Ships & Modules

I get the idea that these modules are broken by design. I've asked E-Uni, RvB, Ninja Dojo, the Help channel and my own corp and no-one seems to be able to explain.



Compare the stats for the Passive Targeting modules. The only thing that changes through the T1 modules is CPU usage. Seems a bit uninteresting but ok, fits are fits and people pay for things that fit. That's not the issue here.

What happens when you get to the T2 module? It is harder to fit and uses more cap. But wait, there's this fantastic bonus of double the duration...

... except duration does absolutely nothing. The module doesn't cycle, it can't cycle, it doesn't need to cycle because the target stays locked forever once locked. The duration would be 50 seconds or 1 second and it wouldn't make a difference.

You can't even use it again so it can't be that either. If you have 1 thing targeted the module doesn't work properly. You are unable to select the module to use on an untargeted ship because it will just apply itself to whatever is already targeted. This is another reason I think the design is broken; the Passive Targeter activates itself on ships you already have targeted, with its little icon up on the the HUD next to the old target, staring uselessly at you.


Can anyone make sense of something I'm missing?

Imbalance is one thing, but these seem to not make sense from the start. The T2 mod is worse than the meta 1 mod in every way. The only thing that appears to be a benefit - cycle time - is meaningless. It appears to be more a big oversight than a balance issue.

The module does cycle. In theory, once the cycle ends, the target gets a yellow-box, showing that you've locked them. But thanks to :CCP: this doesn't reliably happen.



I think the module is just buggy and broken since almost no one uses them.

It's worse in function too, simply taking 2 more GJ to use it since it doesn't cycle. It fits worse and runs worse.

As Mfume said, I think it's just bugged or simply no-one ever made sure it works as intended. If it did cycle, and required constant cycling activation to hold the lock, then it would make perfect sense.

That would also solve half of the I-can't-passive-target-any-other-ships problem. Something would still need to be done about it's inability to be used when you have anything at all already locked.




Wow, I found a bug in Eve?

It can't repeat cycles, it runs once and stops. The target remains passively targeted so there would be no point anyway.

You could manually keep activating it, but this does nothing.


Edit - Nice avatar.

Yah, passive targeters are used for almost nothing but scanning potential ganks. If you want a more obvious T2 fail, look at target painters and ECM mods. The T2 versions are strictly worse in every case except cost, which is usually due to availability. T2 can be manufactured. Meta 4s are only available from rat drops.

Here's how it works:

You activate the passive targeter before you start locking your target. Then, when you select the target, the mod will cycle once. If you ship locks the target before the mod's cycle completes, then the target ship won't realise you've got them locked, until you do something hostile to them.

If it takes longer than 5 seconds for the T1/meta mods, or longer than 10 seconds for the T2 one, then your prey will notice the lock, and will see a yellow box.

The targeted ship only 'notices' a lock at the point where the lock is completed. As long as your passive targeter is still cycling when that happens, that lock will be invisible.

So it's not broken at all. Underused and underappreciated, but not broken.

The cycle starts when you finish the lock. Until you do, it's just flashing like a gun/ew mod would while you're locking something.

I'm testing it right this instant, and it goes flashy until lock just like every other module in the game.