I am definitely interested. I've had an itch for a multiplayer semi realistic civbuilding game since I started playing in the stoneworks Minecraft server. I've searched everywhere but I've never encountered a Minecraft server that satisfied the itch. This doesn't necessarily seem like it will go in a civbuilding direction but it still might scratch the itch anyway.

I've tried hosting a vintage story server on an sbc before and I'm pretty sure I saw somewhere in the command line the game going something like "no players are online, stopping clock". I'm sure it wasn't worded anywhere near like that but you get the idea, the game could already be doing the stopping time when no one is online thing by default.

Sorry for the formatting, I'm on my phone while taking a shit

It's been a minute but I'm familiar with how to mod the game if you need some simple tweaks like the ideas you mentioned, if they haven't already been addressed. I believe there are some food mods that also extend food preservation even further. For the most part though, food cultivation gets easier as you progress through the game so it's not a huge deal in established settlements., especially if you have plenty of livestock.

I definitely don't have that much time right now, but I have a few hours a week I could spend on the server. Hopefully I'll have more time in a few months.

This is kind of an aside, but I used to be on the mod team of a Minecraft server called Nations at War. We built a huge library of mods that essentially turned Minecraft into a small scale MMO. There was a whole suite of features we built such as a custom chat system, the ability to make parties and nations, repeatable instanced dungeons, custom currency, custom classes and abilities, point systems that tied to how nations could form and expand, and a whole crazy invasion system which was a little bit like a 'king of the hill' scenario. Plots of land could be saved so that after an invasion, territory would revert to what it was before the invasion, and you could claim territory this way.

I've always kind of wanted to revisit the idea by creating a whole new meta-game with Vintage Story. Doesn't have to be warring states, hell, could be something more communist in nature, I dunno. I'm in the middle of another game project that will probably take awhile, but it is something I'm open to discussing and maybe pursuing sometime down the road.