First Murder...or "In the future attempted murder isn't a thing"

No, I would lock them up for atempted murder.

But that wasn't an option now, was it? I either had to exile him for a crime he did not commit, or let him go.

I have interpreted it as an attempted murder with extenuating circumstances, and exile seemed like an appropriate punishment for it in frontier setting. If he did commit a murder of his superior,p officer, he would have to be executed, but the game did not give that option, so I think you already are presented with an attempted murder, rather than murder and conspiracy to mutiny. Pardoning him was not an option at all for me, because it's not about his shot hitting the mark or not. He cannot be a member of the frontier group in survival curcumstances, he is a huge liability and cannot be allowed to be able to tell his story of how he disobeyed his superior, shot him and was allowed to go free.

I agree that the quest should have had more outcomes. Execute, exile, and pardon.

The only badly written things in this thread are people's attempts to make this mission something bigger than it really is.

You were asked to follow up on an investigation.
You chose to follow up on an investigation.
You investigated. It was shown that the accused was no the perpetrator but had intended to do it regardless.
You can choose to follow the written law or release him on account of extenuating circumstances (suicide mission)
You can choose to follow the spirit of the law and exile him on account of extenuating circumstances (situation on Nexus)
Consequences ensue

It seems like a pretty tight chain of events. I don't see where it qualifies as objectively bad writing. There is a premise, investigation, and a conclusion that all follow from one another. There are no detours. No lefts or rights. X -> Y -> Z with plenty of context from discussions and logs. Some appeals to pathos is included (stressed wife, station morale). All this for a mission that takes less than 5 minutes in total.

So it appears then that people's conclusion of "bad writing" stems entirely from the culmination of the mission as a result of two choices being presented.

....except there are literally only two possible states. On or off the ship. There are no other possible states. On of off. There's no half-on. There's no half-off. There's no all shades in between. That's the state of the Nexus that has been established. There are no resources for complicated middle-grounds like jail. 

You can either release him from prison or keep him there to be exiled. Either way he's on or off the ship.
If he's on he gets punished with community service and lives with his choices (wife leaves him). If he's off the ship he's off the system.

Of course people were also quick to call this "limited" or a "contrived moral choice" when in reality it's just the result of there only being two possible states in that scenario. On or off. 

What is this magical something else? There is literally no other option. On or off the ship. How difficult is that concept to grasp?

You also had PLENTY of context from discussions to testimonials to logs. Even appeals to pathos. All this for a 5 minute mission chain that is at best tangential to the plot.

The Pathfinder was given the choice. That was your preference. Did you want a "fill your own choice" or something? This is a video game, not a fanfic.

And you DO find out the consequences. Go to the cryo bay. He's asking to be returned to stasis because his wife left him. Did you want to check his logs to see if he's enjoying picking up trash?

Maybe try reading what you are responding to before responding mate, I just said I didn't have an issue with that approach. 

No, you do not get told BEFORE making the decision that he will still be punished, you do not get an explanation as to why he can't be imprisoned. There isn't really much in the way of insight into how the legal system on the nexus works and why there is a dilemma here at all. They were obviously going for the idea that this ruling of exile was symbolic and legitimised the authority of the Nexus's leadership but that was not translated very well into the actual quest. This leads to issues like mine when I am thinking my character made one choice but they actually made a different choice and I just hadn't been informed properly of this until afterwards.

So again, please read my posts if you are going to argue with them if you are happy with that quest then good for you but do not try and turn my criticism into something it is not just because you dislike criticism of something you like, it's childish. 

It's not just about the limited options. The verbal reactions from characters like Tann and the suspect suggest that's a common belief that attempted murder just isn't a punishable offense, that unless your attempt is successful there's no rightful consequences. If this is really a thing among Turians or Salarians, or just the citadel races in general, it's odd that none of the humans ever tries to recognize that disparity. No one ever considers it a legal course to alter the charges against him, which is actually pretty corrupt. Either we're punishing him for false charges, or not applying any murder related criminal charges at all.

For my part, I was largely okay with the second option, which led to Tann giving him labor. That seems like a wise course, because you're still making use of a resource and it's way more humane than exile. The problem wasn't the options, it was that we set a precedent for a corrupt legal system with everyone acting as though that's just how things are supposed to work.

Despite what I said about how I viewed it, I also put him on community service. Then again, I'm also colonizing near the Exiles and have made peace with them.

i was worried about it at first but chose to "Free" because exile isn't really a practical choice in the situation, and Tann mentioned he'd be doing community service for "his part in the chaos" which I took as close enough to punishment for the attempted murder.  especially since the Nexus can't really afford to be jailing people much.  its either get to work or get out.

I personally released him because he did not actually kill the person, was operating under extenuating circumstances, and figured he'd deal with the fallout himself once the truth got out.

Then how come I was unaware he would get community service if I didn't exile him? How come I was unable to ask about the punishment for things like attempted murder and lying to authorities? Did I miss part of the quest or was it simply not there?