Fippy Darkpaw: An Everquest Pilgrim’s Progression Server

Everquest has a new Progression Server opening up on the 15th of February.

A progression server is as close to the original launch experience as the developers can get you to without spending a massive amount of time unravelling things. So you do have the updated engine and UI, but all the expansions are turned off. Expansions will be slowly turned on one by one, giving you something approaching the same experience that original players would have gotten through the years.

For the last progression server I was completely foxed because several zones had been revamped, and could not be restored to their original state, leaving me utterly lost in the city of Freeport. Still, it’s as close to launch as you’re ever going to get, so if you weren’t there the first time around it is an interesting opportunity to travel back in time to get a glimpse at the early days of MMOs.

I took part in the last progression server, and while the first couple of days is tremendously fun and nostalgic, it didn’t take me too long to realise that while at the time EQ seemed almost futuristic, it’s actually rather painful for me to play now. I’ve become soft and spoiled, I suppose. So I had been planning on giving the new progression server a miss, even though SOE are kindly offering old players free EQ time between the 10th and the 21st of this month. That was until I discovered what the server had been named. Fippy Darkpaw.

Fippy Darkpaw is much beloved of EQ players. He was, and presumably still is, a spirited little gnoll who frequently charges the gates of Qeynos. He has yet to be successful in his attack, but never lets that discourage him and so is rightfully considered a great hero by the Darkpaw gnolls. You may encounter one of his descendants in Everquest 2 from time to time, if you involve yourself in some of the seedier going on beneath Qeynos. He has assisted Maltheas on quite a number of his investigations, in fact!

EQ2 Fippy Darkpaw In The Qeynos Catacombs 600x469

Maltheas meets with Fippy in Crow's Resting Place

I am told that the old EQ gnoll model has been updated recently, and that’ll probably remain the case for the progression server, but this will always be Fippy Darkpaw to me.

Everquest Fippy Darkpaw

Yip Yip!!!

So I’ll pay him a visit. I owe it to him after killing him so many times back in the old days, though he and his brothers certainly did me in plenty as well. Today I’m leery of full loot corpse runs, and he probably has a completely new model, but we were both there at the dawn of Norrath, and it’ll be good to see him again. I might pop in on Cuburt too!

What will be the name of the Time Locked Progression Server?

  • The Time Locked Progression Server will be named Fippy Darkpaw, as chosen by the community.

When will the Time Locked Progression Server open?

  • Currently we are targeting Tuesday February 15, 2011 for the opening of Fippy Darkpaw.

What rule set will the Time Locked Progression Server use?

  • The Time Locked Progression Server will use the normal PvE rule set.

What sort of items and content will and will not be available at launch on Fippy?

  • For the Fippy Darkpaw Server we have done our absolute best to remove items which would give an inappropriate or undue advantage such as Defiant Armor or certain tradeskill related items. Generally the items that you will find should be items that came with the expansion currently available or were unlocked during that expansion. Augments created specifically for progression servers will be available.

Will there be Hotzones or Hotzone drops??

  • Hotzones and Hotzone items will not be available on Fippy at release

How about Marketplace items, will Mounts be available?

  • In addition to restrictions on items initially available within the game, Marketplace, Loyalty, and Claim items have been similarly addressed. If an item or buff offers stats, it will probably not be offered from any of those methods until a later date. Mounts will not be available until Legacy of Ykesha is unlocked or later, depending on the mount.

How will tradeskills work on Fippy Darkpaw?

  • We have made efforts to limit tradeskills to the expansion when the recipe actually came out. Potion making and jewelry making have had the old recipes enabled, and these will stay this way until the Prophecy of Ro expansion is unlocked. Similarly the new poisons will not be activated until around Underfoot. The exception is spell research where we will not reverse it to the older method. Instead, we have limited recipes for the appropriate expansion and made ingredients for research available in more zones..

How will progression work on Fippy Darkpaw?

  • As with the previous progression servers, players will need to defeat certain challenges to unlock newer expansions. Once these challenges have been defeated there will be a grace period where the server will stay in the current expansion. After the grace period, players will be able to vote through an in game poll to unlock the next expansion. The voting period will be one week.
    Initially the grace period will be 90 days before voting will start for Kunark, then 60 days for each expansion after that. At some point we will even have a vote to see if players wish to change that grace period.
    If the majority of players vote to unlock the next expansion, the next expansion will unlock at the end of the poll. If the majority of players voted to stay with the current expansion, then there will be a one week grace period before another poll will be posted. This will happen until a majority players vote to unlock the next expansion.

Update: I’ve gathered more information on how the new Progression server will work.

3 comments to Fippy Darkpaw: An Everquest Pilgrim’s Progression Server

  • Go get ’em Fippy!

    Having progression servers is a pretty neat idea. That is one of the most overwhelming parts of trying to get into the older games, taking a look at everything that’s ahead of you. :(

  • I’m very excited about the progression server and plan to get stuck in when it launches. I’m really curious to see how it will compare now after so many years to all of the other MMOs on the market. The only problem for is that it’s launched date is the same day as the RIFT open beta!

    • Progression servers only come along every few years. I’m going to put it ahead of a bit of pottering about in Rift. If it clashed with Rift’s real launch it’d be a trickier decision!

      I stopped enjoying writing about Rift some time ago anyway. Writing about EQ is a lot less stressful.