The Orbital Strike Cannon just got a Huge Upgrade — Transcript

Cubic Meter explores upgrades and trade-offs in the Orbital Strike Cannon Mark 6, focusing on stealth, speed, and design simplicity.

Key Takeaways

Mark 6 is a robust and balanced platform that is difficult to improve without trade-offs.
Disencoded ROM and payload magazine improve capability but reduce stealth and simplicity.
Removing these features yields a stealth-optimized variant suitable for covert operations.
Innovative synchronization methods replace daylight sensors to allow underground/underwater use.
Environmental impact and concealment are critical considerations in cannon design.

Summary

Cubic Meter addresses the complexity of releasing a Mark 7 Orbital Strike Cannon, noting the need for substantial innovation beyond Mark 6.
The Mark 6 balances multiple performance metrics, and improving one often compromises others.
A key limitation is the disencoded ROM and payload magazine, which enable multiple scheduled shots but add complexity and reduce stealth.
Users like Minitech have demonstrated scenarios where the ROM and magazine features are unnecessary or detrimental.
Removing the ROM and magazine creates a new Mark 6 variant optimized for stealth with minimal signature.
Advanced chunk loading techniques and trapdoor improvements reduce the cannon's visibility and entity footprint.
The minimal signature variant avoids daylight sensors for synchronization to enable underground or underwater builds.
Instead, it uses a coincidence detection method to synchronize transmitter and receiver clocks.
This stealth-optimized variant maintains most of Mark 6’s functionality but with less complexity and better concealment.
Environmental factors like chunk loading effects on vegetation growth are considered for maximizing stealth.

Chapters

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

Good day, ladies and gents. Cubic Meter here. Now, people keep asking about when I will release a Mark 7 for the Orbital Strike Cannon. And the truth is that it's a lot more complicated than simply changing a few blocks and publishing it as a new design.

Speaker A

as a new design. The Orbital Strike cannon already has many features all pushing the limits of what is possible in Minecraft. We can judge the quality of a design using performance metrics and assign scores for how strongly each

Speaker A

The Orbital Strike Cannon already has many features, all pushing the limits of what is possible in Minecraft. We can judge the quality of a design using performance metrics and assign scores for how strongly each feature affects each metric. What we find is that the Orbital Strike Cannon Mark 6 offers a decent balance between all of these metrics, and trying to improve the design from here results in making compromises in other areas.

Speaker A

reality is that unless we can produce some innovation that can substantially improve all outcomes, we cannot produce a successor to the Mark 6. To be upfront, this innovation has not come yet. But I've been dedicating time to research and experimentation. The best

Speaker A

The reality is that unless we can produce some innovation that can substantially improve all outcomes, we cannot produce a successor to the Mark 6. To be upfront, this innovation has not come yet. But I've been dedicating time to research and experimentation. The best we can do is look at our available metrics and find a specific criteria to improve about the design at the cost of other functions.

Speaker A

observe that a particular point of contention in the Mark 6 is the discoded ROM. In my original video about the Mark 6, I fully explained why the ROM is needed to solve a specific limitation in the cannon's capabilities. I wanted the

Speaker A

For example, in videos by Minitech and RecRap where they build and use the Mark 6 on Life Steel SMP, we observe that a particular point of contention in the Mark 6 is the disencoded ROM. In my original video about the Mark 6, I fully explained why the ROM is needed to solve a specific limitation in the cannon's capabilities. I wanted the cannon to be flexible to a range of applications.

Speaker A

you are forced to wait several minutes from sending firing instructions to actually firing a shot. So if your shot misses, the time to re-engage could cost you the effect you wanted. We can observe this happening in one of

Speaker A

For example, a user of the design would often have some event happening at a specific time on the server where they would want to use the cannon. But a limitation of lazy acceleration is that you are forced to wait several minutes from sending firing instructions to actually firing a shot. So if your shot misses, the time to re-engage could cost you the effect you wanted.

Speaker A

Minnitech is using the MarkV.3, which can fire multiple shots, but they must be fired all at once. This is why in the Mark 6, I implemented the disenccoded ROM and the payload magazine to not only allow multiple payloads to be scheduled,

Speaker A

We can observe this happening in one of Minitech's earlier videos. I built the Death Star in survival Minecraft where in the final fight, a single shot lands approximately in the area where they are fighting, but has very little impact on the outcome of the fight. In this video, Minitech is using the Mark V.3, which can fire multiple shots, but they must be fired all at once.

