Craftable like a normal chest except the middle is filled in with a bone. If kept in an inventory slot , the chest will keep your inventory intact even in the event of death. In other words, no items flying out and spamming the server when people die. Only possible negative is that it completely removes the only penalty from dying, and one of the main incentives for killing other players. An even stronger version would be just to remove item loss on death altogether, but I think having it be a craftable option is more fun. Also this would rely on an event hook for playerDeath, which I don't think exists yet.
It isn't possible to create new blocks (yet i hope) with just a plugin, but it is maybe possible with existing items (for example, if you have a bone and a diamond block).
You won't ever be able to do this. Everything is a block. The "empty space" is actually just air blocks.
Good point abt not being able to add new block types to the game. But I did see this exact functionality in a mod for singleplayer beta over at minecraftforums. Wonder how it was done. Alternative method would be to make a chest and have a command to designate it as your death chest. Functions ala LWC's locking. Upon dying your inventory gets teleported inside the chest for safe retrieval.
Haha, yeah, but someday (I think) it will be possible to add a new block to your server (I mean like a purple block for example) and then the client will just download that block, just like in Garry's Mod, then there will be a LOT more possibilities for developers. I hope Notch will add something like this (but he hates client mods, so...) Ontopic: It seems to be a great idea, maybe someone will develop this.
Oh I see, sorry. I thought you were going to add a new block to the world. Sorry for getting mixed up.
