Have you done any tests to see if ships you pulse all go down for the same length period of time,
I have not, I do feel like it does not really matter, All ships (at this point in 3.0) I have hit, gone down and I usually just hold my second blast until I see their shields start to flicker back. Also with this, most small ships when you take their shields out die very fast.
the maximum burst radius, how much of the ship needs to be inside the radius, etc?
I do not know, I usually blast ships within 100m and it works 100% of the time. My best strategy with the ship is to go in on a high speed first pass to avoid fire (I do not mean full speed, just fast enough that I don't get hit too hard on my way in usually between 200-150 the more guns they can point at you the faster you need to go) After I take down their ship on the first run, I slow down, turn around and recharge, when I have a target I start shooting, when I see the shields come back I am withing my 100m pop them again with the emp, match speed with them and finish them off.
I think there has been some language that because larger ships have their computer cores such a great distance from the periphery of the ship, you cannot for instance burst an Idris. Any idea if this is true? and generally to target a ship for a burst, do you go as close to the bridge as possible?
I have not had this issue with any ship in the game right now, as I said before they will be getting fixed, and we will have to wait to see what the fix does, along with what a ship the side of an Idris does against an EMP blast, right now with bigger ships like Cats I aim for cockpit as it weakest point on the ship when shields are down.