[SUGGESTION] Weapons function

Don't make this personal, that will lead nowhere.
Personally, making the laser do 40 damage (!) will, in my opinion, slow the game down an assload. FC's take a lot of fire when running the flag, even when supported (flag run when other team is camping with the lead). If laser did that much damage, if you have two more or less equal teams, you might get a cap every 10 minutes, and a whole lot more ragequits.
Regarding attracting mainstream players, I showed my friend nexuiz. He said that "all you have to do is hold space and fire". The mainstream plays games where you run up somewhere, hide behind a box, crouching, then fire one bullet, and then lather rinse and repeat. Is that what you want for xonotic? Because that is what it has to be to attract the average gamer.