What are the pros and cons of either? Which do you prefer?
Electrobolt+Cannon vs Electrobolt+Laser
I prefer electro-bolts and cannons if I am going to combine weapons on a ship.
The reason being, lasers take power too, so you would need a lot of generators. Especially when you take into account the need for shields as well, which takes energy.
The Cannons take little energy so I don't need all those explosive generators.
Its really down to costs. If you don't have the money, lasers are a cheap weapon that you can stock up on.
But once you get positive cash flow, cannons and then missiles are the next step.
electrobolt+cannon is more efficent
Electrobolt and cannons are easy to maintain constant firing foe long periods of time. If the ship is not built for large energy consumption, laaers will be a pain
Lasers have more damage density and are generally easier to fit in. Reactors are also easier to fit in because they can have doors anywhere and you need fewer. Lasers also share infrastructure with electrobolts. Lasers are faster and thus more accurate. Lasers have a much wider firing arc that allows them to trade density for protection, which isn't possible with cannons.
Cannons have some penetration and firestarting and don't get shut down by enemy electrobolts. They're also cheaper, but no longer by much as of their most recent nerf.
In terms of damage output per cost cannons beat lasers by a really large margin still.
Even with the cost increase to standard cannons, last time I checked they still give around 40% more damage output per credit compared to lasers. The issue is that lasers take too many crew and too much power. I am pretty sure the laser could be 1,000 credits and still have worse damage output per credit than the standard cannon.
Large cannons are interesting because they get a huge damage boost from penetration once they start hitting ship part rather than shields or armor (at which point their damage far exceeds all other weapons due to the shells applying damage many times).
That's why I like electro-bolts and cannons. The electro-bolts can weaken the shields, then the cannons can smash the rest of the way though the shields, then decimate the enemy ship.