More of a Question

Will Futurecraft end up as a mod you install on to your server or will it be a specific server version such as Craftbukkit

Futurecraft is going to be a total conversion mod. It is better to look at it as a separate game than a simple mod. I think what we will do is release an installer which copies the minecraft.jar and makes a new folder just for Futurecraft. This way, you will run Minecraft and Futurecraft as entirely separate processes. The Futurecraft server will work the same way, being its own program. Eventually, I would like to have Craftbukkit style plugins available, to allow the community to further mod their servers for things like economy or setting up NPCs and mission scripts.