Beam Cannon
crossroads:beam_cannon|crossroads:progress/path/technomancy
crossroads:beam_cannon
The <item>Beam Cannon/$ fires <thing><link:essentials:intro/beam>beams/$ huge distances (256 block range) at almost any angle. The angle can be controlled and changed using <thing><link:essentials:intro/rotary>rotary input/$.
There are two <thing><link:essentials:intro/rotary>rotary inputs/$- one on the back, and one on the sides (any side other than the front or back). The back input controls the 'yaw' of the <item>beam cannon/$ (overall rotation firing angle), and the side input controls the 'pitch' of the <item>beam cannon/$ (firing angle from straight up/forward).
The pitch (firing angle from forward/up, in rad) will be the <thing><link:essentials:intro/rotary>speed/$ (in rad/s) of the side <link:essentials:intro/rotary><thing>rotary/$ input, with 0 being straight forward. The pitch is capped at ±π/2 rad (±90°) from straight. The yaw (overall rotation of the cannon in rad) will be the <thing><link:essentials:intro/rotary>speed/$ (in rad/s) of the back <link:essentials:intro/rotary><thing>rotary/$ input.
Any <thing><link:essentials:intro/beam>beam/$ going into the <item>beam cannon/$ will be fired out in the direction aimed (and it won't be constrained by the normal grid orientation). It can travel up to 256 blocks from a <item>beam cannon/$, can hit either blocks or entities on its path (instead of only blocks), and <em>can/$ re-enter a <item><link:essentials:beam/reflector>beam reflector/$ (or other <thing><link:essentials:intro/beam>beam machine/$) if it hits one.
The pitch and yaw can be [un]locked by shift-right-clicking with a wrench, which will hold the pitch and yaw permanently constant at the current value, even if all the <link:essentials:intro/rotary><thing>rotary/$ attachments are removed. The pitch and yaw do not immediately change with the <thing><link:essentials:intro/rotary>speed/$- they re-orient into the new position, fairly quickly but not instantly.