(warning) before i have all the hate... the power consumtion can be disabled, and would be a perfect replacement for ep3. Enchanced portals 3 is a mod that allows people to create portals to go to diffrent place (point a to point b) . there is also many other things you can transport with ep3 such has liquids and items. It is also a huge improvement from ep2. We did have ep2 on previous alice 1.6 deux and id think it would be great to be able to visit friends and such. The mod is very customizable as well. link: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/minecraft-mods/2178842-enhanced-portals-3
The last iteration of Enhanced Portals broke the server for a while. Another mod with portals was suggested (Lantea Craft), but nothing seemed to come of it. Anything to get rid of that train system would be great, though.
We can place water blocks on top of MFR road blocks. A bit hacksy, but it works and accelerates players to about 75 m/s.
Mek portals are okay. They don't chunk load, so you'll need a spotloader on each side, but that's a cheap investment. I don't think they use too much power either. And they're relatively cheap. They don't have an address book, but it's not hard to write down a little list of sub-10-digit codes or put them in a text file.
Only in the Twilight Zone. Nah but seriously I'm fairly certain each side needs to be loaded. Yes, I'm not trying to say Mek portals are better, I'm saying we can make use of what we have until they are either added or whatever. Oh boy the fun I'd have building the SGC...........
I'm building a landing site for a Daedalus but without a gate room the outpost just won't be the same D: