The Setup Case

[Ven]

So i'm stumped.

I talked to All the relevant characters, and shown them all the relevant evidence but i've hit a wall.

I've talked to Zena and figured out that Dorian gave William something for the Bonsai tree, and i've shown the bonsai evidence to everyone related to the case. The Obvious thing seem to be to talk to Dorian, but he has been dead for a year.

I've shown The case file, Fertiliser, and Bonsai evidence to pretty much everyone, alongside the evidence entries for everyone related, to everyone, and still nothing.

Where am i going wrong? Do i need to progress the other cases first? I've submitted "Paper Trail" and can Submit "painkillers" but, considering this seems to be an...Optional case? (Considering we had a dialogue option to accept or decline re-opening the case) I'm afraid that submitting any more might result in it going unfinished or otherwise failing, for all i know.

EDIT: Welp, i've submitted all the other cases now, and this is the only one left. So yea....can't progress, unless i make a wild guess but it seems way too early for that, as i dont have enough information to even MAKE wild guess, without purposefully failing it by picking someone random.

EDIT2: I don't even care if i get it wrong. I just don't want to fail on purpose just to progress the game.
I don't even have enough information to make an extremely vague guess.
It's a 20 year old case. Half of the people involved have been dead for years.
Just how the hell do i even progress this? I've been staring at the PDA for well over an hour reading and re-reading things. I've quite literally gone around showing everything to everyone. I've scanned every inch of the ship.

Please help :(

[superdamokles]

You answered your own question in the first paragraphs. Just pick the person that illegaly procured the fertilizer and profited from it.

As you said, the answer lies 20 years in the past. The younger generation was not born yet and the chances are high that the real culprit is already dead, or should I say
"DAD" ?

[Ven]

But that's still not any kind of evidence? All I have is a vague, half remembered possibly made up mention from a woman in a mental ward. It's nothing more than speculation. Are you really telling me that there is nothing more to figure out and I'm supposed to make such a gigantic leap of logic with so little information? How does the bomb even come in to it? I'm missing something here, and need some direction.

[Dereknor]

There is no 100% evidence, you only get the information from Zena, that your father helped her somehow and that it had something to do with the ferilizer. When you talk to Orland, he is telling you that he had no motive to do that, because he was about to win the custody dispute about his son.

So its very possible that Zena meant by "helping her", that William helped her to win the custody dispute by using the fertilizer to make a bomb.

You just have to make this wild guess, because there is just noone else who could have been it. Orland really seems to have no reason at all and William was the only one who had fertilizer and who was in contact with Zena. And her hint is all you get that William was somehow involved.

[Ven]

Originally posted by Dereknor:

There is no 100% evidence, you only get the information from Zena, that your father helped her somehow and that it had something to do with the ferilizer. When you talk to Orland, he is telling you that he had no motive to do that, because he was about to win the custody dispute about his son.

So its very possible that Zena meant by "helping her", that William helped her to win the custody dispute by using the fertilizer to make a bomb.

You just have to make this wild guess, because there is just noone else who could have been it. Orland really seems to have no reason at all and William was the only one who had fertilizer and who was in contact with Zena. And her hint is all you get that William was somehow involved.

Thanks for the help.

Still, that's really dumb. Its crazy how you're supposed to make such a gigantic leap of logic. It makes no sense to me.

[Dereknor]

We never get to know what really happened 20 years ago. But we are actually just using this case to get more information out of Orland. So its not really the truth we are seaking here, but something to make Orland happy.
But even without solving this, you can finish the game. The information you get from Orland isnt that important.

[coldcut]

I'm in the same boat as you. There is zero evidence in this case, yet apparently you need to solve the case in order to progress the game.
There should be an option to talk to Orlando to declare the case unsolvable (which it is, 20 something years later), and if he still doesn't want to cooperate, he can go screw himself

[Dereknor]

I was kind of confused why he is so childish and wont talk with us. I mean, it might mean death to everyone on board, death to all mankind. But no, he is angry so he is going to sacrafice everyone xD

[grandparrot]

I'm finding this interesting as I had a hunch and found out I was right before talking to Zena, however I struggled with some of the other cases!

[Thalon]

Found another hint about the case: the bonsai tree you can find and scan in the chief's bunk at the start of the game, an healthy specimen that thrived well for years after leaving Earth compared to the one belonging to that janitor lady that didn't manage to obtain the fertilizer she needed from the agricultural department.

[dairy farmer]

I had this big thing written up about all the conflicts... until I submitted the other two cases first and it seems this doesn't need to be submitted to progress the story, which I guess makes sense. However, up until this point, the structure of the game suggests that everything needs to have a solution submitted, and I didn't see any real indication that this was optional.

I do see the appeal of the whole "cold case" scenario, and I think it's mostly well done, aside from the insanity of making a bomb on a space ark, risking the future of the human race. It's also really weird that I can't seem to talk to any of Orland's colleagues about his personal character or anything, and even Sergeant Adalrich, my own colleague, seems to have nothing to say.

I'm hoping to find some additional resolution or clues down the line...

e: nevermind; apparently I do need to force-finish this in order to progress. Forcing a resolution out of a cold case full of circumstantial evidence seems like a real mis-step compared to everything else leading up to this point.