Yeah same here, there isn’t much information actually on what each cannon does at the end of the day.

Mortars shoot up, Carronade/Short Cannons shoot across, Doubled Barrelled Cannons shoot across twice.

Even then, I don’t know what the difference is between a Carronade and a Short cannon, other than their physical dimensions, or if the performance of the Doubled Barrelled is any different either other than having two cannons.

Also taking into account you can now make all of them out of different materials should also be noted in how they work, or is it just instead all to do with visuals, and how they look, rather than the differing rarity of the items used in their construction- the only cannon I believe I can think of off of the top of my head which is slightly differentiated is the Rusty Carronade cannon, which can only fire shrapnel which is the weakest of all cannon shots due to it being anti-personnel but only firing a single shot.

For people who come to the server and are new and discover the different sorts, I am sure it can be quite confusing as it seems like relatively difficult decisions on what cannons to mount, and which are better in certain situations etc. But even now, to someone like me I sometimes wonder and think about what could be better, just out of pure curiosity due to just not knowing.

Testing of the cannons to find this out may have to be commenced by players whom are willing to do the research (I would be, unfortunately I cannot as of right now).

SO piggybacking off of @elisapop it should be noted to include each cannon type and material type as it wont be included in this rough summary below of statistics which matter to this subject (and please specify if none of this matters also);

The range of each cannon (ideally maximum and minimum).

The effects on projectiles, such as if certain cannon are better suited for certain projectiles, but not taking into account personal choice for projectile use on the cannon.

The noise I guess, never really thought about the noise as such, but I’m sure that could be thought about.

Effects of certain cannons, such as recoil, reload time, aiming speed, accuracy, their weight and possible effects on ship speed.

I’ve tried to think up of every point of each of these cannons, I hope this could become clearer, much like how Elisa and I’m sure other members of the community would. Thank you. 🙂

*(This may come across angry I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to, I was just trying to be formal (but I am pretty blunt) and list clearly the problems that people whom are searching for the properties of the gun types and their material equivalents face, I have in no way meant to offend anyone and if you have been, sincere apologies.)

General rule of thumb:

To shoot the furthest in any cannon, you can load up to 4 gunpowder (but this increases the risk of explosion). It also increases the size of the explosion of the cannonball – loading 1-2 gunpowder and a cobblestone projectile at clay won’t do any damage, however loading 3 will do damage.

Optimum angle for all cannons to shoot is 45 degrees, and their ranges are very similar if not identical (cannonades may be less range, and I haven’t tested short cannons vs long cannons). Penetration is the same, but blast radius depends on number of gunpowder added (and projectile). Same sound effect/noise. This applies to mortars too.

From using them on ships or as defense, here are some opinions of mine:

• Carronades (grey wool) are made for beginners and behave as such – they only shoot cobblestone i believe, and not very far. They’re easily damaged, take up a decent amount of room (5 blocks counting the buttons). However, they do contribute to a ship’s wool %
• Cannons (black wool) – same thing as above, however they can shoot all projectiles. Easily damaged, take up a lot of room (5 blocks counting buttons), but once again contribute to a ship’s wool %
• Iron short cannon (iron blocks) – Short, sweet, hard to damage, fit everywhere
• Coal short cannon (coal blocks) – Short, sweet, difficult to damage, fit everywhere, and they’re cheap!
• Iron long cannon (iron blocks) – Big brother of the short cannon, no point to build it (not sure if its even a thing still)
• Coal long cannon (coal blocks) – Big brother of the short cannon, also no point to build it if you have the short cannon
• Double cannon (iron blocks) – Shoots 2 cobblestone projectiles when loaded (doesn’t work with other projectiles i believe). Take up a lot of room but boy are they good in ship battles – really under-used.
• Mortar (iron blocks) – Should have the same y-axis maximum height of a normal cannon. Good against submarines and on bases. Less effective on ships, but can help you score some lucky hits.

In conclusion, best value for blocks: Coal short cannons for when you’re gunner rank.

There might be some differences in range, but in battle they have proven to be unimportant – the max range at 45 degrees is out of the render distance, and you shouldn’t be engaging things from that distance really.

Another question for the floor, Maximus. What is the difference between the different projectiles for the cannons?

Thanks, Maximus! This is gonna help a lot in the ship battles!