Core Concepts

The in-game /maze help concepts menu introduces the terms used by commands and chat panels. This page explains those same ideas with examples. For command syntax, see the command reference.

The captured cards above show the first concepts page. Scroll within chat to see its heading, or use its page controls for the remaining terms.

Cells and Blocks

A cell is one position in the maze’s logical grid. The width and depth supplied to /maze create count cells, not Minecraft blocks. Walls and paths expand that grid into the structure you see in the world.

For either horizontal axis, the block span is:

cells × (path width + wall thickness) + wall thickness

A 15 × 15 maze with paths 3 blocks wide and walls 1 block thick occupies 61 × 61 blocks. Increasing path width makes the same logical maze larger without adding cells. The chat panel displays both cell dimensions and the physical block dimensions.

Geometry

Path width controls the walkable space inside each corridor. Wall thickness controls the barriers between corridors and around the boundary. Wall height controls how far those barriers rise above the floor; a preset can also add a ceiling.

Presets supply geometry defaults. Creation and preview commands can override them with --path-width, --wall-thickness, and --wall-height. See generation and geometry for sizing and limits.

Presets and Difficulty

A preset is an editable YAML theme. It combines geometry, block palettes, decorations, generation settings, and the information shown in chat. Select one with --preset hedge, for example, or browse the available themes with /maze presets.

Easy, Medium, and Hard are configured descriptions of the intended challenge. Changing that label alone does not reshape a maze. Saved mazes retain the settings used when they were created, so editing a preset does not silently update existing structures. See the preset reference and in-game gallery.

Seeds and Complexity

A seed is the number that starts the generator’s deterministic random sequence. Reusing the same seed, dimensions, and generation settings reproduces the same layout. Omitting --seed lets Maze Engine choose one; inspect the saved maze to reuse it later. Changing geometry or theme settings can change the resulting structure even when the seed stays the same.

Complexity is a value from 0 to 1 that adjusts generation biases. Higher values favor longer, more winding branches. It affects layout choices rather than wall height, corridor width, or the block palette. Use --complexity 0.7, for example, to override the preset’s generation biases.

Perfect and Braided Mazes

A perfect maze has one route between any two cells. A braided maze adds connections to the initial layout, creating loops and alternative routes. Both start with Maze Engine’s configurable Growing Tree generator; the generation page explains its decisions and the braiding pass.

The personal route guide uses breadth-first search to find a shortest route from your current cell to the exit. Its arrows adapt as you move and are visible only to you. They do not modify world blocks. See route guides.

Origin and Selections

The origin is the structure’s floor-level starting coordinate. By default, a player’s maze begins 3 blocks east and 3 blocks south of their position, with its floor 1 block below their feet. Supply --x, --y, and --z together to choose an explicit origin. Console creation also needs --world.

A WorldEdit selection supplies a cuboid that the maze must fit inside. With --selection, Maze Engine calculates the largest logical grid that fits the selected area and checks the available height. Do not combine a selection with explicit dimensions or coordinate options. See creating mazes for examples.

Placement Modes

Placement controls how construction treats existing blocks:

Mode	Effect
CLEAR	Replaces the target volume with the maze and its corridor space
SAFE	Requires air above the floor; the floor may contain air or configured replaceable blocks
REPLACE	Allows air or configured replaceable blocks throughout the volume

These policies do not bypass region permissions or overlap checks. Players must leave the construction volume before an operation can edit it.

Previews and Snapshots

A preview is a temporary personal display of a proposed maze. It creates neither world blocks nor a saved maze record. Once planning finishes, its Create button submits the retained specification for construction; Close removes the display. Leave the target volume before creating it. See private previews.

A snapshot preserves the original terrain, including block data, through WorldEdit or FastAsyncWorldEdit. Request it with --snapshot when creating a maze if you want the option to restore that terrain later. Regeneration keeps the original snapshot baseline. A snapshot is separate from the saved maze layout and is not automatically created by a preview. See operations and recovery for removal and restoration policies.