I need some advice to help me solo a Cyclops. I've been trying in a heavily engineered Gunship but I keep running into three big problems:
My experience has been that you need to find what works for you to some degree. There is a pattern to the thargoid interceptor behavior but there are options on your side to dealing with it.
My observations:
I found that fighting the scouts was good practice for me using the gauss guns (fixed weapons). I killed many many scouts. That, I believe, helped me to be able to hit the exerted hearts on the interceptors. You can sub target hearts for a tiny bit of help, but I haven't noticed a lot of difference between just shooting them and sub targeting them.
Thargoid fighting is a lot less twitchy than hummie pirate fighting. Humans are all over the place. Thargoids are very methodical.
Exercising all the combat skills will help. That is, keep your eye on all the monitors. As the RL fighter pilots I once worked with would say at the briefings, situational awareness is something you don't know you've lost until you get it back. Monitor your fighter health. Monitor your health. Switch your power capacitors as needed for the situation. Know where the targets are and where they are going (you want to stay out of the 1k zone as often as you can). It seems like a lot, but when you practice it all seems to be running in what some people call bullet time. You almost feel like you have forever between actions.
Go in with a plan. Find one that works. There were many wounded interceptors before I killed one the first time. The good news is that after that, they become what some call easy. They aren't actually any easier, it is just you have the skill to kill them. Since the first one, I haven't failed in an interceptor take down. That's because once you have the skill and a plan that works, it works. Like I said, the thargoids are very methodical.
You might not use a fighter. I first started trying to kill the swarm with flak. I can eventually get them but it takes me so long the interceptor berserks and you get a constant stream of thargons after that. I then tried the fighter distraction method and that works for me. Sometimes the fighter just smacks herself into the interceptor but I have two in the hangar. Now, my pilot is elite, so that probably makes a big difference. My thargoid shooting last night was the fastest one I have done and she never lost the ship. Usually I have to use 2 or 3 of them during the course of an encounter.
I didn't get my first thargoid cyclops kill until something like 3 or 4 weeks ago (maybe even 2). I am now to a point where I wonder if it is time to move up to basilisks. I wanted to solo kill the cyclops to say that I could. I've gotten a taste for it now. I hadn't intended to go further but it is a thought tingling in my mind.
Wait, almost forgot to give my plan:
I have 3k+ shields and 2k+ hull. I have a 2 fighter hangar bay with elite pilot. I use the imperial fighter, not because it is the most maneuverable, but because I like the looks of the imperial fighter. The fact that it is super maneuverable is just a bonus.
I found that I can use 3 guardian gauss guns centrally placed on the cutter to do the job. I've done what I can to mitigate the heat, but (and this is another thing) overheat will happen but it isn't the end of civilization.
I tried other combinations of weapons with less success. Your mileage may vary.
The action plan is to scan then take out heart #1. I boost away (twice is usually enough, fa off) to where the interceptor is over 3k distance. I launch the fighter and send her to the swarm. If she doesn't smack herself into the interceptor on the way, great. If she does, then I launch the next one. She usually doesn't do the smacking maneuver, but it happens.
Then I FA on and turn for all I can to face the interceptor while reverse thrusting. Let it come to you. Once within 3k I can start shooting. Its panic shield isn't gone yet but I'm a bit impatient so I just shoot that off while it is coming in. I then stay on it maneuvering to stay out of the 1k range until I get the next heart. Then boost away and repeat.
Continue until it is dead. Watch for missiles and the shutdown field on heart 3 - either be far away if the field hits you or have a suppressor, which I do.