Hi '-'
From my modding queue
Hi!

[General]

- There is a minor issue with the size of elements of your storyboard.
Ranking Criteria
Storyboard images must be at a reasonable size for their usage. For most uses (e.g. full-screen images), the maximum is 800x600 pixels, although 640x480 is highly preferred. The editor is 640x480 at default, so there's really no need to use anything larger for full-screen purposes.
I'll look into fixing this. I'm not sure what the maximum dimensions are for a widescreen storyboard.

[Normal]

Hp+1 / Od+1 ?
I like the drain rate that I have now. I'll think about the OD.

Why this diffs don't have the same storyboard's begining ?
I didn't map anything in the beginning, so there's no need to storyboard there.

- 00:30:676 (3) - I don't think this note really fit in a normal. There is a 1,86* jump but this can't be just solved with a ctrl+g :s
I have other jumps in the 1.80x range in this difficulty, so I think this is fine.

- 00:50:676 (1) - You can try this for a better blanket with (2) http://puu.sh/4etWY.jpg
I remapped this section a bit.

- 00:54:509 (3) - Probably a bit confusing for a normal and I'm not sure if it's really rankable (probably yes)
Okay, I'll leave it like this for now.

- 01:14:009 (1) - I'm not sure that the curve is really useful for the flow or aestheticism.
You're right. I removed the curve.

- 01:27:676 (6,1) - Anti-jump in a normal. Probably a bit hard ?
Possibly. I'll see if more people bring this up.

- 01:48:009 (4) - Finish this 1beat before and add a note to 01:49:343. I think this version is more logic with the song http://puu.sh/4eukT.jpg
I like the arrangement I have now.

[Lunatic]

I don't think a combo of 13 is really a nice idea for your intro so
- 00:05:343 (5) - Add Nc
- 00:08:009 (10) - Add Nc
I've been getting a lot of suggestions about this, but this isn't something I want to change.
- I'd have to add another black combo color, which would only be used in this one section.
- The single continuous combo here reinforces the idea of uniformity and monotoneity.
- At the end of the day, the combo is only 13 notes long.

- 00:29:009 (5) - Why not try to stack this one with the begining of 00:28:509 (3) - you can probably make a better patter like that, but you need to rework the slider shape and probably the position of 00:29:343 (1) -
Good suggestion! I changed this.

- 00:44:176 (4) - Add Nc ?
(4) continues a word that was started at (3), so I don't want to split these combos.

- 00:47:009 (10,1) - Remove nc for (10) and add nc for (1), more logic with the song
This is consistent with the NC pattern I've been using for the rest of this section (starting NCs at the start of a new vocal line)

- 00:59:593 (5,6) - Swap this note's positions ? More logic with your pattern and better distance spacing.
Doing this would place (5) too close to (4), and it wouldn't fit the rhythm because (5) is supposed to be equidistant from (4) and (6) in time.

- 01:14:009 (9) - Add Nc
- 01:14:676 (1) - Remove Nc
Fixed!

- 01:48:009 (1) - Such as the Normal's diff I personally more hear something like that http://puu.sh/4evgI.jpg
I'm working on changing this part, since it's a bit of a weird repeat slider.

That's all for me =)
Nice job, star
Thank you very much! I appreciate it!

m4m (muffin4muffin) from your post in my thread
w

edit:

[General]

i don't think you'll be able to fit every modder in the special thanks by the end of this
it's okay i can make two columns

i think you could find a more enjoyable soft clap for this, this one's kind of boring to me
fine okay

[Lunatic]

just some aesthetic stuff
00:28:509 (3) - why isn't this the same shape as (1) if you're going to stack it on it's end? maybe ctrl+v (1) and then ctrl+j and sort out it overlapping with (5)
it is! actually 99% of these sliders are copypasted from the same one w

00:47:176 (1,3) - ;_;
i-i don't know what you're talking about!

00:51:676 (8) - i think this is the only time you use this shape in the map, why not add it some more?
because it's ugly and i don't like it
okay I added some more around this section

01:00:509 (3) - ctrl+g this and see how it looks, i think it's better
I think this makes the gap between (2) and (3) too small and awkward.

01:06:509 - i think i'd really just like a triplet here..especially if i was being forced to play with the sb on for some reason
geez okay I'll put it on my list

[Normal]

map the repetive first 10 seconds please..orz
I'll think about it!

looks おk, but needs more whacky apaffy shapes
i-i don't know what you're talking about!

hi here is modding. sorry bad english and little modding...
Hi!

