So essentially, open up the clue window to show for all team members, and include contact dialog and the like while copying over in-game NPC text. (Just as a quick read to it.)
I'd say it'd be most asked for for task/strike forces. Not sure as a "permenent memento" for heping with others story arcs, though. That could just get cluttered.
I think this would be a good edition to most, but especially would make MA writers happy. Half the time I'm trying to figure in that only the leader is seeing something and have to minimize information everyone should have there.
Dec out.
The biggest problems are the return text when you finish each individual mission and text from people like D-Mac when it isn't the main part of the arc. Everything else can actually be read in the Mission tab but consolidating it plus displaying the aforementioned parts will be a great help.
This is one of the best suggestions I've read. I like everything you said up there and specifically in the way you've described them. There's one thing I infered from your post (I'm not sure you implied it but I think you did) but that wasn't stated explicitly so I'm going to explain that here:
Just as chats can be saved to file, this SB could also be saved to a file. The file should be nearly human readable, maybe in XML format or some such, so that it can be looked at outside of game as well as in game.
This would make it very easy for people to go back and have actual mementos of excellent teams from long ago. For those of us with major cases of alt-aholism this would be a massive boon. It would allow us to remember which people we've teamed with and give us mnemonic queues to help our recal of which ones we liked and which ones we didn't. I have many a friend, especially global friends, that I haven't teamed with in ages and just can't remember why they're on my list. Making notes on players is fine as far as it goes but putting in enough detail to actually trigger memory can take quite a while such that it's not feasible when on an active team.
So very much super-/signed
--If we can have huge sig images, why can we have only five lines of text?
--...faceplanting like a Defender pulling an AV (Nalrok_AthZim)
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
...I have the patience of a coffee-fueled flea...
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Thanks for the feedack; keep it coming. 
Coyote, I had not specifically thought of saving the Story Book to a text file, but it is a great idea.
Memphis_Bill, the Story Book would not be saved permantly unless the player so commanded. It could, however, have some continuing life after its arc were completed. Perhaps users would be given 4 hours to read and/or preserve it's contents. As I stated, uninterested users could be given the option to auto-delete Story Books automatically at the end of an arc.
-- Rich
* Thresholds CoH: What to do When
* My Comics Collection
It's not necessarily easy to follow the underlying story of even one mission, not to mention arc or task force. And MA stories can even be harder to follow because of often unfamiliar foes and goals. Stories are revealed in pieces, including contact blurbs, mission-entry pop-ups, clues, foe descriptions, the chat window, and now even disembodied text voices. I propose a consolidated Story Book window to contain all elements of the story in one place, accessible by all teammates, inclusive of all missions in an arc or task force. (For simplicity's sake, I'll use "arc" from now on to encompass single missions, arcs, task forces, and strike forces.)
Traditional details could remain in the places they currently are; I envision the Story Book as an addition, not a replacement. Thus players who like things they way they are could ignore the Story Book and receive/ignore story elements as they have become used to doing.
The Story Book (SB) would be a team-wide entity during the arc, and could be permanently saved by each player as a memento when the arc is complete. Thus players who arrive after the first mission could still access the whole story, even if they weren't part of all of it.
The SB would automatically grab all the story elements available. When a contact or other NPC speaks to you (dialog box or disembodied voice), that text would be stored in a Discourse tab, whether interactive or not. When you come upon foe or foes for the first time, their descriptions would be stored in a Foes tab. Mission-entry and mission-complete blurbs would be stored in a Chapters tab. Teammate names would be stored in a Team tab. Etc.
Each story would be divided into chapters (missions) and sections (each triggered event would commence a new section). Each tab of the SB would reflect this division so that the separate elements could still be tracked sequentially. Perhaps the main SB window would allow the reader to choose the chapter and section globally, or perhaps all tabs would scroll along with the currently-selected tab. There would be an option to not automatically delete the Story Book at the end of an arc. (IMO, this should be the default behavior, but the option would be there for players who don't care about story.
The Story Book would likely prove most beneficial to Mission Architect stories, but any multi-mission arc would benefit. The devs have been adding new elements to standard missions, such as multi-part NPC conversations and disembodied voices. Thus even the "standard" content will see significant benefit as story complexity continues to grow.
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By all means, I'd like feedback on this idea, both positive and negative. Other ideas to expand/refine this concept are especially desired.
-- Rich
* Thresholds CoH: What to do When
* My Comics Collection