Ok, have played a couple of hours on the server and have some feedback. And i mean feedback, not criticism. I know how much work goes into projects like this. I tend to look at things from the perspective of a game designer, not a player. I've got two degrees in mathematics, own game stores for 25 years, and have done both game design and math modelling. Add to that a huge amount of playtime on the old MIningDead server using some similar mods and the Mortuus Terra world gen.
Assumptions: -A harder server where you have to work to survive, and harder to get things done.
-Rare resources (-Ores And Resources Are RARE! Iron Is Almost As Rare As Vanilla Diamond!)
-Rarity of resources force a player to expose themselves in dangerous areas where the undead pose a threat.
Feedback:
-Mobs are dangerous. Hordes of them at night, and while it's possible to move around, you had better keep moving or they'll swarm you. Dark buildings provide problems during the day, and mobs don't magically go poof in sunlight.
-Mobs do however seem to clear when you die. So getting rid of them just means dumping your gear in a chest and suiciding.
-I like the random teleport when you die, but it's almost like free exploration, since you have /sethome and /home. Now if you had to actually work your way back to your base after each death, that would be a real disincentive to dying. Possibly the cooldown for /home could be something like 5-15 minutes.
-Ores/metals aren't rare. I started a mine and got 13 iron ored 2 layers below ground. Add to that thousands upon thousands of iron grates to melt down and there is no iron shortage at all. Other ores appear in the rock of buildins and streets. I saw copper, silver, platinum, tin, etc. Meteors will be bringing down a lot more. Setting world gen some ores only generate below 50 would fix the problem of ores in streets and other areas where stone is used.
-Coal blocks. Thousands of them, each with 9 coal in them.
So right off the bat, i've got a lot of ores, plenty of coal, and will have plenty of armor, weapons, torches and can get working on machines. (I do see that you mentioned the problem of the 'oasis', if that get fixed it goes a long way to making food tougher.)
So it just depends on the level of difficulty you want. But I'd suggest:
-Setting ore to be more rare, and much deeper. People scavenging for iron in the city to meltdown fits the theme, but if they have to hunt hard for tin/copper etc for machines, it adds to the struggle.
-Substituted something else for coal blocks in world gen. Just too easy of a powersouce. Some buildings will give you stacks of coal blocks.
-Add longer cooldown to /home.