Yeah, we have basically talked to allow some kind of "dumps" in Mania but as much as we tried we couldn't come to some proper conclusion to be posted with this here.
This does not mean we dropped the topic!
This is not hard to do.
A semi-dump (as far as I've heard that you guys have defined it) is:
- A chart that uses ghost notes in a consistent and musically justifiable manner.
- A chart that deviates from a general layering scheme for reasons that go beyond reducing malignant difficulty variance. This is fairly vague however, and the idea of a "general layering scheme" is not established. The document I have gives a good idea of what "general layering rules" and "situational layering rules" are, but I do not know if it is worth it to cover them in the criteria.
You can include these rules:
- Under certain conditions (that pertain to the song, that is; e.g. the presence of both bass kicks and snares at a certain rhythm), you may use ghost notes for parts of the song that meet that condition. If you do use ghost notes in that manner, the use must be consistent. The level of rhythmic density created by ghost notes must be within reason (difficulty-wise), and the use of ghost notes must align with the music's intensity relative to other sections in the map and song.
- A high level of rhythmic density (e.g. a 1/6 or 1/8 stream) can correspond to a sound with a sustained peak period as long as the peak justifies that high level of rhythmic density (based on the intensity/volume of that sound). If you do ghost notes in that manner, the use must be consistent. The level of rhythmic density created by ghost notes must be within reason (difficulty-wise), and the use of ghost notes must align with the music's intensity relative to other sections in the map and song.
- Sections of a map that do not strictly follow the layering scheme established in the map are permissible if the map's intensity corresponds to the music's intensity relative to other sections in the map and song. This rule can only be reinforced if every note/chord in the map corresponds to sounds that are present in the song. (This may be exploitable however, which is inevitable for any ranking system that has no explicit quality control.) In hindsight, this rule is too exploitable for its own good. Overlayered charts have always been allowed as long as they were consistent, and overlayered charts that break away from their established layering schemes that were ranked did so because its difficulty variance might have been too undesirable otherwise.