I fly a FDS, and love it to pieces. It's awkward, and generally "outclassed" by similarly priced ships, but it's wonderful. Flew a python for a while, and ultimately "downgraded" back to the dropship. It's just so much fun to fly.
As far as PvP goes, I've been quite successful. I imagine someone who knows what they're doing could cause me some serious trouble, but most people see the dropship and just don't try. I've killed 3 vultures because they thought ramming me was a good plan. Not so much. The dropship is a BRICK.
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The dropship actually has a pretty massive blindspot above and behind it. The bottom hardpoints obviously have no LoS there, and the side ones are blocked by that big armor plate thing on the top, and the little wings.
As far as PvP goes, I've been quite successful. I imagine someone who knows what they're doing could cause me some serious trouble, but most people see the dropship and just don't try. I've killed 3 vultures because they thought ramming me was a good plan. Not so much. The dropship is a BRICK.
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PvE: I've noticed a difference. I wouldn't call it any "greater difficulty" exactly; what's happened to them in PvE is that the FD made piloting irrelevant by packing NPC-FDS full of turrets. Before, you could outmaneuver the NPC-FDS and win in any ship that was quick enough; now, no matter how good you are, it's just pure, straight attrition. From the front, from behind, from either side, diagonal... no matter where you are, if you're in range, it can shoot you. Skill is so close to completely irrelevant that you might as well just sit still and shoot at it; if your hardware is better (whether you out-DPS them, out-tank them, or spam more SCBs and chaff) then you win; otherwise, you lose.
I repeat, this is just in PvE. How they perform when piloted by a live player, I have no clue. I can see them being dangerous in the right hands.
So the NPC versions are not really any harder to beat, they just have higher hardware requirements.
The dropship actually has a pretty massive blindspot above and behind it. The bottom hardpoints obviously have no LoS there, and the side ones are blocked by that big armor plate thing on the top, and the little wings.