'kay, I'm bored and I have plenty of time so I'll try to write my thoughts on mapping.
Be aware of this: everything I'm going to write is just that: my thoughts and point of view for mapping. It may help others, or you may disagree with anything I could have possibly said. You're welcome to have a friendly debate if you want, but my point of view will probably not be changed.
And no, I'm not saying I'm perfect.
You can take this as a small guide for what-do-to when mapping, but I'm not going to get into the technical side of things. It's not advised for newbie mappers to read this either.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Many people often ask "How can I make my map more fun? People have told me it's boring and I want to change it.". Well, there are several ways to make this possible. Many people think it's fun to overmap it with either streams or jumps, which is plain wrong. Some people copy other mappers styles (have I mentioned how all chinese maps look the same to me?), which is absolutely fine but isn't original at all; therefore you don't stand out as mapper.
First and foremost, let's forget about the ranking guidelines for a bit. If you're mapping and you're trying to create a good map, then you probably don't need to do anything like 2x sliders or disable stacking, so it's useless.
When mapping, you must always have also a perspective for the player; if it doesn't play good then it isn't good, simple as that. You must not include tricks that make the player rage; what for, I always ask? If the player is striving for a FC or high score, it makes the game less fun, to the point the player isn't enjoying it anymore. If you want to make players rage, why do you map then? Every map must be enjoyable.
There are four important things in a map: flow, patterns, style and consistency. Let's define them one by one.
style.- Basically the base of how your map looks, how well-made it is. The styles can be varied and there's no real way to define each style. To bring out examples, your map can contain no overlaps, can be spaced, could have slow sliders, can be linear, etc.. I like to call the no-overlapping-but-close-hitcircles style "clean" (also MM's style :P).
How can I improve it for my map to be better? Must be consistent with music, even in collabs. I despise random collabs that have no real musical change between mappers.
If your map has a messy style, then clean it up (hint hint); if your map has an inappropriate style for the music then change it. It shouldn't be that hard.
patterns.- This is practically where the actual creativity in beatmapping comes in. In simple words, create "shapes" or certain ways to play the map in certain sections. For example, you can create a circle star with 5 hitcircles and make them closer each time the phrase kicks in, or you can just randomly place hitcircles. Which is better? The pattern, of course. Symmetry is a great thing for this. This is hard to explain without screenshots, so I'll leave it at that.
How can I improve it for my map to be better? Simple, just include them. Many people don't include them and just go creating a road with the beats, which bothers me since it's on most maps and that tells me mappers have no creativity. Oh, and by the way, it must also be balanced with everything else, e.g. don't sacrifice flow for patterns.
flow.- The way things come out. The way you have to move your cursor to play according to the music. The way hitobjects are placed to follow music.
How can I improve it for my map to be better? It must be consistent with the music and the map itself. If the music, for example, has a fast tempo, the map should be spaced considerably and slider speed should match it. Also, do not break the flow of your map without a good reason. It's reasonable when there's a slow section of the song, but not "just because" or to make your patterns prettier.
consistency.- It should be obvious. Everytime the chorus appears, you shouldn't place the beats in the timeline in a different way, or the spacing shouldn't change. Every jump, every break, every long slider, every triple must be consistent, at least in the timeline.
The way I map is actually this: I place the most adequate pattern in the editor that comes to mind. As I map things that I like and listen every day, it isn't that hard and it's enjoyable to make the map. Hitsounds also come out by themselves at the time of placing the beats. Sure, I sometimes force myself to map something, which it still isn't hard but it isn't as enjoyable as mapping for fun.
So, a good map basically contains a balance of those four things: Must include patterns with good flow, while keeping your consistency and style. Not necessarily though; Many maps consist of "flow" only and they are still fun, but aren't very creative in my view. Be aware that I didn't say anywhere that this is wrong, you're still welcome to map like this if you want (it still won't have a good structure though ;) ). This requires more skill than creativity, I must say.
For example of "pattern" maps, you can check my maps, Armin's (last one I checked was good, not sure about others), DiamondCrash's, RandomJibberish's, m980's and Larto's (not sure). For "flow" maps, check James', Rolled's, Gladi and Lesjuh's.
As for the whole mapset, if it wasn't obvious, each thing must be appropriate for the difficulty. Slow sliders in easy difficulties, fast sliders in insane. To me, a good mapset (by a good mapper) is that one that the mapper did by himself, with 4 or more difficulties. That will attract a larger range of players to your map, and that's always a good thing. Nowadays, people ask for guest difficulties all the time just to fullfill the ranking criteria, which is wrong and will always be wrong. If you're thinking of saying that a mapper asks for guest difficulties because he doesn't know how to map easy difficulties, then I'll just tell you that he isn't a real mapper until he knows how to map every difficulty. Can't deny that, eh?
As a side note, this obviously won't make you a good mapper from one day to another; you're welcome to experiment with all the stuff I wrote.
TL;DR - BE CREATIVE WHEN YOU MAP WHILE FOLLOWING THE SONG YOU'RE MAPPING. Don't just put random beats in the editor, which is what it seems everyone does now.
