Scaffold Decay

Scaffold Decay

This datapack generates procedurally placed abandoned scaffolding towers and platforms throughout the overworld. These structures appear in plains, savannas, and desert biomes as tall scaffold formations between 8-20 blocks high, often featuring partial wooden platforms, chests with basic building materials, and scattered tools.

Core Mechanic

Scaffolds are unstable. While chunks containing them remain loaded, individual scaffold blocks have a small chance each minute to break and drop. This causes cascading collapses as scaffolding loses structural support. Players can harvest these structures for early-game scaffolding supplies or observe them naturally crumble into piles of bamboo sticks over time.

Technical Details

The decay system uses scheduled functions with randomized checks, processing only scaffolds in loaded chunks to maintain performance. No permanent terrain modification occurs—all structures are vanilla-compatible and despawn with chunk unloading.

Environmental Details

Occasionally, structures spawn with a single iron golem trapped within the scaffolding maze, suggesting construction workers who never returned. This creates organic world history and environmental storytelling through vanilla mechanics.