Mound of Hounds

Mound of Hounds is a small desert surface structure added by Born in Chaos. It is built of sand and sandstone around a single mob spawner that produces Dread Hounds, and three persistent hounds are placed inside it. The structure is rare in the pack's world, and the spawner keeps producing hounds while a player is nearby, so it is a site to approach with a plan.

The mod also adds a spawn item, "Spawn Structure: Mound Hounds", which places the structure at the block the player clicks. The item is not craftable and no loot table in the pack's data includes it, so the structure is normally found by exploration.

Generation

The structure generates in the Overworld, on the surface of desert and dry biomes. Its placement set lists 15 biome entries (14 distinct biomes): Desert, Joshua Desert, Saguaro Desert, Lush Desert, Desert Oasis, Desert Canyon, Ancient Sands, Desert Spires, Sandstone Valley, Wasteland, Dryland, Outback, Lush Savanna and Granite Cliffs. Terrain adaptation is set to thin beard, and the structure is projected onto the world surface.

Placement uses a random spread with a spacing of 35 chunks and a minimum separation of 2 chunks. The pack's sparse-structure tuning scales the mod default of about 50 chunks by 0.707 to reach this. The set holds only this one structure, so it does not compete with other structures for a placement slot. In a 26 km² survey sample of the pack's world, no instances were observed, so the structure is rarer in practice than the spacing alone suggests. Pack notes record that Born in Chaos horror structures are placed about 30% closer together, while deserts stay mostly normal.

Biomes (15): Wasteland, Desert, Joshua Desert, Saguaro Desert, Lush Desert, Dryland, Outback, Lush Savanna, Sandstone Valley, Desert Oasis, Desert Canyon, Lush Desert, Ancient Sands, Desert Spires, Granite Cliffs

Mobs placed in the structure: Dread Hound, Dread Hound (persistent)

Layout

The template is 5 blocks along x, 4 blocks tall and 5 blocks along z. Of its 100 template cells, 66 are air. The other 34 are:

• 15 sand and 9 sandstone blocks;
• 1 pile of skulls and 3 gnawed bones, both Born in Chaos decor blocks;
• 3 dead bushes;
• 2 skeleton skulls;
• 1 mob spawner, placed at the bottom level.

The structure has no chests, so it contains no chest loot.

Inhabitants

The structure's spawner is set to spawn Dread Hounds. It creates four hounds per spawn attempt within a spawn range of 4 blocks, with a delay of 200 to 800 ticks (10 to 40 seconds) between attempts. It only operates while a player is within 16 blocks, and it stops when six of its mobs are nearby.

Three persistent Dread Hounds are also placed on the floor of the structure. These use the "not despawn" variant, so they remain even when no player is near.

Tips

Clear the three persistent hounds before the spawner can add more, or approach from outside the 16-block radius. The structure has no chests, so there is no loot to collect from it.

Obtaining

• Natural generation: the structure is placed on the surface of desert and dry biomes, with placement candidates on a grid of about 35 chunks. Explore desert biomes to find it.
• Spawn item: "Spawn Structure: Mound Hounds" is in the creative inventory. It stacks to 1, is fire resistant and has common rarity. It is not crafted, and no loot table in the pack's data includes it.
• Chests and mob drops: none. The structure has no chests, and the Dread Hounds it places are the only mobs in it.

Usage

The spawn item places the mound with its origin at the clicked block. The structure extends 5 blocks along x and z and 4 blocks upward from that block. Air blocks in the template also replace existing blocks, because the item does not set ignore-air. Placing the item in an open area therefore clears a 5 by 4 by 5 volume above the clicked block. Each use sets a 25-tick (1.25-second) cooldown on the player's held item.