Upgraded from Eagle to Viper, I HATE IT (rant), any tips?

Finally saved up enough credits from bounty hunting and even had some extra credits saved (to be able to do some nice upgrades once I bought my new Viper). Last night I took the plunge and finally bought my first ship over 100k and was met with nothing but disappointment.

[The following text is simply one commanders opinion]

First off the cockpit is horrendous (I play with Oculus Rift DK2). I had so much visibility in the eagle and all the HUD elements seemed to be closer. The visuals were so beautiful in the Eagle, but now I see a ton of the ships ugly frame.

Second off the maneuverability is shit, not the shit, just shit. Maybe it is just my combat style, but I was unstoppable against NPCs in my modestly upgraded eagle, I was able to constantly fire at them, keep them in my sight, and get behind them with boosting. I was making 25k for about 25 min worth of bounty hunting (nothing bigger than a cobra or viper mind you). Yet here I am, in my newly purchased and upgraded Viper, getting indicted by a freaking "mostly harmless" sidewinder npc and I can't keep him in my sights for more than 3 seconds. He is constantly out of view strafing me with laser fire. Boosting and turning are not doing anything helpful (I have Saitek X-52 HOTAS), and it was at this point I was extremely frustrated/embarrassed and started yelling. I managed to eventually kill the sidewinder (after about 15min) with some lateral thrusting finally getting me some vision, but the frustration of taking so long to kill that puny sidwinder got me riled up. I am so tempted to go back to an eagle (I almost didn't sell it to begin with, but wanted more credits for upgrades).

What am I doing wrong? I am not an overly gifted combat pilot, but I like to think I am pretty decent when it comes to dogfighting. ATM I feel like trading up to the cobra as quickly as possibly so that I can be rid of this demon Viper, but if I can make this work I would like to. Is there anything that can be upgraded to help maneuverability?

Tldr;

Found out I prefer highly maneuverable ships with large visibility the hard way (by upgrading to a Viper). How do I make the Viper fun and not a waste of my time and credits?

Submitted February 26, 2015 at 08:58AM by BoomerFTW http://ift.tt/1LMEdTk