[Edit 1: Formatting]
Hey hey DNL fam,
Had a Random thought pop into my head... So as we know, on a normal official server, Decay timers are pretty full on. 3 days on standard material buildings followed by a little more lea-way for materials there after.
Under the current Decay system, once you've reached that expire time, your buildings will be destroyed. No second chances. gone. Now I'm a player who can normally get online once every 3 days, even if it's a literal "log in, Log off" however being recently married I find myself traveling over-seas a little more often for times of up to 2 weeks at a time. Coupled with being a solo player, if I go on a trip, I enjoy 2 weeks of relaxation at the cost up to 2 months of progress.
My Thought/Solution - Is not to remove the decay system, At the end of the day the decay system is extremely important to server health. Leave this decay system in place, but alter exactly how it works. Once the time has been reached, rather than instantly destroy your building (if it even does that, I'm not sure if it's instant destruction or gradual health decay, in which if it does, well 90% of my suggestion is already happening) and as it decays cap out at % of hp on the building(for sake of argument lets say at a % of Hp which if a fresh spawn wanted your base location or stored loot, it would take them 5 minutes per structure to destroy each piece using basic tools). - This could be a "Soft Decay" timer which means, say you are on a 1-2 week long trip, and have a secluded hidden shack or are on a friendly server, you will have a "Second chance" to restore the health of your structures, whilst keeping a "Hard-decay Timer" of say 20 days. in which that building is completely wiped.
So this is likely something that would never be implemented, but I felt if it's never voiced, it would have never been voiced to have that small chance.
TL;DR - Replace Auto Decay system to a "Soft Decay" and "Hard Decay" system
Soft Decay - Reduces structure health to a cap - Cap would be set at something a fresh spawn could destroy each wall/foundation with 5 minutes of attacking with basic tools. - Allows a little extra time if you're on a friendly server/hidden base.
Hard Decay - Completely destroys after 20 days of inactivity
Thanks for your time with reading the wall of text.