Server Lag Problem Found

I have good news and bad news. Good news: I found the reason our server is lagging (and why all of our previous servers lagged as well). Bad news: there’s no easy fix.

A few key mods are loading chunks whenever they feel like it without forge tickets. This is causing nearly everyone’s base to be at least partially loaded all the time, whether they are playing or not, and basically negating all my attempts to control chunk loading.

Details

• RF Tools
  • briefly loads every chunk that contains a matter receiver any time a dialing device is accessed.
• Refined Storage
  • loads every chunk within a network when any single chunk within the network is loaded;
  • therefore, if any chunk within a network contains a matter receiver, that entire network will be loaded when anyone clicks a dialing device;
  • loads all network chunks when attempting to use a wireless grid, even if the user is out of range and very, very far away.
• Applied Energistics
  • keeps the entire network chunkloaded all the time as long as any player is in the overworld (or whatever dimension the AE2 network is in).
• Other mods?
  • There are probably other mods causing similar issues. These are just the ones I tested and verified. Just about any kind of network or multi-block structure (anything that might cross chunk boundaries) could possibly cause the same problems.

Possible Solutions

• Keep matter receivers in a separate chunk from all other machines, especially RS systems or other networks (conduit, pipe, XNet, etc.).
• Don’t use AE2 in the overworld. … Yeah… I just said that, and I know it sucks. And, I’m not even sure how to approach this. I’m half tempted to just remove the mod from the server.
• Allow fewer players on each server. I had already planned on setting up new servers and freezing the whitelist on existing servers. But, we’ve already had over 45 people play on the Beyond server which is way too many chunkloaded bases.

I am still brainstorming solutions as none of the above are particularly desirable, and they require that all users cooperate with some complicated and restrictive practices. Of course, your ideas are welcome!