Part of the problem is also server cpu usage related. Each item that stays in the "world" has what is called a think function. This function is executed every X milliseconds to check to see if the item needs to do something. An example might be a proxy mine. It lays there on the floor and every .1 seconds it checks to see if anyone is in its "blast" radius. If it finds someone, the think function calls the explode function and the proxy mine blows up. Every item in the game basically works that way... from flags to triggers to dropped ammo. It all basically "thinks" every so often. You can increase the "think frequency" at the cost of increased cpu usage... so to some extent its a balancing act... how often does this item need to think about what is around it in order to do what it is supposed to do. It sounds like our lasers and such might be a little too slow sometimes. Those values were set (for the most part) 4 years ago. They could probably be increased without much drawback on server performance but it would have to be played around with. ;)