You think it would be obvious. It isn't.

So, I decided to make a topic on how to mod, of all things. It is very simple. However, I shall detail the process in a way that even the beginner play should be able to understand. This is so people have no excuses when it comes to whining about BATs, and can assist them by modding.

It is recommended to mod an average of 3 times for every map you create and upload, minimum. The more the merrier. By helping people, you get your name out there and people are more likely to return the favor. Anyways, let's go on the really easy process.

First, download a map in Pending or Help. It can be a request, or it can be a totally random map. It just needs to not be ranked. Just grab a totally random map for now.

Now, start off with the easiest difficulty of the bunch. Start by playing this difficulty in either Play mode or test mode.*Keep a mental note of what you actually notice and actually affects you, anything that sounds bad, any New Combo that makes you go WTF, etc. Also if the timing feels right.

If the timing feels wrong, please point this out. If you're experienced, you should be able to get a better timing, so do that if you can. If you're a newbie, please merely mention it then carry on.

Afterward, start up a new post on the forums, and go into the Editor.

Now, go into the Editor, and scroll through the song (look at the bottom) until you come upon the part of the song you noticed that seemed wrong. Select it. Now, go to Edit -> Copy at the top. Now, go to your post, and paste that there, then follow up with either what you think is wrong, or simply that it doesn't seem right and you can't put your finger on it. Also look for things that you didn't notice while playing.

Rinse and repeat with the next difficulty; keep in mind that if you see something while in the Editor that you didn't notice while playing, point that out too. Click "Submit" when your post is finished.

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What to look for:

-Read through http://osu.ppy.sh/?p=faq&n=10 and viewtopic.php?f=6&t=439 before modding for the first time.

-Look for any spacing that you can actually notice during play, and that actually screws you up. It could always be a jump, or intention close-spacing. All that matters is, does it feel right? Does it make sense?

-If the hitsound volume's too loud/the music is too quiet. If the whistles are hurting your ears, this is probably the case. Please make sure your own volume isn't too loud/quiet, then if everything checks, inform the mapper and tell them to increase the song's volume or turn down the hitsound's volume.

-Anything that's unrankable, or doesn't make sense. Examples:

1. A hit circle is in the same exact spot as the end of a slider on the time line.

2. In a single combo, they have regular spacing except for the last note. The lyrics here are just begging for a jump, but... it's the opposite of a jump.

3. They use a .5x inheriting section... but the music doesn't sound slower, and it doesn't feel slower, thus confusing you.

4. Burai sliders. Ask in chat if you don't know what these are. These should never be used, since they're hard to read for some and look ugly, since it looks like the slider doesn't have a real end.

5. There's correct spacing throughout a combo... but there's a 1/8 in it. This is fine... if the 1/8 goes to the music. But, ah! There's no 1/8 in the music! ...Oops.

-If the map is repetitive, or if any sections are repetitive.

-If the timing's on/off. Duh.

-If the Combo Colors blend in with the BG.

-If the BG is basically a naked woman. I am not joking, this did happen once. Sexual-appealing images with clothes on/creatures without "stuff" is fine, though. Just use your brain.

-Check the song's folder, you won't be able to do it forever, but for now, check it! Just go through the folder, see if there are any unnecessary files and such. If the downloaded file was over 10 MB without video or 20 MB with, look here to see what is the culprit. Common sense applies.

Finally, the big cookie, and all it boils down to. The big question is...

-Does the map play well? If anything causes the map not to play well, point it out!

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Summary (tl;dr):

Point out anything that doesn't feel right, visual elements that are ugly, ugly sliders, etc. Think of anything that could make the map better if it was changed. All there is to it.

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Gen's addition:

Secret Tips that might make your mod better:

* Always check the song folder for anything that shouldn't be there (might be impossible to do when osz2 comes out).
* Check the Source and Tags. They're always useful!
* Check that the same offset is used between all difficulties.
* Check the preview point, if it's set correctly.
* If you know about image editing, nitpick the skin as much as you can! (if the map has skin of course)
* Check if all notes are snapped.
* Check that the Kiai Time is the same on all difficulties (not necessary but should always be checked).
* Check for offscreen notes (they're unrankable, if you didn't know) (yes I always forget about this).


That's everything I can think of. I really hope to see better maps in the future (I'm not trying to offend anyone)... I've seen some maps with 40+ (50+?) SP with still a few of these mistakes. ;_;

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Conclusion:

You'll notice that I summed up my entire post in two sentences just now. That is because I was making a point. What was it?

That modding is easier than it looks! Just give it a shot, it's not too difficult and makes the world a better place.

You may not be able to mod well, but you can at least make an effort, right? Just make an effort, please, for all of us.

That is all.

look at this guy

he's the top dog at modding yo he just schooled all y'all bitches. Levitated you through your fucking screen.

That's better in here ^_^ Also sticky.

damn son

ohhh shittt

Ekaru wrote:

Variation:

There is a small variation. This can only be done if you know what the hell you're doing.

Go into the Editor, and don't play the map. Instead, watch the map play out in the Editor. Or, watch it in Auto. Proceed as normal.

This is done if the map is too difficult for you, or you're merely looking for bad hitsounds or New Combo marker issues.

If you're a newbie, just playing through it is enough.

I strongly believe this should be revised.

In my opinion, you should always attempt to play a map, even if you are not skilled enough to play it. If you can't pass it, put on No Fail. If you can't play it period, because it's one deathstream or whatever, point it out. "This difficulty was too hard for me" is a useful suggestion especially when it's an Easy or Normal difficulty.

