MOSS Usage

[Tusken Gaper]

Hi all,

When firing a MOSS there seems to be an 'active' waypoint like a torp. Does it make simulator sounds the minute it leaves the tube or does it only start simulating once it reaches your firing waypoint?

Also I'm assuming for the purposes of firing one at a convoy and having them FF each other to death, they would detect it as a launch transient and fire down it's line anyway correct?

Or is its launch stealthier than torps and they only detect the MOSS once it has reached its launch waypoint and started simulating?

Just struggling to understand the nuts and bolts mechanics of its deception as they all have differing effects on its potential usage.

[toinkertoy]

Everything I’ve seen (from using it and videos of others using them) suggests it starts simulating the sub noise upon launch! I’ve launched them when torpedos are danger close (the activate marker way out ahead) and instantly torpedos will go for it! I suspect the activate waypoint marker you set is simply a launch direction tool.

Firing one at a convoy won’t lead to friendly fire now days. Thier torpedos (both enemy warships and enemy subs) have a depth ceiling and won’t hit surfaced targets. Enemy subs however are another story!

MOSS is a swim-out weapon so does not make a launch transient sound like a Mk. 48 does. It’s more like the Mk. 37 that’s also swim-out!

Addition: I should prolly note for clearity here that enemy torpedos CAN hit your boat if you surface just not AI units that are surfaced! The AI just isn’t that smart so they put in a depth ceiling to eliminate friendly fire. However then players used that to thier advantage by surfacing thier subs to avoid a torpedo so KFG changed that.

[Tusken Gaper]

Lol I thought that straight away! Glad you addressed the surfacing thing - bit disappointing as I'd like realistic constructs as the obvious answer to surfacing is Warship surface fire which is the MOST threatening and scary of all choices. If you can make a super dangerous surfacing work to avoid torps by jumping out of the pan and into the fire then I say more power to you! Oh well.

If this was a feature that Soviet warships used then I'm fine with it but if its simply KFG implementing synthetic difficulty then that sucks...because that was in incredibly satisfying strat to pull off and by no means fool proof. :(

So yeah, instead of the MOSS being used as a proactive cat among the pigeons, it seems its pretty much now a straight reactionary countermeasure to torps and detection tracking.

The best part though is at least i know!

[toinkertoy]

Well the ultimate issue is the AI not being smart enough to fire thier torps without inadvertently hitting their own units on the surface like a brand new World of Warships player in a destroyer! Having a depth ceiling on a torpedo on the other hand isn’t that far fetched! The only imperfect part of this scenario is the torpedo magically knowing how to hit your boat when surfaced when it can’t hit others! But I guess it’s the best they can do!

[Tusken Gaper]

Well I personally didn't have an issue with them torping each other unless one of my MOSS's got into their formation or I managed to evade into them and shed the torp at the right moment.

One must remember that the torps are usually missile dropped and/or have an activation point so it does negate almost ALL stupid FF incidents. The prospect that some accidents are possible actually gives me more of a feeling of authenticity as I'm sure a Soviet fire control man nervously firing on a recently identified US attack sub with superior technology could in some marginal instances be prone to misfire or set his activation point incorrectly or indeed have an escort charge ahead at the wrong moment.

I personally prefer it when devs improve their AI as opposed to coding in 'magical' synthetic barriers that spike difficulty or take away features for the same reason because they view it as cheese when in reality it can be hard to actually pull off if you don't get all factors lined up correctly.

I just personally think if you're going for casual sim then if you're looking at features or combat - introducing clearly gamified barriers or rules just detracts from the experience.

One thing I WOULD buy wholeheartedly though, is if in the 80's, naval powers had perfected any kind of IFF signal technology that does repel friendly torps. I would have thought that'd be one of the first technologies in development that coincided with fire and forget munitions. Then again I don't know if that tech existed then...or now for that matter?

[ordaa777]

I've been destoryed by my own torpedo on one occasion when taking on 3 Akula's in the China campaign. I wished there was a signal that could be sent to self destruct all torpedoes even if their wire was broken to prevent something like that from occuring. It was such a furball that I lost track of all the Russian torpedos in the water and somehow the lone US from my own sub one locked on and got to me. Of coruse it happens after I defeated the Akula's lol

[Tusken Gaper]

Hahaha yeah thems the breaks ay!? :D

[ordaa777]

Haha yep, went back to the last save (learned early on to save manually after each successful mission) and then the same thing almost happened while defending Taiwan from an invasion. In this case not only did I lose my own torpedo it actually acquired one of the surface escorts and sunk it, I orignally launched that torpedo at a landing ship but long story short I was forced to break the wire early to dodge a helo dropped fish.