Am I supposed to at some cases just to guess the crewman?

[Woods]

Lets say I know a nationality, duty and cause of death of a crewman, but there are still two ppl who matches nationality and a role - so should I just guess at such cases or I need to search further?

[Lim-Dul]

You don't ever have to randomly guess or brute force anything though some hints are quite subtle.

[Raven]

There are instances where you determine someone because he's the only possibility left, but you should never have to blindly guess. You /could/ guess between a small subset of people, but you don't /have/ to. There are always clues to be found (though some of them are INCREDIBLY subtle and require you to make assumptions (Extreme spoiler warning: One example is you can determine which of the two brothers killed the Dane, and who the man who attempts to stop him is (despite the fact that his picture is still blurry) by examining the hammocks strung up in the memory directly before that one (which is the death of the artist). Specifically, there are empty hammocks strung up, and the numbers on them correspond to the names on the crew manifest. Two of these empty hammocks match two of the men who are escaping, and one empty hammock matches the man who was killed. ) )

[Woods]

Originally posted by TyrannisUmbra:

There are instances where you determine someone because he's the only possibility left, but you should never have to blindly guess. You /could/ guess between a small subset of people, but you don't /have/ to. There are always clues to be found (though some of them are INCREDIBLY subtle and require you to make assumptions (Extreme spoiler warning: One example is you can determine which of the two brothers killed the Dane, and who the man who attempts to stop him is (despite the fact that his picture is still blurry) by examining the hammocks strung up in the memory directly before that one (which is the death of the artist). Specifically, there are empty hammocks strung up, and the numbers on them correspond to the names on the crew manifest. Two of these empty hammocks match two of the men who are escaping, and one empty hammock matches the man who was killed. ) )

Oh, never inspected hammocks specificly. This must be what I missing. Thanks for the hint!

[Raven]

Originally posted by Katod:

Oh, never inspected hammocks specificly. This must be what I missing. Thanks for the hint!

Yeah, the hammocks are intended to be the way you identify something around 20-30 people if you don't do some other less concrete assumption shenanigans.

[Kazeite]

It's a very good idea to inspect hammocks in other scenes they are featured in - even if you can't see who's sleeping inside, you can pick up other clues, like personal items, clothing, or tattoos.

[Uhumsk]

One funny thing about the game: in the execution scene you can focus on the victim and get his face highlighted in the sketch, even though his head is covered with a sack. Same goes for the death of Wolff (the gunner), even though he has no head in his death scene. Yet everyone covers their entire face while sleeping (makes it harder to breathe) so you can't get them highlighted, even though the book still is able to discern everyone that was present in the scene.

[Ryusui]

The hammocks are pretty much the only way to concretely identify the Chinese topmen without guessing; you can, believe it or not, identify them by their shoes. The man Nichols shoots in Murder Part 3 can also be identified by his arm tattoo.

[Raven]

Originally posted by Ryusui:

The man Nichols shoots in Murder Part 3 can also be identified by his arm tattoo.

Luckily for me, he can also be identified by his very distinctive accent.

[Lim-Dul]

Originally posted by TyrannisUmbra:

Originally posted by Ryusui:

The man Nichols shoots in Murder Part 3 can also be identified by his arm tattoo.

Luckily for me, he can also be identified by his very distinctive accent.

Yeah, for most people there are at least two ways they can be identified. If you only get one hint it's a valid assumption (better than guessing) and if you get multiple ones, well, the more founded your assumptions get. :D

[genechtagazoink]

omg i finished the game without knowing every hammock is marked with the number! it would have been so much easier! but now i'd like to know why abraham akbar's hammock is labeled with X?

[Topkapi]

Originally posted by Ryusui:

The hammocks are pretty much the only way to concretely identify the Chinese topmen without guessing; you can, believe it or not, identify them by their shoes. The man Nichols shoots in Murder Part 3 can also be identified by his arm tattoo.

Oh god I tried to follow and notice the shoes of people but after few similarities I though everyone has the same and gave up, haha. This game is so precise!

[stevo]

There were certain instances where guessing seemed far easier than finding any clues. The best example of this is the groups of different ethnicities. I never found out legitimately who the chinese people were, and because there were only 3 left, it was easy to confim them. The same goes for the Russians. Aside from one being a topman, there never seemed to be any obvious clue to their identity. The group of English Seaman also had to be left until the very end, as there just seemed to be nothing for them. I've no idea why Botteril was deemed a 1* difficulty.
Also, a lot of the soldier ranks were primed for guessing. If I ever saw someone beside a Mate, I would guess them to be a Mate's Steward. Which is fine, but I question the logic of that as a clue. Surely a Steward would not actually be beside the Mate all the time. Also, the fates of missing peoplke during the Doom, while probably obvious, also seemed like a complete guess

I feel like certain clues that were hampered by the games design. Supposedly you could identify via clothing, but the monotone nature makes this rather silly. Also I figured you could possibly use accents, but again, it's not really something you can conveniently replay, and the dialogue is never attributed to anyone clearly in the scene.

Bitter Cold Part 1 could be used for some stringent cross checking and vague clues. But in the end, guessing seemed a far easier solution. Perhaps a better way of confirmation was needed to stop people from doing this.

[Uhumsk]

One of the russians has a distinctive shoulder bag with a pipe that hangs underneath his numbered hammock in Bitter cold part 1. He will be found carrying the bag or smoking the pipe in other scenes. The Chinese are distinguished by their footwear which you can cross-reference with the hammock numbers in the same scene. It is perhaps a bit silly that you are expected to do that with such low-detail graphics. Botheril's first name is Nicholas. In the next memory after his death scene, someone says "It's already got Nick!".

[Archbishop Desmond Calorie]

Originally posted by Ryusui:

The hammocks are pretty much the only way to concretely identify the Chinese topmen without guessing; you can, believe it or not, identify them by their shoes. The man Nichols shoots in Murder Part 3 can also be identified by his arm tattoo.

Yeah this is one of the things that really go beyond a lot of people. I too thought I had to guess at that point but going back through the scenes made me notice that in particular. Also, looking at the "x others were present" screens is a great way to determine who some people are or how they died. Because in some instances I looked at that and thought "hey wait a minute, isn't this guy supposed to be gone already? whats he doing here?"

There's only ONE single thing you literally have to, well not "guess", but "assume". And thats with the whereabouts of a certain group of people. You do "know" where one of them is, thanks to the book, but you don't know for sure, if the others also stayed there.

[Uhumsk]

There is another game mechanic inconsistency: in a Bitter Cold part 1, the crewmen sleeping in their hammocks are not listed as "also present in the scene". You have to discern their identity from comparing their footwear or tattoo with only scenes and referencing the hammock numbers with the crew list. In The Doom part 2, there are also several crewmen sleeping in covered hammocks, but this time they are listed as "also present". Lewis Walker gets unblurred in this scene: apparently you are supposed to deduce that the hammock next to Maba's belongs to the topman you can't otherwise identify.