For the death system, you could force people into spectator mode when they die, and then after either a period of time or they go to a certain location, they ressurect? That would be a cool mod, could even add a meta about 'deathwalkers' or something.
I have an idea that I've already hashed out, based on an old mmo I used to play.
Since the server will have pre-built cities and outpost towns, this will be a great fit.
This idea will also punish the unprepared, reward those who are, and emphasizes the need to obtain currency to purchase death protection.
Currently, the idea for the mod is as such.
There are 4 primary aspects of the death system.
Corpse and decay, restricted respawn locations, item loss protection, and xp loss protection.
Corpse and decay:
When a player dies, a corpse with their skin is left behind.
The corpse goes through 3 stages. Stage duration is configurable. Each stage can also be turned off individually.
Stage 1 - When the player dies, the corpse enters this stage. The corpse will contain all loot the player had, unless protected via the item loss protection system.
The corpse can not be opened. If a player other than the owner tries to open the corpse, a chat message appears, identifying the corpse by name, and stating that it can't be opened/looted.
Stage 2 - After X amount of time, the corpse enters stage 2. At this point, the corpse can be looted by anyone.
Stage 3 - After X amount of time after stage 2, the corpse enters stage 3. At this point, 1 of 2 things can happen, depending on the mod's configuration.
Option 1 is the corpse decays into a pile of bones. Breaking the skeleton simply causes a random number of bones to drop.
Option 2 is a zombie. This zombie will scale in difficulty based on how many unprotected levels the player had upon death. The zombie will also grab one piece of random loot from the corpse, and will drop it upon dying. If that item is a weapon or armor, the zombie will use it.
Restricted spawn:
This mod will come with a config to disable bed respawning, which will enforce this system to be used.
Map makes will be able to place down a special creative-only block that acts like a bed in regards to respawning (but can't be slept at).
A player can right click any of these special blocks placed in the world to set their respawn location. So, when they die, they go there instead of their bed or the default world spawn.
This will be useful for map makers who want to designate things like graveyards or temples, or other kinds of restricted respawn locations, and give players some freedom over which of the limited locations they can respawn at.
Item loss protection:
This part of the mod will add 3 gems. Map makers can either set crafting recipes for the gems, or restrict them in their own ways like making them dungeon loot, or sell them via NPCs, etc.
Each gem has a function. Each gem must also be crafted with a ring or amulet to create a Ring of Loss or Amulet of Loss. When worn, it protects a certain part of your inventory from being lost when you die. The amulet/ring is destroyed as a result (configs to make it permanent or not)
Gem 1 - Protects your hotbar
Gem 2 - Protects your armor
Gem 3 - Protects your inner inventory
The gems can also be crafted together to create an omni gem. Simply put, it protects everything as a single amulet/ring, instead of having to wear 2 rings and an amulet.
Whatever items were protected obviously won't be found on your corpse.
XP loss protection:
This part of the mod will add 5 items that each grant a Blessing potion effect.
Each time you consume one of these 'holy items', you gain a stack of Blessing... so, Blessing I, II, III, IV and V.
There are two approaches to this, and I'm not sure what's best, but...
Method 1 - Each stack protects 20% of your XP. So, if you have 100 levels, Blessing I protects 20 levels. V is all 100.
Method 2 - Each stack protects X amount of XP. If X is, say, 10 levels, then having Blessing III will protect 30 of them.
Might see if both methods can be added with a config, and for method 2, be able to determine what X equals.
The idea here is that either a crafting recipe can be set for the holy items, or map makers can sell them from NPCs, villagers or add them to dungeon loot, etc.
Now, if you have, say, 100 levels, and you have Blessing V, and you die, the zombie in stage 3 from above's example will have zero levels, making it very weak... because, ya know, you kept your XP when you died. Otherwise, the zombie will have gained all 100 levels.
Oh, and I made a boat! This is the boat players can craft to carry up to 9 tradepacks.
And here we have a pass of how the terrain gen looks.