With the official release of Minecraft Version 1.20.2 for Java, we can expect an update to our own server here at mcGalaxy in the future! As such, we thought it would be nice to highlight the changes in 1.20.2 which will directly effect gameplay for our community of crafters. Continue reading to learn more about network optimizations, villager trading changes, hitbox changes and much more!

Please note that our server is not updating just yet.

We will need to allow time to update all our own resources prior to the move to 1.20.2!

GENERAL CHANGES

• The calculations to determine whether a mob can attack a player or other mobs have been changed
• Optimizations to networked play
• Curing a Zombie Villager now only gives a big discount the first time
• There is no longer a bonus discount for reinfecting and curing the same Villager multiple times
• Sponges and Wet Sponges now have their own custom sounds
• The positions that all entities ride on other entities have been adjusted to make more sense
• Added the "Narrator Hotkey" accessibility option (default on)
• The narrator can be toggled on and off with Ctrl+B when this is on
• Added "I want to report them" Player Reporting category
• Removed Herobrine

MOB ATTACK REACH CHANGES

The calculations to determine whether a mob can attack a player or other mobs have been changed. Previously a mob's horizontal width was used to determine their attack reach and their height had no effect. The area where a mob can attack is now their bounding box extended in horizontal directions.

Here are some situations where the new rules will affect the reach of mobs:

• If a mob is entirely below you, or entirely above you, it will not be able to reach you
• While riding on a medium-sized mob, like a Horse, you will be protected from small mobs, like Baby Zombies
• While riding on a tall mob, like a Camel, you will be protected from standard-size mobs, like Zombies
• Also, Ravagers won't be able to attack you through a few block thick walls anymore
• However, to escape from an Enderman, you need to be at least 3 blocks above the ground, not 1.5 as before
• Mobs will be able to attack you with the bottom of their hitbox, assuming your head is in range
• Builds that trap hostile mobs might need to be adjusted to be safe

NETWORK PLAY

• The Multiplayer mode of the game has been optimized to enable more fluid online play. If you have previously experienced disconnections or slow loading, this version may significantly improve that experience.
• The game world will now show earlier instead of the loading screen while loading into a world on a server
• Clients with extremely low-bandwidth connections will not time out while loading the world
• Clients with low-bandwidth connections can interact with the world while some chunks are still loading

MISCELLANEOUS MINOR TWEAKS

• Chorus Flower no longer provides support for hanging or standing blocks
• Updated structure icons on Explorer Maps sold by Cartographers
• When Villagers unlock new trades, the order of those trades in the UI is now always random instead of sometimes being deterministic
• The sizes of text fields in the user interface are now consistent with the size of buttons

TECHNICAL CHANGES

• History of used commands is now saved and accessible across worlds
• Optimized networking to improve the experience on low bandwidth connections
• The charts on the debug screen can now be toggled with F3+1 (pie chart) and F3+2 (FPS and TPS) instead of holding Shift or Alt while opening the screen
• Pressing F3+3 will now show charts for ping and received network traffic on the debug screen

COMMAND HISTORY

• The last 50 commands that you sent in chat will be remembered across game sessions
• You can access the command and chat history by pressing up or down arrows in the chat

NETWORK OPTIMIZATIONS

• Gameplay packets are now packed into bigger TCP packets to reduce overhead from TCP headers, significantly reducing network usage
• Chunks are not sent over the network to the client in one big continuous batch anymore
• Chunks are instead sent in smaller batches depending on the available bandwidth, meaning that:
• Clients with extremely low-bandwidth connections will not time out while loading the world
• Clients with low-bandwidth connections can interact with the world while some chunks are still loading
• Only chunks within the client's render distance are now sent

NETWORK PROTOCOL

• Players are no longer in the world when answering prompts and reloading resources

SECURE CHAT

• Clients will no longer disconnect themselves when receiving an invalid chat message

LIBRARIAN CHANGES

• Librarians from different biomes now sell different Enchanted Books
• Each village biome has one special enchantment that is only available from Master Librarians with full XP
• This means that players must visit all seven village biomes to get the full set of villager enchantments
• There are two secret village biomes where villages do not generate
• A player must build these villages to access their trades!
• Some enchantments have been removed from village trading and must be found in other ways

CARTOGRAPHER CHANGES

• Cartographers can now sell seven new Explorer Maps
• Five new maps show the way to five different types of village
• The other two new maps show the way to a Swamp Hut and a Jungle Temple
• Cartographers from different biomes now sell a different range of map

WANDERING TRADER CHANGES

• Wandering Traders now have lower prices and have a higher amount of each item in stock
• Wandering Traders now sell Logs
• Wandering Traders can now buy many items, instead of only selling

ARMORER CHANGES

• Armorer from different biomes now sell different Armor with different enchantments
• Buying Diamond Armor now requires a small amount of Diamonds as well as Emeralds
• Many other Armorer trades have been updated

TOTAL FIXED BUGS IN 1.20.2

• Around 200 bugs were fixed in this release. Wow!