[snip]
and whilst interdiction/evasion is tougher, it's not as impossible as it was (for me) in 1.4.
I just played for a bit to try out interdictions, and I agree with you, interdicting is tougher, but not as impossible as before.
I did six interdictions, and failed two. I find it hard to see the effect that the ship size or rank of the NPC are supposed to have, with the exception of an Elite FDS, which I truly believe I should have won, as I really did have my reticule on target / hard white, and still his bar kept rising, he was obviously on his mark too, and that made sense with him being Elite and all.
I still find the mini game to be a bit jerky at times, but not as bad as before, and I think they have eased up on when the reticule is considered to be 'on', at least it feels that way. A couple of the interdictions ended abruptly, but they were both in my favor, and not sure I really understand why that happens.
My overall impression is still that I don't understand why FD would make a game mechanic so punishing (and that's the best word I can use to describe it) when the alternative to it, flying around aimlessly in SC waiting for and then dropping into random signal sources hoping to find your target there is such a weak one. <shrug> And punishing it is, my two failed interdictions resulted in over 10,000 credits repairs, and I was even taking damage of close to a 1000 credits for each won interdiction. It's trivial in terms of credits available in the game, but still potentially puts people off using the mechanic.
