Some Dragons of Norrath Features Unlocked on Fippy Darkpaw Without a Vote

One of my worries about trying to report on expansions unlocking on the Fippy Darkpaw time locked progression server while not subscribed and actively playing is that at some point an unlock will go off without a hitch, thus keeping the forums from lighting up with complaints.

Those complaints are the trip-wire that alerts me to unlocks, because I certainly cannot count on the Fippy Darkpaw timeline they have on the EverQuest site.  That has been broken since March, when the game went free to play.

So it is a good thing that SOE seems to have my back on this!

Today is about the right time frame for the Dragons of Norrath expansion to unlock.  The past estimate was November 19th, next Monday, but that is only a week off.

Firiona Vie gets a solo cover

And so this morning there is a post in the forums reporting that features from the Dragons of Norrath expansion (of which Giant Bomb has a great summary) such as Guild Halls and faction NPCs and bandoliers and such are now available on the Fippy Darkpaw server. (But not on Vulak.)

However, none of the actual content, the zones that make up the bulk of the expansion, appear to be available. [Update: The zones appear to be in and live, but are blocked off.]

Oh, and the vote for the Dragons of Norrath has not come up yet.

Details, details.

There was a rogue poll that showed up just after Omens of War was unlocked, so maybe that masked the need for an unlock vote?  Or maybe the unlock vote was supposed to go up today?  Or maybe whatever changes SOE is putting in for the Rain of Fear expansion that is supposed to go live this month broke something?

Or maybe it is just another day on the Fippy Darkpaw server.

Friday Night Movie Ops

After the bitter trench warfare of Tribute, we essentially just won Vale by announcing that we’d be taking it in a hellish sovgrind, without actually going through the ‘hellish sovgrind’ part.

-CFC Wretched Peace Update

There was an op called for Friday evening, late in the US time zone.  It was for Alpha Fleet, which meant I could get out my Maelstrom which, at this point, I was kind of hoping would get blown up.  I bought it last December, it  has been insured three times, and that third term is coming close to expiration.  Losing it on a reimbursed operation so I could turn around and buy a Rokh seemed like a reasonable plan.

But it was not to be.

The war is winding down.  Ev0ke is leaving town, and has sold its moons to GSF for 250 billion ISK, depriving Northern Coalition of an ally and leading to a mid-war reset.  The map shows the CFC having swallowed all of Tribute (save one system) and most of The Vale of the Silent at this point.

Tribute and Area – October 14

Tribute and Area – November 11

While the fleet was called and assembled to cover the capital ship fleet should any opposition appear, the likelihood of opposition appeared to be slight.

So Schadenfreud, who lead my first op into The Vale of the Silent, formed us up in UMI-KK, lead us out to the Vale, and parked us in a POS bubble while we waited for events to unfold.  And since they seemed unlikely to unfold, a link was put up in fleet for a room on SynchTube (which I didn’t even know was a thing before this fleet) so we could all watch videos together while we waited.

They also serve, who only sit and watch movies

We watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome and the first half hour of Hook (no idea how a movie about an adult and his relationship with a fantasy world got included) before the word came down that the cap fleet had done whatever it was they had to do and that we were free to go.

And so the war winds down.  My Maelstrom survived another fleet op.