Why do you have to play it? If you don't, you have no way of knowing if a map plays well. You wrote:

Ekaru wrote:

-Does the map play well? If anything causes the map not to play well, point it out!

This should IMO be the number-one point.

I just put that there because a couple BATs I know do it. But yes, I'll revise it. You should not attempt it unless you seriously know what the hell you're doing.

BRB revising.

EDIT: Done. That should make it clearer. Also added a nazi definition, since I used that in the added note.

Hmm...

If you are experienced enough, you are experienced enough to break the "rules." Thus, I don't think exceptions should be detailed in a "how to mod" guide. So ... Remove them completely to avoid confusion?

Fine, I'll revise it *again*.

EDIT: Happy?

Here are some small technical issues I found.

Fixed the first two. I'm fixing the last one as we speak.

EDIT: Done, that should do it.

Another item to add:
Under the "What to look for:" section, add a section for inherited timing sections being placed on top of notes when volume change occur and for unused and needless inherited timing sections.

strager wrote:

Hmm...

If you are experienced enough, you are experienced enough to break the "rules." Thus, I don't think exceptions should be detailed in a "how to mod" guide. So ... Remove them completely to avoid confusion?

I let auto play the difficulties that are beyond my abilities, otherwise I can't see where things are legitimately awkward or inconsistent because I'm too busy lagging behind followpoints

Conclusion changed, now that the issue has settled down.

Discuss.

For the record, I changed a couple things, particularly in the "Variation" section. Big difference there. It's so... clean now. And more correct. That is all.

This map has been deleted on the request of its creator. It is no longer available.

Gens wrote:

1. Check the Source and Tags. They're always useful!

Almost everyone seems to forget these things
A LOT of the ranked maps has no tags and even when i point out about adding tags they ignore it.. (Even some BATs ignore tags )

I added Gen's post in there. Also changed "Variation" to "Another Way" and said in the first section that after playing, if you don't notice anything, you should go in the Editor, and if you go in the Editor, you should point out anything that you didn't notice while playing.

Anything else?

Cleaned it up big time.

Decided to add some bolding to make it look nicer. Also deleted nazi section since it wasn't needed and was pointless.

I decided to add in some more:

.osb issues:
This thread tell all

Score spread:
Tbh, quite rare modders to check scoring spreadsheet. From the trend now, there are a lots of guest difficulty and of course the difficulty would be different or as the same star rating as the original mappers. This is quite easy and fast to check. You just need to run the difficulty in "test mode" to look at the scoring. Here, you should use your logical thinking and common sense very well and compare the difficulty which has almost the same "feeling of harshness" .

For examples:

Example (A)
Easy(2.5 star rating) map by (A): 900k
Normal by(4.01 star rating) map by (A) : 2.5M
Hard (4.67 star rating) map by (B) : 4.5M
Hard (4.81 star rating) map by (C): 4.7M

In the example above, it is required for you to play and experienced itself both Hard by "B" and "C" and judge well enough is it reasonable the differences only 200k? (As we know star rating can't be reliable sometimes)

Example (B)
Easy (2.6 star rating) map by (A) : 1.2M
Normal (4.15) map by (A) : 3.1M
Hard (4.59 star rating) map by (B): 5.8M
Insane (4.98 star rating) map by (C) : 5.1M

Well, in above case, well it very obvious the score spreadsheet is messed up. Point this out to the mapper

Some rare cases i found while modding:

negative offset:
For example -8, while the first beat drop at 1706. The mapper put inherited time 0.75 at 1206.
Actually, the offset should be placed at 1706 and the inherited time 0.75 can be placed at 1706 as well. But in some situation this can be ignored. Let say, the song start lyrics first before beat came. But try to avoid using negative offset.

more than 3 slider speed used:
First question is, does the map playable with the slider speed changes? If it so, the map itself is fine. In this cases, it is advised to check the logical fitting the slider speed with the song. If the song goes slow, so do slider speed should too and the opposite. Check for relevant speed for the map backgrounded by the song speed.

Stacking issues:
Mapper/modders rarely touch this. Stacking shouldn't be disabled ( moved to far left side of setting). It is not rankable. viewtopic.php?f=56&t=55037

The skin:
Some mappers tend to forgot some element of skins. Let say he have "hitcircle","hitcircleoverlay" but forgot 'approachcircle'. Should point out the missing skin to the mapper. why is the need for this? Considering some player not using default skin, some custom skin added the force skin to the song alone will make the skin ugly and maybe worst case unplayable.

MP3 loudness:
I think this one very rare and no one bother really much on how the loudness of the song or even the hitsound very much. If the song is too loud that even make the hitsound not fairly heard by players, than point this out to the mapper.

That all I can think for now. Point out any if I made mistake in my post~

Ayeen wrote:

MP3 loudness:
I think this one very rare and no one bother really much on how the loudness of the song or even the hitsound very much. If the song is too loud that even make the hitsound not fairly heard by players, than point this out to the mapper.

You only need to bother with the opposite side of that, actually, as in amplifying quiet songs to make them louder if you can do so while avoiding clipping. The default hitsounds are bold enough to be apparent on any song no matter how loud it's perceived to be. You should never really have to reduce the volume on an mp3.

nice info anyway
thx!

Thanks for the info!

Outdated, please visit https://osu.ppy.sh/wiki/Modding and/or t/133062 for updated information.

Locking and changing to "Standard".