Guard rails

[Illysia]

If possible could guard rails be placed in areas that attract a lot of newbs. Apparently, almost everyone's first hour was spend in the DR getting to know the Death Guardian. He's not really the best mentor for newbs. 

[Karyuu]

I think a lot of newbies just run for the hills and become overly surprised when they discover that they can't fly

[Pizzasgood]

An easy mistake to make when you have wings!  I've heard there was a glitchy fly verb for testing purposes once, but I wasn't around at the time.  I'd have to say that my three biggest "looking-forward-to" moments are the implementations of functional wings (even if only for gliding), female Klyros models, and the big version of the death realm.  Though even having a "sit" animation would be a nice appetizer.

As for guard rails, there aren't really many places without them that would be "normal" to have them.  They don't belong in the wilderness, nor on the Windowless Tower.  There are some places that would have them in real life today, but modern society is a bunch of politically correct lawsuit-happy cowards.  If some kid wanders off a ledge, we sue the crap out of the city or whoever owns the building.  But back in medieval times, they'd probably blame the kid for walking off a 40 foot drop, or the mother for not keeping an eye on such an adventurous kid.  If the kid dies, sad.  If he doesn't, he learns about gravity.

But maybe Yliakium is more political than that.  Even so, there aren't too many places to put up rails that would make sense.  Just the "high-up" spots at the north-ish end of Hydlaa, and maybe a couple spots on top of the taverns.

I think the bigger reason for early death isn't a lack of railings in the cities, but instead not being able to estimate fall damage or the "slipperiness" of a slope.  You just don't know your limits at first, and that causes new people to fall off mountains.  It's something you have to learn through experience, just like in real life.  Now, I haven't fallen off a mountain in the real world as much as in PlaneShift, but (as far as I know) I can't just run through a quick path and come back to life within minutes, either.  I could be wrong though....

EDITED:  fixed some spelling and adjusted a part that had come out wrong.

[Josellis]

I think it has been proposed before, but anyway, it is true that in the cities, I notice often places with rails, and a another place that doesn't have any. e.g. near the Klyros spawn spot then aren't any rails, whereas near Rinna, there is a rail. In BD, the two ramps that go up to the second level have rails on one side, but not on the other, and also at BD, there are a few spots where there is a whole section where the railing just stops for now apparent reasons. I believe that it is in those places that railing should be added.

Also, I believe it would be possible to create an effect that when the character comes really close to the edge, he slows down (like in most video games), it would add realism (not every can just walk off a cliff into emptiness without being a tiny bit scared), and would also prevent people from accidentally falling down.

[Pizzasgood]

A "scaredy-cat slow-down" would have to be based on your Will stat though, because there are plenty of people who can walk right off.  It's all about will power.  But the game would also have to determine whether you know there's an edge there.  If you aren't paying attention, no amount of cowardice will keep you from going over a cliff.  So overall, I'd say it sounds a little too complicated and restrictive to be implemented.

The Klyros spawn point is one of the places that doesn't really need rails, since you can survive the jump.  I think there was a higher up ledge farther back though, where you could die.  As for the Bronze Doors, that's not exactly a civilian location.  In urban places, rails make sense, but out in the wilderness or at a semi-military outpost, you can expect shoddy railings missing spots, if there's rails at all.  The Bronze Doors region just doesn't seem like the kind of place where people would worry much about maintaining the railings.

Aside from that, the location is supposed to be a little more dangerous than the others.  Sure, the cities should be somewhat noob-friendly, but putting safety rails up at the Bronze Doors is like replacing the Ulbernauts with Clackers.

But that's just my take on it.  I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere, so I'm not indoctrinated with the uber-safe mentality of the suburban types.  I'm the type of person who does a running jump into a moving tractor (well, the parking brake failed and it was heading toward a really deep ditch, so I had to get into the cab and crank the wheel).  In hindsight, that particular tractor had duals, so if I'd have slipped I wouldn't have been able to kick myself far enough away to avoid being crushed, so maybe it wasn't such a great idea. 

[.:ZEN:.]

The only place I think I ever fall down and die is when I am trying to find faster ways to akkio thus trying to climb steep slopes and end up walking on the spot half way up the mountan then i try to slowly come down, loose controll and slide down to my death a 100mph    but then again you cant expect people to put "DO NOT CLIMB" signs at the foot of every moutain