I know that the team is currently toying with ways to make end game items more inaccessible. One thing that comes to mind is to make death erase all your knowledge of crafting recipes. This allows for some interesting gameplay to spawn. Essentially, death is much more costly, but it also affects KOS. A few scenarios that could emerge from this change come to mind:

1) "Scientists" are born. One player is fed blueprints in order to maintain a bank of crafting recipes for the group. His job is to stay alive, and craft for others. Add a risk / reward mechanic, such as, terminals or items that have to be researched far away from the base, that require the "scientist" to leave his comfort zone and rely on others to protect him.

2) People can be held hostage or recruited for knowledge. Say, for example, every day a small sub-set of players spawn one time with a crafting recipe by default. Say 10% of players get ONE spawn where they have explosive knowledge. They now have a bargaining chip for their naked caveman existence and can persuade other players to hold back the trigger finger, since if they die, that's less chances of a group getting a hold of that vital information.

3) Blueprints have worth. Right now they are destroyed/hoarded if no one else in a group can study them. They are basically useless at this point and just take up chest space and only risk giving opportunities to raiders. Technology can truly be sold and bartered for.

Let me know what you guys think.