Minecraft’s combat rework gets another snapshot test

4.3

Minecraft combat snapshot v6 is ready for testing. Developer Mojang has been publicly testing a substantial combat rework for some time now, though it’s been half-a-year since the last update to that test. But now v6 is finally here, and with it, a whole new set of experimental changes to Minecraft’s base combat systems.

These combat snapshots are separate from the usual rollout of pre-release patches. Instead, you download the test from Reddit, add it to your Minecraft install (Java edition only), and test things out that way. The v6 release contains yet more radical changes, so as Mojang’s Jens Bergensten notes, “we’re still not ready to move on to phase two of the tests” – that’ll be the point where the systems are all decided and further updates are just about number balancing.

The v6 ditches the “coyote time” mechanic introduced in v5, which let you hit something if you’ve aimed at it but technically attacked outside the bounding box – basically, a form of auto-aim. The system was intended to help you hit small, fast mobs like rabbits or bats more easily, so instead those mobs now have larger targets.

The other big changes include food and hunger. Eating can now be interrupted when you get hit, natural healing is now faster, and it drains food more slowly.

Redesigned aim assist again:
Removed “Coyote Time”
Entities with bounding boxes that are smaller than 0.9 of a block are inflated (for targeting purposes) to be 0.9 of a block (rabbits, bats, etc)
Swords always have sweeping attacks again, axes have it with the Sweeping enchantment
Missing now only puts a 4 tick delay until the next attack regardless of weapon.
Increased base reach to 3 (was 2.5) and removed bonus reach for delayed attacks

Changes to shields:
Shields now only protect up to 5 damage for melee attacks (still 100% against projectiles)
Shields recover faster after an attack

Changes to axes:
Renamed Chopping to Cleaving
Removed other weapon enchantments from the enchanting table. The axes simply had too many possible enchantments. It also feels a little bit fitting with a rare Cleaving enchantment than a common Sharpness enchantment for axes

Changes to bows / projectiles:
Player momentum is added to thrown projectiles, but only in the direction you are aiming
Bow and arrow accuracy now slowly decreases the longer you pull the bow

Changes to food and hunger:
Reverted eating time to 32 ticks
Eating is now interrupted if something hits you
Natural healing is even faster (2 seconds, was 3 seconds)
Natural healing drains food 50% slower
By popular request – Reintroduced the rule that sprinting requires more than 6 points of food

Other changes:
Removed the attack indicator completely since it is no longer used by any systems
Fixed knockback calculation
Fixed damage value on items being off-by-one client-side
Fixed bug that caused players to be unable to attack/interact after respawning
Nerfed Sweeping Edge enchantment to 25/33/37.5 percent (was 50/66/75%)