It was suggested a while back to place a button near / embedded in the chat window that links to the wiki help page, in order to provide immediate assistance if nobody is available to answer questions.
While there is now a link to the help file in the top menu, it is still common for new players to miss this, and probably because chat visibly has motion, it is the most centrally noticeable aspect of the UI, and a good spot to put whatever is the most critical info.
This is similar to the marquee / countdown to next dev chat in chat window idea, so perhaps consider them in concert:
While there is now a link to the help file in the top menu, it is still common for new players to miss this,
Do we actually know this?
and probably because chat visibly has motion, it is the most centrally noticeable aspect of the UI, and a good spot to put whatever is the most critical info.
I would actually argue that it isn’t. In the game, the chat widget has already been made inactive by default, newcomers don’t see it. On the web-side of things, a certain player even created this user-stylesheet to get rid of it. It is even planned to have the chat widget be one of the final rewards for completing the early stages of the game’s roadmap. By that time, it is doubtful that new players need the help provided by the wiki page, specially since the dev team is currently working on a new comprehensive set of tutorials which will cover everything from the UI to solving techniques in switches.
From a general point of view, I believe the idea to be questionable as well. No single UI element should be overloaded with tools, and look like a swiss-army knife. If I click ‘help’ around a chat widget, I expect to be routed to helpful information about that UI element, not something else. It was the NOVA team who moved the screenshot button out of the chat area, and I’m completely with them on this.
Boiling it down: I cannot really tell whether a more prominently visible help button is (or will be) actually necessary or useful. However I’m quite convinced that the chat widget isn’t the right spot for it.