Hi She-Wolf,
Glad to hear you're getting some R&R from RL, so to speak, and can finally close all outer hatches, stock up on canned food and sail out of port for some convoy attacks against zose Tommies
As a few of our comrades have said, the issue with the TC stuck at 8 is due to your being so close to land and in shallow water. This can be changed a couple of ways, easiest is through SH3 Commander. Here is a rundown of the settings I find most comfortable to use:
Realtime: 1 (Obviously!)
Maximum: 1024 (Some go higher than this, but I am rarely at max TC, and not for long in areas likely to see aircraft)
When Game Paused: 0
When Near Land: 128 (For the sake of my crew's fatigue levels when leaving and returning from port-See note below)
When Critically Damaged: 1
When Low Crew Efficiency: 1
When Enemy Plane(s) detected: 1
When Enemy Ship(s) detected: 1
When Receive Radio Report: 1
When Being Hunted: 64 (Have had mixed success in the past using TC when being hunted, best to shake off those pesky escorts in realtime)
When Hunting: 64 (Handy at night when you are Ahead Flanking to overtake your prey)
When in 3D Views: 32 (Very important you don't change this! This will affect your crew fatigue levels if you adjust it-See note below)
Character Animations: 4
Sound Effects: 2
Particle Rendering: 8
Note:In GWX and a few of the other supermods, travelling at 64 TC or higher does not cause your crew to fatigue, nor do they rest. It's a kind of handy limbo, if you will! This is based on the "When in 3D Views" setting, it is always 1 setting higher than your value for this. So, if you set your 3D Views TC to 64, you would have to run at 128 TC for your crew to stay in Limbo, if you set your 3D Views TC to 256, you need to run on 512 TC and so on. This is really handy as it eliminates the constant need to change your watches every so often due to fatigue. You still need to rotate your crew, but nowhere near as often. I've found that having 3 Bridge watches, and 2 for the Engines, Command Room and Radio/Hydrophone room works great. I can spend an entire week or more at sea and not have to change my crew around.
I pretty much use TC all the time, except when either hunting or being hunted. Generally I run it at 64 and settle back in my chair to read Das Boot or Iron Coffins
As for Bernard, I think it was Dowly who first brought our attention to this fellow. Bernard is the scapegoat for any and all mishaps that occur on board your boat. Dud torpedo? Bernard didn't set it right. Crash dive without getting depth under keel and hit the bottom? Bernards fault. Bridge crew don't spot an enemy until he's lobbing 4 inch shells down your conning tower? It's cos Bernard was on watch. Watch out for him, BdU has a habit of trying to slip him on board a new Kaleun's boat.
As I've said in another thread, I'm superstitious about Bernard. I won't sail out of port with a crewman named Bernard on board. Even the ones named Bernhardt are pushing it.
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: