, and still uses your radar network's targets when it has nothing better.

Does it work on airships, planes and tanks? Yes. It allows for the vehicle's speed, tilt, spin and acceleration, and the speed the shell inherits from it.

Will it shoot my friends? No. Friends are the owner, the owner's FTB team and allies, the owner's scoreboard team, players on the friend list, and ships carrying your computer or your squad code. In a 24-gun test battle with friendly ships among the enemies, no gun or missile ever went for a friend.

How far do the missiles go? As far as CBC Aeronautics Missiles' motors carry them. The computer makes the missile fly at the intercept point instead of chasing the target.

Server, client or both? Both.

📋 Requirements

• Minecraft 1.21.1 · NeoForge · Java 21
• Create 6.0+
• Create Big Cannons 5.11+
• Create Radars 0.4.9+
• Sable 2.0.3+ (from Create: Aeronautics)
• Optional:
  • CBC Aeronautics Missiles: missile launching and guidance.
  • FTB Teams / FTB Chunks: teams, allies and claims for friend-or-foe.
  • CC: Tweaked: computer peripheral (experimental).
• Install on both the server and the clients.

Unofficial add-on. Create Big Cannons is by rbasamoyai, Create Radars by HappySG, Create: Aeronautics and Sable by the Aeronautics team, and CBC Aeronautics Missiles by Squishy.

Questions, bugs or ideas? Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/8gFHKMxRGj