[Lunatic]
00:58:926 (2) - move to 00:58:954 (1/6)
The timing here sounds more 3/4ths to me, so I'm leaving it this way.

01:24:009 (6) - x:296 y:44
I wanted a triangle at 01:23:009 (2,5,6) here.

[Normal]
i thinks no problem.

Hi~from queue
Hi!

[Normal]

00:21:343(1) the end of slider one grid left
Fixed!

00:22:676(3) how about x288 y164?
I like this way this flows better, even if it doesn't make a neat triangle.

00:26:676(1) red point in the middle of this slider please
for example
The shape I have currently also matches the direction of 00:25:343 (3) , so I want to keep it.

00:29:009(4,1) ahh...it's jump,i just think keep distance snap will be better..
I think the jump here fits, and the spacing isn't too extreme.

00:36:009(1) keep 0.90x
I don't think there's any noticeable difference in play between 0.90x and 1.00x, and this does look slightly better so I'll keep it.

00:49:343(3) i think use red point will be more straight xD
01:22:676(1) try
01:32:009(4) stack 01:30:009(5) end
01:40:676(4,1) i'm not sure if you will be prefer it
Fixed all above!

[Lunatic]

00:28:009(1,2,3,4,5) it's cool~! xD
Haha, thanks!

00:35:509(6,4) why not slide like 00:34:509(3,4)
I wanted the curve to slowly straighten out here.

01:25:343(3) bent?
I like how this straight slider flows. I can't really think of a good direction to bend it in.

01:50:509(4) delete and add a slider slide to 01:50:843
This slider matches the last two bass notes that close out the song, so I want to keep it.

that all~ very cool storyboard >3<
Good Luck!!
Thank you!

I didn't change most of the NCs because I wanted the middle section's combos to be defined by each vocal line. I'm thinking of ways to make the awkwards parts that you pointed out (especially 01:15:509 (7,8,1,2) ) flow better, though at the moment I'm out of ideas orz

M4M~

[General]

Seems like you have some unused SB files. sb\nazrinufo.png and sb\ufo.png Please remove them.
Done!

[Lunatic]

Your start needs some new arrangements imo!
00:06:009 (6) - http://puu.sh/4gp1f.jpg ? Because it would fit perfectly your pattern before, like it currently is it breaks it totally imo
00:08:009 (10,11,12) - http://puu.sh/4gp4k.jpg
00:10:010 (13) - and http://puu.sh/4gp57.jpg If you apply those, they would flow perfectly, and 13 leads in the next circle even better.
00:12:509 (9) - TOTALLY up to you, but this stream totally kicked me off, because stopping after it is quite difficult - my solution would be that you replace the last the circles of the stream with a slider. But again, this is not necessary.
00:21:343 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - Well overall it looks fine, but still, it is a bit boring. What about varying the DS between them? Would be the best solution for it currently.
These are good suggestions. Changed all above!

00:34:509 (3) - You can hear a really strong beat 00:34:676 - here. If you can't click it, it's kinda wasted, so a reversed slider isn't really recommendable here. Replace with something different o:
That makes sense, but I really like the repeat motion here. I guess the issue is that the SV is low enough that the player can just hold their position, without ever having to snap their cursor upwards at the cymbal crash, which was the intended flow here. As an experiment I've broken up the repeat slider so that it's a hitcircle and a 1/2 beat slider instead, with the same flow as the original repeat slider. This might be a bit confusing to play through but I'm going to try this and see what others have to say about it.

00:45:676 (5,7,9) - Nothing against the placing or anything like this, but slidershapes like this don't really look good imo. What about something more simple?
I don't want these sliders to be straight, but I don't want them to be too curved either. This was the best compromise I could come up with.

00:51:176 (6) - What about a blanket here? Most of the time you're ignoring them, it's fine, but one here would actually fit quite well. http://puu.sh/4gpiW.jpg
For consistency reasons in slider curvature I don't want to change this.

00:59:343 (4) - Her voice is quite strong here, a NC would emphasize this well.
That makes sense, but I think I want to keep the indicator lines here, and also the longer combo is more consistent with this 00:55:509 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) . I'll add this to the proposed changes list, though.

