Whoever said that piracy currently is in a good state in disco is an idiot. Just take a look at how the current so called pirate factions are faring - almost all of them are just doing supply runs in transports for their allies rather than actually pirating. However the problem with it is much deeper than just one type of transports.
Now, someone said that doing the correct thing is to pirate in a small transport - something like a Bullmastiff or a BWT. The problem is that the most unfun and annoying type of piracy - cargo piracy - is simultaneously the easiest and the most profitable. This is the reason that pirating on anything other than a Junker is just simply not profitable and not worth the time. You can park a Junker in Kepler or Sigma-13, blue people and sell off stuff just one system away for a really good profit. Meanwhile a bomber player who'd just demand 3 millions from a lone trader would laugh and keep thrusting to the nearest base because very rarely will a bomber have enough power to take it down before it reaches the station or backup arrives.
Now let's consider some types of situations you can get yourself into as a trader.
Alone vs VHF
VHFs should be able to kill transports while under fire from a turretsteering pilot with turrets other than Dulzians in about the time it takes to thrust 50K (which is about an average distance between solar objects in disco)q2w. With an escort VHF vs VHF
In this situation the escort should be enough for the pirate to let the transport escape and/or for the escort to kill the pirate. Alone vs Bomber
Flying into a pirate bomber should not be an instant death, but rather an unavoidable one. Bombers should be able to kill a transport without a problem, before they can reach a docking point. With an escort VHF vs Bomber
Again, here the escort should be able to kill the pirate bomber before the bomber can destroy the transport. This is a crucial point in balancing the system and the hardest one to tackle. If we lived in a normal combat environment where snub duels with reloads take a minute and not half an hour this would not be a problem and would balance itself without much of an issue. Alone vs Transport
Well, put simply, whoever has the smaller transport and more armor should be able to win this. Not really rocket science. With an escort VHF vs Transport
This should also not be a problem, however one important thing to note is the ability of the escort to bump out the pirate transport which should be acknowledged as a valid tactic in this example because, well, it is the only way to stop the pirate from catching up to the trader. Alone vs Gunboat/Cruiser
Transports should be able to thrust away from gunboats and cruisers, and currently they can for the most part, so it's okay.
Now my suggestions for the balance:
Add an external hardpoint for the shield on transports that's easy to hit from point blank with a SNAC or from a distance with a Nova which cannot be destroyed with vhf guns or transport turrets. This would ensure that bombers can knock out transports easily.
Remove the ability for transports to mount Capital Ship thrusters, reason as above.
Halve the effective fire rate of SNACs, multiply their damage by 1,5 and make it so that SNAC and Nova drops the bomber's shield after firing. That would increase the effectiveness of fighters against bombers. Alternatively significantly increase the damage done by SNACs and Novas while reducing bombers to HF armour and shields for the same reason.
Increase the damage and spread of Charon transport turrets while lowering their projectile speed and significantly reducing the damage to shields. Buff the transport pulses. That would ensure a snub escort can bump an opposing transport for the trader to escape.