Speaker A

the disencoded ROM completely useless. In this context, the disenccoded ROM is in fact detrimental to their goal as they struggled to farm the music disc using early game technology. This made me realize that there is a significant gap in the Mark 6's capabilities.

Speaker A

This is why in the Mark 6, I implemented the disencoded ROM and the payload magazine to not only allow multiple payloads to be scheduled, but also allowing those payloads to be individually selected and fired. So imagine my frustration when the second time Minitech goes to use the Orbital Strike Cannon, their goal is to build the cannon as quickly as possible and fire it once, rendering the magazine and the disencoded ROM completely useless.

Speaker A

add this whole section including a wireless receiver with separate channels for each magazine slot. Similarly, the disenccodered ROM improves accessibility, capability, and the speed in which you can communicate with the cannon. But this comes at the cost of stealth and

Speaker A

In this context, the disencoded ROM is in fact detrimental to their goal as they struggled to farm the music disc using early game technology. This made me realize that there is a significant gap in the Mark 6's capabilities.

Speaker A

stats quite nicely. The Mark 6 is a robust platform that can readily support these modifications. We can simply remove the ROM, remove the magazine, and what we get is a new variation of the Orwal Strike Cannon Mark 6. However, we can take this a bit

Speaker A

If we refer to our previous table, we can see that the payload magazine provides a moderate increase in the capabilities of the cannon. But this comes at the cost of the simplicity in the design. This is because we need to add this whole section including a wireless receiver with separate channels for each magazine slot.

Speaker A

Obel Strike cannon will have the minimal signature for maximum stealth. This cannon features no hopper minecarts with chunk loaders that cycle item entities through portals. The trapoor is also significantly improved. With the firing mechanism moving away from our magazine

Speaker A

Similarly, the disencoded ROM improves accessibility, capability, and the speed in which you can communicate with the cannon. But this comes at the cost of stealth and simplicity in the design. So, what if we simply remove these features from the cannon? Well, then we also remove their impacts.

Speaker A

When the cannon fires, these falling blocks are converted into entities suspended in lazy chunks. Then the chunks are loaded and the payload flies through the falling block entities which land and convert back into blocks again.

Speaker A

If we compare the new stats with the Mark 6, we find that removing these two components balances out our stats quite nicely. The Mark 6 is a robust platform that can readily support these modifications. We can simply remove the ROM, remove the magazine, and what we get is a new variation of the Orbital Strike Cannon Mark 6.

Speaker A

daylight sensors will update every 20 ticks on a global clock that has the exact same timings everywhere, meaning distantly separated circuits that use daylight sensors will always be synchronized. The drawback to this is that daylight sensors require access to

Speaker A

However, we can take this a bit further and optimize this new variant for its stealth capabilities. The main areas to focus for stealth are entities that show up in the debug pie chart and the consumer of the cannon underground through trap doors. This variant of the Orbital Strike Cannon will have the minimal signature for maximum stealth.

Speaker A

signature variant of the cannon, you might notice that we completely forego the use of daylight sensors. But then how do we ensure that our transmitter and receiver are synchronized without our globally synchronous daylight sensors? What we have are two isolated

Speaker A

This cannon features no hopper minecarts with chunk loaders that cycle item entities through portals. The trapdoor is also significantly improved. With the firing mechanism moving away from our magazine arrangement, we can implement some advanced chunk loading tricks to make the trap door practically invisible.

Speaker A

When we detect this coincidence, we then switch to a clock with the same interval and our circuits are now linked. There is a drawback to this system. This is the control terminal for the minimal signature variant. And in this world,

Speaker A

When the cannon fires, these falling blocks are converted into entities suspended in lazy chunks. Then the chunks are loaded and the payload flies through the falling block entities which land and convert back into blocks again.

Speaker A

there is no way of knowing which cannon the transmitter is following. There are potential solutions to this, but they are outside the scope of this project.

Speaker A

The final major improvement to the cannon's stealth capabilities is in the wireless receiver. But while it's resting to function, we need circuits that synchronize in time in different locations, which is usually achieved using daylight sensors.

