Minecraft Java Edition has just received the first snapshot of 2024. The developers finally returned from their break to deliver a boatload of new changes and fixes for the features arriving in the upcoming 1.20.5 update. Some notable alterations in the latest patch notes include new textures for armadillos, wolf armor, and a tiny visual change to the wolf's collar.This snapshot also sees some interesting changes made to breeze-and-villager-trading rebalancing, which can be found under experimental features in the patch notes. With the developers releasing 24w03a, Minecraft's 1.20.5 update has now received its third snapshot. Let's take a look at the features and changes introduced in Minecraft snapshot 24w03a.Minecraft snapshot 24w03a patch notesMinecraft snapshow 24w03a is here (Image via Mojang)New featuresArmadilloAfter gathering feedback from the community, Mojang has brought new visual changes for armadillo, armadillo scutes, and wolf armor.Armadillos now also spawn in BadlandsArmadillo rolling up behaviorSpiders and Cave Spiders will run away from Armadillos not in a rolled up stateChangesAdjusted the texture of the Wolf Collar layer to be more consistent with the new Wolf ArmorAccessibilityThe default focus is now always set when entering or exiting any menu while navigating using tab or arrow keysExperimental featuresBreezeBreeze now deflects all projectilesDeflected projectiles now deflect in the direction of the shooterTrade RebalanceIn the Trade Rebalance Experiment, Villagers who buy armor now ignore durability and can buy damaged armorTechnical ChangesThe Data Pack version is now 28The Resource Pack version is now 24Custom Villager trades can be configured to accept items that have different tags from the expected item byadding ignoreTags: true in the trade's NBTWhen entities leave or enter the end the area they arrive in will now stay loaded for 15 seconds, matching the behavior of nether portalsAdded transfer packetsAdded cookie packetsDecreased the default size of the spawn chunks and made the value configurableTransfer PacketsCustom servers can now request that clients connect to another server with a new packetWhen a client is transferred it will connect to the target server with a new transfer intent (id 3)By default servers will not accept incoming transfers and will disconnect the clientThis can be changed by setting the accepts-transfers property to true in the server.properties fileResource packs are maintained across transfersIn the case of a transfer custom servers can skip authentication with a new flagCookie PacketsCookie packets allow custom servers to request and store data on a clientEach cookie may be up to 5 KiB in sizeCookies may be requested during login, configuration and play phases — but only stored during the configuration and play phasesCookies are persisted across server transfers but are not persisted when the player disconnectsThis allows servers to pass along information such as authentication or custom game data to the new serverSpawn chunk changesThe size of the spawn chunks changed from radius 10 (19x19 entity ticking chunks) to radius 2 (3x3 entity ticking chunks)This was done to reduce memory usage, loading times and CPU usageWe opted to not fully remove spawn chunks to allow players who currently utilize this functionality to continue to do soAdded a new gamerule spawnChunkRadius to set the size of the spawn chunksPossible values are 0 to 32, where 0 completely disables the spawn chunks and 10 is equivalent to the functionality before this changeDefault value is 2, equivalent to 3x3 entity ticking chunksData pack version 28The minecraft:sweeping enchantment has been renamed to minecraft:sweeping_edgeAdded Advancement Criteria trigger default_block_use which triggers due to the default interaction of a block by a player, such as opening a doorAdded Advancement Criteria trigger any_block_use which triggers due to any type of interaction with a block by a player, such as using an item on the block or its default usageBesides these, tons of other interesting bug fixes and other technical changes are available in Minecraft snapshot 24w03a. Interested players can check the official patch notes here to learn about everything new in the latest snapshot.Coming as a surprise to most players, Mojang seems to be releasing armadillo alongside wolf armor in the 1.20.5 update for Java Edition. Initially, these features were supposed to be released with Minecraft 1.21 as a result of armadillo winning the Mob Vote 2023. Fortunately, fans won't have to wait for the launch of the 1.21 patch to get their hands on cute armadillos and wolf armor.