Tutorial:TNT cannons/shielding

The idea of shielding is to counter cannons specialized on hitting a target by blocking the trajectory. If the cannon is not prepared against it this will not only serve as more armor but it will also be way more efficient armor. Even with little shielding the efficiency of the enemy's cannons can be greatly damaged for it being impossible to specialize on every type of shielding or no shielding so that inefficiencies have to occur at some point in exchange for more general usability of the cannon.

The most basic form of shielding is just to push blocks out of the fighting machine. This only works well against Artis.

ATOX

An ATOX is a shield that pushes forward a flat surface composed of many flying machine extensions.

ATOX are a prerequisite for many other shields. Their most basic form can often be found all over the fighting machine.

Pergola (Perg)

A Pergola shoves a thin layer of blocks above the fighting machine.

It allows it to be pretty efficient while often also not using blocks that would have served as armor.

Spikes

Spikes only cover every second block.

Spikes are best used for thin shielding. There is few gain for the buck when making this principle more heavy.

Heavy

Heavy shielding describes a wide wall of blocks being pushed into position.

Because a full Heavy shield is so expensive and uncommon it is quite possible that the enemy's cannons fail on it. But one can't just put Heavy shielding everywhere since there are only so many blocks to use.

Layered

Shielding can be layered to either create an emergent Heavy shield or each layer can be spaced apart so that only Tunnlers and Mortars prepared for it can destroy multiple layers at once.

If the same shield type is layered, it is referred to as a Double-, Tripple-, Quadruple shield.

Spaced or irregular layering can have a similar effect to heavy shields while using less blocks.

Relocational (2-Axis / 3-Axis)

Relocational shielding pushes the blocks out of the fighting machine and then parallel to the fighting machine.

This way armor can be moved from somewhere where it is not needed to somewhere it is needed. This is a dream for everyone building shields though sadly usually one doesn't have much blocks to spare at the outside.

3D Printer

A 3D Printer moves blocks out of a storage per block stream and prints them out somewhere else as shields. A single block storage can supply multiple shields or the other way around. The shield that is supplied can also sometimes change every fight.

It is pretty much Relocational shielding on steroids. That said in situations where they are not needed to perform armor relocation they might not be used because they can be bigger than the other shield types and they often are a lot slower.

Mining

Blocks used for shielding don't have to originate in the fighting machine. A Mining shield uses the environment for blocks to supply iself.

The blocks scraped are often of lower blast resistance than the ones originating in the fighting machine. If that is the case they might be used in the outer layer or in alternation with end stone. They can also be used to defend less valuable spots.

Active

Shielding doesn't need to happen outside the fighting machine. Active shielding seeks to close a hole before another shot enters. The most basic form is just falling blocks falling down, but this does not work against Downward- and Upward cannons and is very slow. Often a better option is pistons pushing the blocks. Ways it can be activated include using redstone clocks, block update detectors or inverted redstone signals. It can also happen outside of the fighting machine.

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