Redstone Fortress

I really, really like redstone. It's a quirky logic puzzle and it's utterly ridiculous -- both things that make something great, in my book. (It's the same reasons I like Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition, even though it's perhaps the least-elegant gaming system I've ever run across.)

In any case, I'll be making some changes to my server (50.23.67.132:25617 -- contact me for a whitelist to join us!) with Bukkit and other mods. Among the changes:
●We'll be adding monsters, but disabling or altering Creeper explosions. Dankcraft turned off their explosions entirely, which is kind of a shame -- they don't inspire much terror there, but their ability to level hard work and allow monsters to stream into your base is incredibly frustrating.
●John really wants furniture. (I do too, but he really, really wants furniture.) We'll be looking for a mod that adds some decent-looking cobble, wooden, etc. chairs and tables.
●There's a great-looking dinosaur mod that I absolutely adore, but I hate its rules -- it spawns aggressives in packs (and server lag means that's essentially a death sentence) and it gives T-Rexes the ability to eat through blocks to get to a character. It also only spawns dinos near a rare block that it adds. If I can change the mod's properties, so dinos are more common, less lethal and can't break blocks, I'll go ahead with it.
●I'd like to have an iConomy plugin replace OP spawning abilities -- the idea being that you could trade in your extra goods for items from the server. Something like 512 cobble: 1 diamond (which is honestly too low, but it's about right for a tiny operation more interested in building than mining). I like mining, but I hate having to mine, if that makes sense. I'll probably have too-high cobble:other values, though -- let people trade in their extra iron, Lapis and cactus for building material, dontcha know.

Finally, I'll be clearing a 30,000ish square meter area to begin work on a massive redstone fortress. The idea is to have a mob-impregnable, self-sealing exterior and a fully automated interior; I want to base it on a real-world castle, but with fantastic, steampunk elements. A centralized rail-cart system will replace the basic one for new players at the Spawn Tower, which will be relegated to "interesting building" status. The ground level -- which will be at sea level -- will be the ground floor, but I plan on dedicating basement levels to redstone circuitry. If you've got an idea for the castle, post it here -- or if you have a suggestion for an interesting real-world castle to base it on.