There's something wrong with the mounts. Using the cruiser as an example, the fleet editor view showing the firing arcs along with the high elevation arcs stated on the weapons seems to suggest that the side-mounted weapons can fire all around them on their respective sides, but even at an angle pointing the ship's left side directly at a target, most of the weapons report being masked by the hull and unable to fire. In this scenario 2/4 of the left side weapons can't fire, specifically the top mounted ones, and perplexingly when the invader rolls to expose more of its bottom side, only one of two bottom left mounts can fire despite having a view to the target.

Something similar happens on every side of the ship including the front, which makes the ship only utilize a fraction of its firepower when the majority of its laser cannons can't fire despite being in view of the target. I tested the front firing laser cannons on every ship from the frigate to the cruiser, and every single one has exactly half of its front facing weapons reporting masked by hull and unable to fire; and on every ship, it's the laser cannons towards top right and bottom left corners of the ship that can fire.

Much the same happens on the left and right sides, and during a battle when a cruiser's bottom left side was facing the enemy, the bottom right laser banks were somehow shooting backwards across the saucer at the target.