Minecraft Java Edition 22w18a snapshot patch notes: Allay changes, new place command, and more

It has been a week since the last Minecraft 1.19 snapshot release. Mojang is once again ready with another new snapshot bringing several changes and features to their upcoming major update, The Wild Update.

This week's snapshot focuses on the winner of Mob Vote 2021, allay, and the monstrosity of deep dark caves, the warden. Snapshot 22w18a brings some interesting tweaks related to the warden and allay.

The snapshot 22w18a also features various technical changes and a brand new command. Let's dive straight into the patch notes for this week's Minecraft 1.19 snapshot without further ado.

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Minecraft 1.19 snapshot 22w18a patch notes

Changes in Minecraft snapshot 22w18a

• Allays now follow their liked player even if they can't see them
• Allays will only lose track of a player if they are more than 64 blocks away
• The texture of the sonic boom particle has been updated
• Vibration listeners such as Sculk Sensors, Sculk Shriekers, and Wardens now listen to the closest vibration instead of the first vibration in the tick

Technical changes in Minecraft snapshot 22w18a

• Banner patterns available in the Loom can now be controlled with tags (banner_pattern/no_item_required for no pattern item and banner_pattern/pattern_item/* for specific banner pattern items)
• Servers can now define different chat style formats for clients
• Removed the placefeature command
• Added the place command
• The bundled Java runtime has been upgraded to 17.0.3
• Removed loot table function set_goat_horn_sound
• Added loot table function set_instrument
• Chat from the /say, /msg, /teammsg, and /me commands are now all also cryptographically signed

Chat types

• The server can now control different chat style formats through the chat_type registry
• These are synchronized to clients when they join the server
• The translation key or translation format can be defined, like chat.type.text or %s says: "%s"
• Chat can be similarly optionally narrated with a custom translation key or format
• The entire message can have formattings applied, such as italics or a specific color (but currently not click or hover events)

New place command

Minecraft 1.19 snapshot 22w18a introduces a new command called place, which will replace the placefeature command added in older snapshots. Players can use the place command to place various structures, features, and jigsaw blocks at some point in the world.

Syntax:

place feature <feature> [pos]

place jigsaw <pool> <start> <depth> [pos]

place structure <structure> [pos]

• feature: The namespaced id of a feature planning to place
• structure: The namespaced id of a structure planning to generate
• pool: The namespaced id of a template pool to start generating
• start: The namespaced id name of a jigsaw to use as starting anchor
• depth: The maximum number of jigsaw connections to traverse during placement
• pos: The position to use as the origin for the generation (if omitted, default (~ ~ ~) is used)

As expected, snapshot 22w18a continues to improve the game's performance and environment by fixing tons of bugs. Interested players can check the official patch notes for the latest snapshot and learn about all the changes and bug fixes.