Posts: 3,107
Threads: 96
Joined: May 2012
Staff roles: Balance Dev
Normally, ships have a (substantially) larger hitbox that's used only while the shield is up. Then, a skin-tight hitbox is used for the hull when shields are down.
Recent additions and remodels such as Sutinga, Sunrider, Chameleon and Blossom do not have said larger hitbox when shields are up. They're always skin-tight.
A pretty obvious and substantial advantage that is, fortunately, going to be fixed for the next update.
Here's the Sabre, a pretty good example. Left: With shields, Right: Without shields.
The ships mentioned have no equivalent of the left, much "larger" hitbox at all. As such, their shields are unusually difficult to drop.