The server simulates your entire factory every tick, whether players are near it or not. Performance is about factory size, not players.
Symptoms
- Belts and lifts stutter for everyone at once.
- The server's tick rate (shown in the Server Manager under Server Status) drops below 30.
- Autosaves take longer and longer.
What helps
- RAM headroom. Watch the panel's resource bar. Above 90 % the server swaps or gets killed; upgrade in the dashboard (it applies on restart).
- CPU share. Satisfactory is single-thread heavy for the tick and uses more cores for saving and networking. 2-4 cores (200-400 %) in the plan.
- Fewer, longer belts. Thousands of short belt segments cost more than a few long ones; the same for pipes. Merge where you can.
- Trains and drones add a lot of simulation; keep routes sensible.
- Restart weekly (Schedules → cron). The server accumulates memory over long sessions.
When nothing helps
A late-game mega-factory can outgrow any shared plan. Tell us in a ticket what your save looks like; we can move it to a bigger machine or advise honestly if it is time to prune.