Speaker A

for details about how to build this design. But there are also some important details that I should note.

Speaker A

This is because daylight sensors will update every 20 ticks on a global clock that has the exact same timings everywhere, meaning distantly separated circuits that use daylight sensors will always be synchronized. The drawback to this is that daylight sensors require access to the sky to function, which means we are forced to have this big gaping hole for the receiver.

Speaker A

concealment. Also, when positioning the cannon, it is important to consider how blocks on the surface may interact with the trap door.

Speaker A

This also prevents us from building the cannon under oceans where the water would block the daylight sensors. This is why for the minimal signature variant of the cannon, you might notice that we completely forego the use of daylight sensors. But then how do we ensure that our transmitter and receiver are synchronized without our globally synchronous daylight sensors?

Speaker A

to hide the trap door. So, experiment with different locations and pick one that suits your criteria the best. All right, we have a new variation of the Mark 6, but that's not a huge improvement to the Oral Strike platform.

Speaker A

What we have are two isolated circuits that can sense when events in these circuits occur at the same time. But all we need to do is run one circuit a tick faster than the other and eventually they will trigger in the same tick.

Speaker A

widely accessible platform for the fire control program was wrong, which meant a lot of people simply could not interact with my design. So I want to offer something better. Let me introduce you to the orbital strike fire control, a

Speaker A

When we detect this coincidence, we then switch to a clock with the same interval and our circuits are now linked. There is a drawback to this system. This is the control terminal for the minimal signature variant. And in this world, there are two cannons.

Speaker A

need to encode firing instructions. We also get a bunch of useful information like the Nether position for the chunk loaders as well as some useful target stats like the time estimates for firing the cannon. We also have the

Speaker A

The internal circuits of each cannon will provide the fixed clock cycle and the transmitter tries to follow this cycle. This means after letting the transmitter run for some time, we'll eventually sync with the receiver of a distant cannon. But there is no way of knowing which cannon the transmitter is following.

Speaker A

Like for example, I have two presets for the minimal signature variant of the cannon with one in an ocean and another in a desert. There's also this cool background panorama which freezes and stutters when you access the menus

Speaker A

There are potential solutions to this, but they are outside the scope of this project. After all, we're going for less complexity than the base Mark 6 platform. Apart from this discrepancy, the minimal signature cannon operates pretty much exactly the same as the Mark 6.

Speaker A

video and the last. I have been busy, but also dealing with some issues. In fact, I've had surgery to remove a part of my body that was causing me great distress and making it difficult to focus on videos. But now, I'm feeling a

Speaker A

And I would suggest that you follow the guide laid out in my original video for details about how to build this design. But there are also some important details that I should note.

Speaker A

anything back. If I have something cool to show, I make a video about it. I do whatever I can to make that thing available so people can experience it.

Speaker A

Like for example, in newer versions of the game, loaded chunks will also process random ticks for growing vegetation. So it's important to consider how the environment might respond to the presence of the cannon's chunk loading envelope when maximizing concealment.

Speaker A

annoying questions like, "Why didn't you make this thing on Bedrock Edition?" as well as branding the word ultimate on things so you too can overhype everything. This will be a work in progress and we'll see if we can have

Speaker A

Also, when positioning the cannon, it is important to consider how blocks on the surface may interact with the trap door. For example, underwater, the trap door is precisely timed for a full 12 block column of blocks.

Topics:Orbital Strike CannonMinecraftMark 6Mark 7disencoded ROMpayload magazinestealth designchunk loadingwireless synchronizationCubic Meter

Frequently Asked Questions

Why hasn't Cubic Meter released a Mark 7 Orbital Strike Cannon yet?

Because improving on the Mark 6 requires substantial innovation that improves all performance metrics simultaneously, which has not yet been achieved.

What are the main drawbacks of the disencoded ROM and payload magazine in Mark 6?

They add complexity and reduce stealth, and in some use cases, such as quick single-shot firing, they become unnecessary or detrimental.

How does the minimal signature variant synchronize without daylight sensors?

It uses a coincidence detection method to link transmitter and receiver clocks, allowing synchronization without relying on globally synchronous daylight sensors.

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