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Creating Your First Hockey Arena

This comprehensive guide will walk you through setting up a MCHockey hockey arena from start to finish. By the end, you'll have a fully functional game ready for players to enjoy!

🎯 Overview

Creating a MCHockey arena involves:

  1. Basic Setup: Create the game and define play areas
  2. Team Configuration: Set goals and spawn points
  3. Game Activation: Enable and test your arena
  4. Optional Enhancements: Add advanced features

⚡ Quick Setup (Minimum Requirements)

Step 1: Create Your Game

First, create a new arena configuration file:

/mchockey create game1 My first game

Pro Tip

You can copy settings from an existing arena instead: 

/mchockey copy existing_game new_game My new game

Step 2: Verify Creation

Check that your game was created successfully:

/mchockey list

Expected Output: 

game1 [My first game] [disabled]

✅ Success! Your arena exists but is disabled (normal for new arenas).

Step 3: Get Setup Tools

Obtain the selection tool for marking areas:

/mchockey axe

Enable visual highlighting to see areas while editing:

/mchockey highlight game1

Visual Aid

Highlighting makes boundaries visible with particles/blocks, making setup much easier!

🏟️ Define Your Playing Areas

Step 4: Mark the Playing Field

The playing field is where all hockey action happens.

  1. Select Corner A: Left-click with the axe
  2. Select Corner B: Right-click with the axe
  3. Apply Selection: Run the command
/mchockey select game1 field

Playing Field Selection

Important

Make sure your field is large enough for players to move around comfortably!

Step 5: Set Team Goals

Each team needs a goal area where points are scored.

Red Team Goal

  1. Select the goal area with your axe (left-click + right-click)
  2. Apply the selection:
/mchockey select game1 red_goal

Blue Team Goal

  1. Select the opposite goal area
  2. Apply the selection:
/mchockey select game1 blue_goal

Goal Selection Example

Step 6: Set Ball Spawn Point

Position yourself where you want the ball to appear when the game starts:

/mchockey location game1 ball

Best Practice

Place the ball spawn at the center of your field for fair play.

🎮 Activate Your Game

Step 7: Enable the Arena

Once all areas are defined, activate your game:

/mchockey toggle game1

Step 8: Verify Success

Confirm your arena is now active:

/mchockey list

Expected Output: 

game1 [My first game] [enabled]

🎉 Congratulations! Your basic arena is ready!

Step 9: Test Your Arena

Players can now join in two ways:

  • Walk into the field: Automatic join
  • Use command: /mchockey join game1

🔧 Enhanced Setup (Optional)

Improve Player Experience

Set Leave Spawn Point

Prevent players from being teleported to random locations:

/mchockey location game1 leave_spawnpoint

Configure Team Spawn Points

Give teams dedicated starting positions:

/mchockey toggle game1

/mchockey location game1 red_spawnpoint

/mchockey location game1 blue_spawnpoint

/mchockey toggle game1

🏆 Create a Minigame Mode

Transform your arena into a structured minigame with lobbies and time limits.

Step 10: Convert to Minigame

/mchockey gamerule gameType game1 minigame

Error Messages

If you see errors, don't worry! We'll fix them in the next steps.

Step 11: Set Lobby Spawn Points

Players need somewhere to wait before games start:

/mchockey location game1 red_lobby

/mchockey location game1 blue_lobby

Step 12: Final Activation

Enable your completed minigame:

/mchockey toggle game1

🎖️ Advanced Features

Outer Playing Area

The outer forcefield and the playable area is the same when using the default configuration. However, you may want your players to be able to move outside the playable area for certain scenarios (e.g. throw-ins, corner shots).

  1. Select Corner A: Left-click with the axe
  2. Select Corner B: Right-click with the axe
  3. Apply Selection: Run the command
/mchockey select game1 outer_field

Time Periods & Overtime

Configure half-times, breaks, and overtime rules by editing your game1.yml file in /plugins/MCHockey/arena/. See the Customization Guide for details.

Referee Mode (Patreon Feature)

Set up real hockey games with full referee control. See our Referee Guide for complete setup instructions.

🆘 Troubleshooting

Problem Solution
Game won't enable Ensure all required areas are set (field, goals, ball spawn)
Players can't join Check that game is enabled and players have mchockey.command mchockey.join.* permission
Ball doesn't appear Verify ball spawn point is set within the playing field
Areas not visible Use /mchockey highlight game1 to see boundaries

✅ Next Steps