Items shouldn't despawn!

sword and weapon racks in general are planned for the game. You can avoid despawning items by making a plugin that spawns them in place when the server starts and makes sure they stay spawned during the game.

you would have to ask @red51 for the specifics but if I remember right he said weapon racks and armour mannequins will be a thing at some point

@Minotorious is right, things like weapon racks or tool racks (to hold tools instead of weapons) are definitely planned We are also thinking about a way to place items in the world (anywhere you want), but we're concerned that a high amount of placed items might cause performance issues for the server Nevertheless, it's on our list^^

The permissions files already allow you to prevent items from being picked up/crafted/dropped. Each has a subcategory of general,chest, body. These let you fine tune what items are allowed and denied when accessing a chest or whatever is on your person. I forget what general does. Search for "permissions" on the forum and you should find a template and examples of this. You can deny * then allow the specific items you want. Or just explicitly deny the items you don't want.

Quote from migdyn

Is there a way to disable item despawning until the devs add it to the game?

yes using a plugin you can keep an item spawned in a specific place forever (World.spawnItem(...)) just call the function just before the old item despawns

Quote from red51

@Minotorious is right, things like weapon racks or tool racks (to hold tools instead of weapons) are definitely planned We are also thinking about a way to place items in the world (anywhere you want), but we're concerned that a high amount of placed items might cause performance issues for the server Nevertheless, it's on our list^^

Yes this idea of a "visual inventory" by using weapon/tool racks or stockpiles for wood and stone adds so much to a game. Games like Medieval Engineers and Stationeers use visual inventories. Being able to place items anywhere in the world would be very tasty also. I hope it wouldn't be to damaging to performance.