It should be punishing and very difficult, or at least much more customizable via server preferences in order to allow for different player experiences.

Before this play through of Valheim I was playing SCUM on a very punishing server (10x enemy spawn and enemy damage among other challenges). I enjoy severe difficulty and consequences to actions. I would love a hardcore game mode where inventory after death would decay over time: items disappear at random from the body inventory and be lost forever (for example something like every 10 minutes after death a random inventory item goes *poof*). The reason being that the high-risk means you have to be much more immersed in play decisions from food to loadout to tactics: you cant just rush an area knowing that the worst consequence from a death would be the inconvenience of recovering gear. Obviously this play style isn't for everyone, but I'd love to see something more for "hardcore" types.

On top of that I'd love a server option to disable portals.