I believe that is all. Feel free to suggest me something to add or point any spelling error. Let's see how good the reception of this is. :>
Be aware of this: everything I'm going to write is just that: my thoughts and point of view for mapping. It may help others, or you may disagree with anything I could have possibly said. You're welcome to have a friendly debate if you want, but my point of view will probably not be changed.
And no, I'm not saying I'm perfect.
You can take this as a small guide for what-do-to when mapping, but I'm not going to get into the technical side of things. It's not advised for newbie mappers to read this either.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Many people often ask "How can I make my map more fun? People have told me it's boring and I want to change it.". Well, there are several ways to make this possible. Many people think it's fun to overmap it with either streams or jumps, which is plain wrong. Some people copy other mappers styles (have I mentioned how all chinese maps look the same to me?), which is absolutely fine but isn't original at all; therefore you don't stand out as mapper.
First and foremost, let's forget about the ranking guidelines for a bit. If you're mapping and you're trying to create a good map, then you probably don't need to do anything like 2x sliders or disable stacking, so it's useless.
When mapping, you must always have also a perspective for the player; if it doesn't play good then it isn't good, simple as that. You must not include tricks that make the player rage; what for, I always ask? If the player is striving for a FC or high score, it makes the game less fun, to the point the player isn't enjoying it anymore. If you want to make players rage, why do you map then? Every map must be enjoyable.
There are four important things in a map: flow, patterns, style and consistency. Let's define them one by one.
style.- Basically the base of how your map looks, how well-made it is. The styles can be varied and there's no real way to define each style. To bring out examples, your map can contain no overlaps, can be spaced, could have slow sliders, can be linear, etc.. I like to call the no-overlapping-but-close-hitcircles style "clean" (also MM's style :P).
How can I improve it for my map to be better? Must be consistent with music, even in collabs. I despise random collabs that have no real musical change between mappers.
If your map has a messy style, then clean it up (hint hint); if your map has an inappropriate style for the music then change it. It shouldn't be that hard.
patterns.- This is practically where the actual creativity in beatmapping comes in. In simple words, create "shapes" or certain ways to play the map in certain sections. For example, you can create a circle star with 5 hitcircles and make them closer each time the phrase kicks in, or you can just randomly place hitcircles. Which is better? The pattern, of course. Symmetry is a great thing for this. This is hard to explain without screenshots, so I'll leave it at that.
How can I improve it for my map to be better? Simple, just include them. Many people don't include them and just go creating a road with the beats, which bothers me since it's on most maps and that tells me mappers have no creativity. Oh, and by the way, it must also be balanced with everything else, e.g. don't sacrifice flow for patterns.
flow.- The way things come out. The way you have to move your cursor to play according to the music. The way hitobjects are placed to follow music.
How can I improve it for my map to be better? It must be consistent with the music and the map itself. If the music, for example, has a fast tempo, the map should be spaced considerably and slider speed should match it. Also, do not break the flow of your map without a good reason. It's reasonable when there's a slow section of the song, but not "just because" or to make your patterns prettier.
consistency.- It should be obvious. Everytime the chorus appears, you shouldn't place the beats in the timeline in a different way, or the spacing shouldn't change. Every jump, every break, every long slider, every triple must be consistent, at least in the timeline.
The way I map is actually this: I place the most adequate pattern in the editor that comes to mind. As I map things that I like and listen every day, it isn't that hard and it's enjoyable to make the map. Hitsounds also come out by themselves at the time of placing the beats. Sure, I sometimes force myself to map something, which it still isn't hard but it isn't as enjoyable as mapping for fun.
So, a good map basically contains a balance of those four things: Must include patterns with good flow, while keeping your consistency and style. Not necessarily though; Many maps consist of "flow" only and they are still fun, but aren't very creative in my view. Be aware that I didn't say anywhere that this is wrong, you're still welcome to map like this if you want (it still won't have a good structure though ;) ). This requires more skill than creativity, I must say.
For example of "pattern" maps, you can check my maps, Armin's (last one I checked was good, not sure about others), DiamondCrash's, RandomJibberish's, m980's and Larto's (not sure). For "flow" maps, check James', Rolled's, Gladi and Lesjuh's.
As for the whole mapset, if it wasn't obvious, each thing must be appropriate for the difficulty. Slow sliders in easy difficulties, fast sliders in insane. To me, a good mapset (by a good mapper) is that one that the mapper did by himself, with 4 or more difficulties. That will attract a larger range of players to your map, and that's always a good thing. Nowadays, people ask for guest difficulties all the time just to fullfill the ranking criteria, which is wrong and will always be wrong. If you're thinking of saying that a mapper asks for guest difficulties because he doesn't know how to map easy difficulties, then I'll just tell you that he isn't a real mapper until he knows how to map every difficulty. Can't deny that, eh?
As a side note, this obviously won't make you a good mapper from one day to another; you're welcome to experiment with all the stuff I wrote.
TL;DR - BE CREATIVE WHEN YOU MAP WHILE FOLLOWING THE SONG YOU'RE MAPPING. Don't just put random beats in the editor, which is what it seems everyone does now.
I believe that is all. Feel free to suggest me something to add or point any spelling error. Let's see how good the reception of this is. :>