ARPIA2

Download the ARPIA2 plug-in for Escape Velocity Nova, version 2.1.6:
full version – lite version
(full: 38.46 Mb zipped, lite: 15.94 Mb zipped)

A walkthrough is available in RTF format here, and a guide to The Riddle can be found here.
ARPIA2 contains a special launcher (”ARPIA2.app” or “ARPIA2 Lite.app”) for the 1.1 Mac version of EV Nova, but remains compatible with WinNova and MacNova 1.0.A/10.
Version 2.1.6 includes one bug fix linked to the Fallen Angel.
The lite version does not contain additional video/audio material, but these are more intended as bonuses than anything, so you can play the whole game without them.
Note: if EVN crashes upon loading ARPIA2, see this section.

To view images from ARPIA2, you can visit the Arpia Gallery

Most of the time, the book comes out first, and then the game… Arpia is an exception.
At first, Arpia was devised as a simple plug-in/add-on for a game called Escape Velocity: Nova (EVN or EV:Nova for short), the third game in the Escape Velocity series of Ambrosia Software.
The storylines the player can follow had really inspired me, and so it was that I started to create a little story of my own.

After some six months of development, I released “ARPIA, tale of an agency”. And to my surprise, people began to say it was the best plug-in they had ever played, and they wanted more.
And more they would get…

“ARPIA2: World of an Agency” is the true basis for the Arpia novel. It is a game add-on of three large storylines woven in parallel among which the player must choose. The player becomes a main character of the book, i.e. Parmil, Fezzan or Birgo.
The player fights battles, frees slaves, explores the galaxy, discovers trade, protects the human race and is part of Arpia.
In the novel, you imagine Hogun exploding, in ARPIA2, you see it.

In ARPIA2 you get to choose your path. But beware: one choice can change the future, and the future holds many surprises… Do you have what it takes?
It has always been everyone’s dream to fight off entire fleets by oneself, to become a big-time rich trader, to do covert ops and to know everyone, everywhere.
Well, here’s your chance.

Complete with stunning graphics made by incredibly talented designers (some of them actually created EVN years before, others have since then become game designers themselves or are hoping to do so), it is another way of being Arpia.

And anyway, ARPIA2 isn’t the only add-on for EVN, so if you want gameplay, go ahead.

Enjoy the plug,

Peter “Pace” Craddock

Most common source of problems: ShieldBubbles

If Nova crashes upon startup with ARPIA2, chances are you put the “ARPIA2 ShieldBubbles” in your plug-in folder without adding the required “3D ShieldBubbles 1.0.7″ plug-in (read the readme in the “extra plugs” folder!).

To get it to work, you’ll need to either remove the ARPIA2 ShieldBubbles plug, or download 3D ShieldBubbles 1.0.7 (direct download link).