Once you have entered the mission, click the "i" in the red starburst in the navigation compass. That will display everything except the after-mission debriefs.
I didn't realize that even existed until a guildmate pointed it out to me during an AE mission.
I love this idea, I had to copy-paste all the text from the contact when I ran an with my SG. 
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Once you have entered the mission, click the "i" in the red starburst in the navigation compass. That will display everything except the after-mission debriefs.
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Yes, that is the very display that i am saying is terrible, buggy, and ought to be replaced with something of higher quality. Although, I will double-check when I can, because I have always just hit the mission window "more" button, so maybe the red "I" thing is different.
Like I said:
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Some of the text is only available to the leader. If you are not the leader and want to read the mission text, you have to use this tiny window, that can't be re-sized, and everytime someone on your team sneezes it resets your scrolling in that window so you lose your place.
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Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
I'd also like a running log of all the mission briefings, send offs, and debriefings for the arc. It's easy to forget something that was mentioned in one of those but no included in a clue, especially if you've split an arc across a couple play-sessions, and only the leader gets to see the debriefings as well right now.
I agree completely. That was kind of what I was picturing; I am glad you found the words for it.
The resizable window might have tabs for each mission, then each tab would have sections for the Intro Text, Send Off text, Pop-Ups, and Return to Contact text. You could even have it include the text for going back to contact while the mission is still in progress, if you wanted.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
I'd like to see an entirely different mechanism for storytelling and contacts. I think this is what the devs should have done in the beginning, but didn't. If MA ever gets a map editor, hopefully the devs will enable the following method.
To start, I want all contacts to be instanced and not on the open zone maps. So if the message comes up to see Azuria, for instance, the arrow points to a door, not to a figure in Atlas standing in a glowing circle.
When you click on the door you enter into Azuria's office, magic lab, etc (one of many custom locations). When clicked, Azuria gives a chain of dialog events, which are composed of dialog balloons, animation, and custom timing for each event.
So the team gathers to receive the mission from Azuria (except maybe for one person who is out buying enh and tells everyone to go ahead, because it always seems there is someone afk or shopping, lol). When clicked, Azuria explains through dialog balloons the background for the next mission. When she is finished, players leave the instance and upon exit the new mission auto-appears in the nav window.
This system requires 4 new design tools for the MA:
1) Either the ability to make custom maps or a bevy of small (single room) maps for use by contacts.
2) The ability to click on a NPC (or other object) and have it execute an event.
3) Dialog events (which feature onEvent trigger, dialog text, optional animation, and time delay before chaining to next event).
4) The ability to make the contact's micro-mission chain to the next real mission, and upon conclusion of the real mission, chain to the next contact micro-mission. This function already exists with contacts, but it might need to be adapted a little bit to allow the shift from an open zone contact to an instanced contact.
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I'd like to see an entirely different mechanism for storytelling and contacts. I think this is what the devs should have done in the beginning, but didn't. If MA ever gets a map editor, hopefully the devs will enable the following method.
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Not gonna work. The size of the chat window where you see NPC dialogue is much smaller and usually full of different colored text, which means the font size needs to be a bit bigger than what the game can get away with elsewhere.
Also getting 8 people to click a door and go into a place is way more of a roadblock than you realize. Now you have to zone into the instanced briefing room and then go back out and then zone into the instanced mission?
Also also this ruins the idea of getting a contact's cell. Why bother calling if you're going to need to show up in person to hear every little thing?
A mission log as a presentation of the text you could have seen (before click: intro text. On click: accept and bug-me text. On mission clear: return success/fail depending text.) works for everybody on the team, whenever they want to catch up with the story. Maybe they don't particularly care about it but want something to do to fill the time while everybody else heads off to empty their salvage bin at the black market.
Up with the overworld! Up with exploration! | Want a review of your arc?
My arcs: Dream Paper (ID: 1874) | Bricked Electronics (ID: 2180) | The Bravuran Jobs (ID: 5073) | Backwards Day (ID: 329000) | Operation Fair Trade (ID: 391172)
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whenever they want to catch up with the story.
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That feature is important to me. Not only do I want to be able to open the Mission Log window to re-read, I also want it there in case we decide to zone in and start right away, but later in the mission I get some time and can then open the mission log to read it for the first time.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
Yes!
List of things only the leader can read currently:
Mission debriefing (mission return text): This is ESPECIALLY important for the final mission, as it is typically the ending of the story, which up to 7 out of 8 players completely miss out on.
Mission "Accept" text (if it has been altered)
Also, objective completion text is only seen by the person that clicks the glowie or gets the defeating hit on the boss. It should be seen by every member on the team.
The user interface for reading mission text has always been terrible unless you were the leader. Now that we have Mission Architect, I really think the decision to leave this area crappy should be re-evaluated.
It is my opinion that everyone on the team should be able to access a mission log window that would function similarly to the contact dialogue window, just without the interactive "accept mission" bits. This window would include all the text from the contact (ideally, also including a way to read information about the contact).
The current system generally forces everyone to wait while the leader reads the mission briefing/return to contact text. Some of the text is only available to the leader. If you are not the leader and want to read the mission text, you have to use this tiny window, that can't be re-sized, and everytime someone on your team sneezes it resets your scrolling in that window so you lose your place.
I believe this system can be improved dramatically and feel it would have a great impact on people's enjoyment of the game.
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.