There are two ideas that occurred to me, although they may be totally unbalanced/just bad. The first is just something which, off the top of my head, I think Iskandar should know, and I'm also curious if he knew it already. (Should I tag him in this post, or will he just see it? Idk if that's proper "etiquette"...)
Basically, there is a config option for Sync that allows you to change the amount of damage taken from beginning a shell construction (in half hearts, in case you didn't know). When I play with Sync, I always set the amount of damage to 19 - that way I have a half heart left any time I make a new shell.
One thing to take into consideration, though, is that most people
don't know about this feature, so if you do change it, don't make it 19 - if you're missing even a half heart, you'll die. Permanently, because you didn't have the time to make a new shell.
The other, and more significant thing I thought of (although this does not exist yet, as far as I know, you may be able to ask iChun about it; I think this idea is good) is to somehow allow the "revival" of players, mainly in multiplayer (of which I do a ton, and therefore have interest in).
Here's the idea: Allow the extraction of DNA (or whatever) from a player to put in a shell constructor.
Here's the reason: Let's say I'm playing with one other person on easy mode. We both die once, using up the first shell. In order that at least one of us can survive if they die, we divert power from the extra energy cell to the other, so we have enough energy for
one more shell. Let's say that I complete that shell. We are now out of energy. Then, my friend
dies - and he's gone (It's unimportant whether I die at this point, as long as I have enough lives to go on). So, I'm sad.
But let's say that I also actually survive long enough to get an alright-ish house/fort going, and even some power for the now defunct leadstone energy cells we got. I want my friend back - I have enough power to make a new shell for him - but he's dead and gone, so there is now no way for him to come back without just unbanning him and having him make a shell (remember, this is MP), which is cheating and not fun.
Here's why the reason fits the idea: If I have a DNA sample from my friend, even though he is dead and banned, I can bring him back by inserting his DNA sample (if we had this idea-mod-thing, I would have collected one right after we both died the first time) into a shell constructor, thus unbanning/bringing him back without breaking the roleplay.
From the rest of you who are not Iskandar, please tell me why this is unbalanced (I'm sure it is in some way!), but most importantly, if you like this, tell me why and give it support.