Happy Thanksgiving! Time for the fourth test snapshot of new combat mechanics! This time the snapshot is based on version 1.15 of Minecraft, but is still not compatible with the 1.15 pre-releases!

I'm very grateful for all feedback and comments. This time I actually made a few dramatic changes that hopefully will allow for a snappier and more varied PvP experience.

Whenever I get the "just revert to 1.8", my eyes roll a full 360 in their sockets... I have to design a system that works well both in PvE and PvP, and well on touch and controller as well as mouse-and-keyboard. It will never be 100% equal for everyone, but I will at least try something that works OK in most scenarios while still giving some design flexibility.

However, it's great when people pinpoint exactly what it is they're missing the most from 1.8 PvP gameplay. Could be w-tapping, item combos, fishing poles, or something else. If you are passionate about a specific detail you should definitely make yourself heard.

First of all, some basic combat changes:

• The attack timer now only resets when you actually perform an attack (it's unaffected by switching items)
• Critical attacks (jump-attacks) will now trigger at 100% (no need to wait)
• Knockback attacks (sprint-attacks) will now trigger at 100%
• Default attack reach has been decreased by 0.5 (to 2.5 blocks)
• The full timer ("200%") attack now has 1.0 reach (was 0.5)
• Arrow accuracy has been increased ("uncertainty" value decreased from 1.0 to 0.25)

Some shield changes:

• Added an option to disable the use-shield-on-crouch (it's in the accessibility menu)
• Removed the option to hide the shield

Some trident parity changes:

• Tridents can be shot from dispensers
• Tridents with Loyalty that fall into the void will return to its owner
• Tridents with Impaler now deal enchantment damage to all mobs that are in water or rain

Some random snowball changes:

• Snowballs now stack to 64
• Snowballs have a 4 tick cooldown
• Snowballs are not rendered the first 2 ticks (hack to prevent screen flickering)

Axe enchantments:

• All damage enchantments can be applied to axes in the enchanting table
• Chopping hasn't been changed (I point this out because there was a lot of Chopping feedback)

First post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/c5mqwv/a_custom_java_edition_snapshot_to_test_new_combat/

Second post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/cqnp5b/update_custom_java_edition_snapshot_to_test_new/

Third post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/dq2v7o/updated_combat_test_snapshot_number_3_and_a/

Installation instructions:

• Download this zip file: https://launcher.mojang.com/experiments/combat/ac11ea96f3bb2fa2b9b76ab1d20cacb1b1f7ef60/1_15_combat-1.zip
• Unpack the folder into your "versions" folder of your local Minecraft application data folder (see below if you are confused)
• Create a new launch configuration in the launcher and select the "1_15_combat-1" version
• Start the game and the remaining files will be downloaded
• Play in a new world! This version is not compatible with other snapshots!

Finding the Minecraft application folder:

• Windows: Press Win R and type %appdata%.minecraft and press Ok
• Mac OS X: In Finder, in the Go menu, select "Go to Folder" and enter ~/Library/Application Support/minecraft
• Linux: ~/.minecraft or /home/<your username>/.minecraft/

Once you have the launcher set up you can download the server files from there as well.

FEEDBACK SITE

In addition to replying here on reddit, you can head over to the feedback site to discuss specific topics here: https://aka.ms/JavaCombatSnap

Cheers!