Java Edition Combat Test 8c

Combat Test 8c is the ninth experimental version of a future combat revision which changes the mechanics of shields. Although it is a development version for a future release, this combat experiment is a fork of 1.16.2. This version was released only on Reddit, so it does not appear in the launcher or in any Minecraft.net blog post.

Gameplay

 * Shields
 * Fixed knockback calculations for shields
 * Disabled crouch-shielding while jumping
 * Shields with banners are now much stronger than normal shields (10 absorption instead of 5, and better knockback resistance).
 * This is just a quick way of testing different types shields without adding new items, and is not going to actually be implemented.

Video
Video made by slicedlime:

Trivia

 * Combat Test 8c has the same protocol version as Combat Test 8b, which means these versions are cross-compatible with each other.
 * This is also the first time 2 development versions have had the same protocol version excluding joke versions. The last one was on September 15, 2017, with 1.12.2-pre1 and 1.12.2-pre2.