I popped on to the site, downloaded and ran BatClient. The 'Introduction' page popped up. I closed the Introduction without reading it all. After creating a character and rerunning BatClient, I was clueless about how to control BatClient. Why?

I had not read the large, bright blue line in the Introduction that said, "Press 'Esc' for menu" and I had no clue how to being the Introduction page back. It wasn't until I managed to wander into the "Client' channel and someone mentioned the Esc button to bring up a menu that I figured out what I needed to do.

There needs to be a Menu button or something to direct a lost noob to the right location.

Hi,

Correct. The v1.97 does not (by default) have the "task bar" anymore. As you found out, the options which used to be in the "task bar" (bar on the bottom side of the client v1.94 and older) are located behind "Esc" (or alternatively through "ALT-F4", in the case where you've bound Esc to clear what you've typed, like in the zMUD client).

The old functionality is also still available and you can restore the "task bar" by typing /taskbarShow (and re-hide it by /taskbarHide). Alternatively, also this is available through unlocking Settings -> Hide bottom taskbar.

The reason why this change was made is to give more space for player preferred windows; however it does seem that the new way is somewhat counter-intuitive (though many games have the exact same operation?) We will review what can be done to make the taskbarless operation more obvious. Good suggestions are always welcome.