Actually every weapon has hidden attributes, the magneto laser should be armour piercing. Like the mauser has +20% chance to hit because it is "accurate".
It's called the Weapon Perk, most times it's "no perk", sometimes it's Long Range (larger perception tohit bonus), Accurate etc., and in the case of magneto laser pistol it's Penetrate, which divides the enemy's Damage Threshold by 5, rounding down.The weapon perk was invisible in FO/FO2, it should be visible in FOnline in the weapon description. It's what that "error" line should say, apparently.
he he... thats why is so useless against metal armors...