A couple solutions to the problems raised here recently.

To reduce death porting while overloaded, put in a 30 minute debuff where your encumbrance cannot be reduced from it's pre-death amount. This wouldn't penalize a normally encumbered players, but players trying to port a bin full of bricks would be nearly immobilized for a half hour.

To accommodate the difference between low and high quality armor, on death degrade the durability by a set amount rather than a percentage and increase the durability of Artisan and Master armor. This would have the side benefit of making Artisan and Master gear more valuable. E.g. make the average starting durability of basic/Artisan/Master leather 40/80/120 with lower values for grass or cloth and higher for bone.