After revising the whole short edition with wmfchris once again, I've shortened and focused the rules once more. Also I moved some guidelines to recommendations, shortened stuff and moved rules within guidelines to rules and such stuff. Awaiting your everyone's approval
Taiko Mapping Rules and Guidelines
Taiko Mapping Rules and Guidelines
Rules - You may not break these ever
- Difficulty names
Difficulty names must be taiko specific, but don't need to contain it's difficulty rating self (e.g. Taiko, Taiko Oni, Taiko Muzukashii). Guest difficulties may contain the mapper's name.
- Difficulty settings and song setup
Overall difficulty and HP drain rate should be between 4~7.
Exception: Maps exceeding usual draining time should have a life drain between 1~4 depending on length and numbers of notes
- Countdown
Don't use countdown. If the notes start too quickly, add a lead-in time.
- Finish notes
Finish notes must not be in the middle or at the beginning in a 1/4 or above stream.
At the end, finish streams may allowed under following pattern constellations:
xxxxxxxxO, xxxxooooX, xxooxxooX
- Kiai Time
Only use the kiai time in the chorus of a song. Do not use short kiai "flashes".
- Rest moments
Every difficulty needs to include rest moments. This means to avoid the use of constantly 1/4 notes and add some 1/1 moments.
- Overlapping notes
Notes must not overlap due to slider velocity changes (green lines). BPM changes (red lines) are excluded from this rule.
- Custom hitbursts and hitsounds
You must not use custom hitbursts and hitsounds.
Guidelines - Under special circumstances these may be broken
- Slider Velocity
The Slider Velocity should be 1.40 or 1.60.
- Streams
For the majority of maps, only 1/1, 1/2 or 1/4 beat note streams should be used. 1/3 and 1/6 should be added only when there's a similiar beat in the music.
Avoid using 1/8 streams by any circumstance.
- Drumrolls(Sliders)
Use sparingly within a map and keep a 1/2 beat space between them and any other object.
Try not to put sliders one after each other.
Avoid using sliders for 125 BPM songs or lower.
Use a tick rate of 3 if the song self is snapped on 1/3.
- Spinner
Leave at least a 1/2 beat between a note and a spinner. Using them on streams may be okay.
Short spinners are not recommended.
- Breaks
All break sections should be artificially removed from the .osu file.
- Custom Hitsound Volume
Keep volume at a constant level (e.g. 80%) with the beat still somewhat audible.
Use the "Normal" audio sample set.
Recommendations - These are recommended but not fully necessary
- Custom combo colours
Custom combo colours do not really matter to taiko as they will be overwritten in actual gameplay. The case is the same with combo numbering, but you may wish to use the numbering to mark out red/blue notes visually within edit mode (assuming no custom colours have been set), this would make modding for other people easier and could make mapping easier:
- Reasonable hitobject-placement
Hitobject placements dosen't really matter to taiko, too, since the hitcircles are automatically converted into the one and only x-axis, but you may wish to use it in an organized way:
- Custom 1/3 and 1/6 streams Adding own 1/3 or 1/6 into the map is just recommended for experienced mappers.
Below is a visual example of 4 notes in a 1/6 under 1.4 slider velocity:
