Newsweek Review [Top]

The biggest, and saddest, news of the week is that Grumpntug, Art Lead, has decided to take on new challenges that unfortunately lead him beyond the Radiant Skies of developing for Trove. In so many ways much of our enjoyment of Trove is due to Grump's influence, and not least of all this weekly news outlet wouldn't exist if it weren't for his stewardship of the /r/TroveCreations subreddit. Although he will no longer be in a developer role you can still expect to see him around the Trove community in and out of game. Visit Grump's good-bye thread here.

The big in-game news is the official annoucement of the next class to be added - the Lunar Lancer - which will also have a brand new weapon type. Modders and TroveCreators, rejoice! Although details are still being slowly teased, a lot has been revealed this past week. First, the model previews (including the ultimate on the right):

Additionally, we have the "beta" weapon specs and a default model to work with (Take note: until there is an official annoucement lances are not currently accepted and are subject to changes). Dropbox link of lance template.

• Total size: 12x12x45
• Head work area: 12x12x15
• Spear base: 3x3x3
• The actual handle MUST be 1x1 and be at least 27 long

Last bit of news - the Trove queue has moved to the /r/TroveCreations subreddit! In less than two weeks nearly 1000 new people have subbed to the subreddit (we topped 3,000 total this week) and this past week alone over 900 posts were made. Add this on top of the tremendous backlog of accepted items waiting to go in-game (well over 500) and this will all lead to a creations bottleneck. Expect official annoucemnets on the subreddit detailing how item submissions will be temporarily throttled (until the backlog can be cleared).

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From now on issues of TCDigest will be accessible early on Sundays via Twitter and then on Trovesaurus on Monday as usual. Additionally, there will be intraweek updates on hot items and relevant forum postings as well as a few to-be-annouced features in the coming weeks. Be sure to Follow @Qoaleth

Twitch.tv Stream Recaps [Top]

These livestream recaps are aimed at collating all and only the information directly relevant to player-made Trove creations.

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This past week saw the regular weekly Trove stream on Friday, 7/24.

Trove Livestream (7/24 stream archived here - full livestream notes here)

• Grumpntug is leaving the dev team (see above)
• Several new player-made costumes will be added this week (and some Radiant Lairs and Shadow Dungeons)
• Lunar Lancer details revealed (see above)

Top Player Made Creations with Interviews - Week of 7/19-7/25 [Top]

As ranked by Reddit users, the following posts are the top rated creations from this past week here to give you a slice of the player-made creations from this past week. **(There is no guarantee that any of these items will be accepted in-game nor should their inclusion be understood as any type of endorsement. They are selected solely based upon their ratings by Reddit users.)

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Player creator stedms (IGN: Stedms) offered the top-rated [Dungeon] Crowned Jewel. See the full post here.

What was your inspiration for this item?

When I was coming up with ideas for the Treasure Isles I quickly decided I wanted to do something underwater. My main inspiration for this one had to be the concept of Atlantis but also from things like Bioshock with vast underwater civilizations. I’ve always loved water so coming up with concepts for it was fun thinking of some ways to bring more life to what’s just sitting as a blank canvas in game in the Treasure Isles.

What was your biggest challenge in creating this item?

Working with water had to be the most difficult aspect of this one. I had the initial concept built a week after the Treasure Isles were put in game but I backed down after realizing how I would have to work with water source blocks to get it to work. I waited until I could get a better sense of how water worked with some of the other in game dungeons. After waiting for quite a while I found that they actually added deep sea blocks into the metaforge which made water a much more predictable force to work with. After that it was as simple as copying the base pieces into bricks of water, using the magic wand tool to grab the inside should-be-dry-bits, and then a quick /floodfill command to surround them with water.

What words of inspiration do you have for other player creators out there?

Keep working with your ideas! Even if they have to go on the backburner for a time don’t be afraid to go back and work on past dungeons. Even if you have an idea, an underwater dungeon for instance, that doesn’t quite work at the time, coming up with some basic concept pieces is a good start. At the very least it can put you in the right place when changes are made that make it possible.

With most dungeon/lair projects you really want to make sure that your creation stands out as a landmark in the Trovian world. Most importantly, you want your creations to stand out for the right reasons. One of those is how your creation will work as a facet of that biome. Think big but not overly cumbersome, unique but not abstract, and also try to think how it will mesh with what’s already in game so as not to clash with what’s already there. Make sure the world will mesh with the terrain and structures in your lair/dungeon, and you want to make sure you don’t have too much of a flat slab that contrasts with the rolling hills that make up adventure worlds.

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 Player creator Jaegerkrantz (IGN: Fishbone) offered the top-rated [Sword] Grimmedge. See the full post here.

What was your inspiration for this item?

Soul Edge from the Soul Calibur games, i wanted to approach a dark and organic theme for my weapon and at the same time give it a style fitting the Trove overall theme.

What was your biggest challenge in creating this item?

Getting the details and shape down, working with pixels, and at the same time try to add depth and details is a challenge in itself. You have to find a balance in the creation, add too much and it may end up looking way too bulky, add too little and it may look way too thin and some parts could end up looking too flat. The mods didn't accept my original design since it was rather large in comparison to the character, I reworked the design and added a Treasure Isle biome theme to it.

What words of inspiration do you have for other player creators out there?

Go wild, let your creativity flow, experiment with the design, add and remove, build it up and break it down. Be dynamic, nothing is set in stone and the same goes for whatever you design. I always find myself doing adjustments all the time on my designs until i really feel its complete, even then there is usually room for more adjustments, you just gotta know where to draw the line else you could sit for an eternity working on it, the only limit really is what theme you are aiming for in your design.

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Player creator theafters3 (IGN: TeamRocketGrunt) offered the top-rated [Hat] Glamcorder. See the full post here.

What was your inspiration for this item?

At first I had wanted to make a camera on a fishing pole like Lakitu from Super Mario 64 but that ended up looking just awful so I re-purposed it into a hat.

What was your biggest challenge in creating this item?

This was my first item so almost everything was a challenge at one point. Once I learned the basics though it become incredibly easy, I'm really impressed with the developers!

What words of inspiration do you have for other player creators out there?

Don't be afraid to put your creation out there. Even if you think it's too simple or could be better. The Reddit community is really good about recommending changes you can make in a constructive way!

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Player creator MisterFii (IGN: MisterFii) offered the top-rated [Pistol] Emperor. See the full post here.

What was your inspiration for this item?

The creation in question is based off of Hol Horse's "Stand" in the popular manga series Jojo's Bizzare Adventure. The name of the creation is also the name of the Stand itself. The colors are based off it's render for All-Star Battle, and the iridescent specular is based on how everything in the series tends to lean more on the fabulous side of things. I mean, look at those poses!

What was your biggest challenge in creating this item?

The biggest challenge when creating the gun is to decide what details I should remove or simplify, since you can only put in so many voxels in each creation.

Plus, Hirohiko Araki, the creator of Jojo's Bizzare Adventure, tends to put tons of details in his illustrations, and to try to fit all the little details in just a 5 x 5 x 12 creation can be a feat onto its own.

What words of inspiration do you have for other player creators out there?

Don't do drugs and stay in school, kiddies! Also, don't forget to check out my suggestion for a class, The Deep One! You can find it in the Trove Official Forums! I hope you like it!

Community Contributions from "Neon Dragons Edition" - 7/14 [Top]

There were no new player made items added.

There were no new dungeons or lairs added.

See the official patch notes here.

See updates to the item database here.

Reader Survey [Top]

Last week's poll asked readers about what could be done to increase the challenge of dungeons and lairs. All participants felt that something could be done, with the introduction of puzzles being the highest voted addition (7 of 25 votes).

This week's poll asks about how much time you spend designing: "How many hours per week do you spend designing items for Trove?"