I just saw your posts jwh1701, nice pics. Nice to hear you guys trying out ED again recently and welcome to the game ShoShasi. Hmm, are your shields and shieldboosters partially engineered jwh? I'm just guessing but maybe you need to have some more thermal resistance added to your overall shield resistance(?) Also a fighter pilot npc can sometimes be helpful when making a retreat or just used as interference to help against a tough npc ship. And the level of npc pirates gets higher the higher your combat rank is. So if you've done plenty of CZ's in your python and moved your combat rank up, you'll likely get tougher npc interdicting pirates. Also since Beyond 3.0 (around Feb.), the npc opponents have been upgraded and more are using engineered weapons of their own and varying weapon loadouts and maybe a few new different ai tactics.
Yes, I had heard maybe the interdiction duration could have been changed. I've usually submitted and fight off the npc pirates these days now in my cutter so I may be too safer in my cutter's shield shell with almost all engineer upgrades done. (The cutter with shields of course isn't invincible. Two hard-hitting vultures (or a corvette or anaconda) can wreck a cutter in a few minutes if it's just sitting there. FDev have done a decent job balancing and tweaking the overall combat modeling, imo.) However, the anaconda is thought by some to have the best weapon fire convergence of the big three. And just getting some G3 upgrades for the shields and boosters should be marginally good enough to resist the interdicting pirates longer, maybe.
A recent thread guide to the guardian modules hunt. Some spoilers, but the guardian FSD module can add extra jumprange, some spoilers probably:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/437846-Simple-Guide-for-Unlocking-all-of-the-Guardian-Tech?highlight=guardian+fsd+guideLots of designed background & structure assets added since Horizons , but many are spread out in the galaxy, as ED simulates realistic deep space decently. Another possible spoilerish guide:
http://elitedangerous.hozbase.co.uk/interestingsystems/nearest?system=sol&distancely=100000For myself, recently in ED I've just been doing cargo runs for some allied factions in select pledged space for my cmdr. And enjoying the vistas as I make the trips. My rebuy for my cutter is costly (35mll) so I try to keep safe and retreat if my shields are down and it's getting nasty. I also tried the Krait last month and the rebuy is much less after upgrades. (~ 8mil) Well, I mostly enjoy flying the cutter because it's the most like a heavy airliner and I was a FSX /w pmdg.com nut fan before ED. I think FDev have been improving the visuals through this Beyond year gradually. Looks better all the time.
Beyond Q4 is slated to have the biggest updates yet with new and updated mining features , and some exploration scanning probes along with new "carrier" ships /w carrier wings for player groups. And hopefully some new announcement for future content soon, or later this year where Frontier staff have hinted at new but unnamed content to come , which will be announced when "ready". o7