Some additional balance comments:
The Hydra multi-gun frigate has the same sort of weapon arc issues the dragon did - the two outer turrets don't overlap enough at the front for the AI to realize it can fire them both at the same target. That said, this may not be a problem here; turning sideways trades one side turret not being able to shoot for allowing the rear turret to be in-arc, and even with extra overlap, it'll still occasionally turn to bring that rear gun to bear.
The Shotgun Driver is, much as I hate to admit it, a bit overpowered right now; it should probably cost at least double, and maybe as much as 6x as much flux to fire.
The Heavy Massdriver, however, could use some sort of buff; it does less dps than both the burst-damage-specialized shotgun driver, and than its own medium slot counterpart. I might increase any of range, rate of fire (and ammo count), or damage-per-shot (and flux-per-shot) - but probably not all three of those things.
Oh, and since I haven't mentioned it already: those new pirate sprites look awesome.