Tutorial:TNT cannons/intel

Having intel about the enemies actions as well as the damage to all fight machines is crucial for deciding which cannon to use and where to shoot.

Windows

Windows and outlooks can be a powerful way to get intel on your enemy.

This can be especially valuable, if you fight alone and thus methods to spy on the enemy are scarce. The main problem with using windows is, that they are usually associated with having less armor or only a narrow FOV. On the other side outlooks don't have those problems but it can take you valuable seconds to try reaching them.

Alarms

Contraptions detecting block destructions can notify the player if a cannon is damaged. Since holes of TNT cannons are generally rather wide often it is enough to just detect one block per 7x7 section (no multiple detections are needed towards the enemy).

Alarms are generally very limited in their use because they can get messy and thus often just provide some very specific information. Thus they are mostly used in cannons where you wouldn't notice the damage else way - not in time at least.

Common variations on the concept of the Alarm are circuits ejecting the player automatically out of the loading position, if the cannon is exploding and counters that inform the player that they have to change modes or else would do no further damage to the enemy.

Spotting

Spotting relies on other players - often spectators - to relay information to the fighters. The "Spotters" often also have the role of coordinating the attack.

Spotting is the most common and versatile form of intel gathering. But still some drawbacks are that this method relies on other players. Spotting is still limited in the amount of information that can be passed on to other players and especially that can be coordinated since multiple players speaking at the same time can get quite messy. This information overload is especially prevalent in the first minutes of the fight.

This is why Spotting often is already practiced when one party isn't even fighting against the other. This way this team can strategize on how to best destroy their enemy beforehand and greatly increase their initial chances as well as the value of transferred information.

Tools

Tools to support intel gathering include reloading the chunks (F3+A) or the shaders since entities are rendered first. Highlighting entities (F3+B) and using the debug info screen might also help. Other tools to help spying on the enemy include "X-Ray"-texture packs as well as entity tracer / highlighter and free cam mods.

Due to most of those tools being considered cheating and heavily punished on servers they aren't used often.

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