01:05:343 - LOL nice SB part here!
:3c

01:11:343 (4,5,1) - Uhm compare the gap between 01:11:343 (4,5) - once, and then between 01:11:676 (5,1) - . It would be nice if you could move 01:11:676 (5) - some grids up to fix it. (There are actually a lot of these things , please go over your map once and try to fix them >w<)
The distance snappings here are too different for me to be able to fix with a slight adjustment.

The diff is really enjoyable to play, but there are a lot of not so polished DS things, which are most nazi. Apart from this, it has a nice, consistent rhythm, and hitsounding is cool too!

[Normal]

00:19:676 (2) - Unreasonable jump in normal, you should remove thiis. 1.52 is way too high!
Fixed.

00:29:343 (1) - Well this one is actually reasonable .. but 1.79 :/ Well, if you think it's fine, leave it.
I left it orz

00:30:676 (3) - 1.88? This is a normal. Please remove all kind of these jumps, it's really not recommendable!
Fixed.

00:53:009 (1) - ^ Just snap it properly.
I don't think there's a noticeable difference in play between this and 0.90x, and this is better for symmetry so I'm going to leave it.

01:18:343 (1) - Unnecessary NC, it just goes with the combo before.
This is for consistency with the rest of the NCs in this section.

01:37:343 (3) - CTRL + G to fix the jump
nopls;_;

The diff is nice, but the jumps.. since this should be your lowest diff, and with so many jumps, it's still fairly high. Please try to remove them!

Good mapset still, good luck, hope i could help you a bit.
Thank you!

*Downloads beatmap expecting just a plain normal beatmap* Mindblown.
Thanks for happiness. This is mostly going to be a Nazi mod because... no real problems.
Also... that SB.... that SB... is sex. Thanks for creating an SB that I don't have to completely dim the bg to play map.
Haha, actually I sort of wanted the effects to look so ridiculously flashy at the kiai that the player'd be forced to dim the map...
Glad you enjoyed it though!

Oh... the mod? Oh yeah heh.

Lunatic is realy fun. Except for those overused patterns.

[Lunatic]

00:21:343 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - after the first pattern this gets a little boring don't you think? Maybe more circles? Triangle jumps, stars i don't know. Just a nice pattern.
I want to keep this particular pattern because it represents the repetitive off-beat synth hits in this section.

00:30:676 (1,2,3,4,1,2) - ^You could do so much more with this.
This one I also want to keep because I like how this flows.

00:33:509 (2,3,4) - should be a stack on 3.
I think the spacing here makes this not much of an issue to read, and stacking everything on (3) would make the gaps to (1) and (5) somewhat large.

00:41:843 (3,5) - I don't really like how this lines up. Maybe 5 should be by itself angle on the right side with it's end pointing to the next circle?
I like the way this flows currently.

00:45:676 (5,6,7,8,9,10) - these patterns get old after awhile. Add variation don't ruin the feeling of the rest of the map.
00:47:176 (1,3) - this doesn't look nice :c
00:48:343 (6,7,8,9,10,11,12) - reusing patterns on lunatics/insanes are not fun :c
00:52:009 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5) - now doing these patterns here is kind of unacceptable since I can already here from the song so much you could do with it. Don't get lazy. Especialy on a build up.
All of the above are things that I agree with you on, but will require extensive remapping. I can't fix this immediately, but will work on it.

01:14:009 (2,3,4,5,6,7) - these could be wavy circles. Sliders are nice but they doint work for everything. Add some variation use more circles. D:< Especially this part of the song.
I want to keep the sliders for the up-down flow here. What do you mean by wavy circles?

01:36:676 (5) - curve this slider. I sense laziness.
01:47:009 (3) - curve slider and lower it.
01:47:343 (5) - curve slider to the right
These sliders are intentionally straight; I wanted to contrast them with the curvatures of the streams.

01:35:343 (5) - can you just do an SV change? this doesn't look good at all
01:46:009 (6) - SV change pls.
NOTE: if you do do SV changes, to make it readable without changing ccombo colours you can add two red nodes at the start of the slider to make the player move sharp for a bit where it's realizable. I can help you with readability if you pm me ingame. Take pictures.
I like the vibratory effect from crumpling these sliders.

01:50:509 (4) - put this directly over the curve of the slider.
Doing this would add another cusp to the flow between these three notes. Currently the flow is up, then curved down and to the right; by moving (4) directly above the curve of (1), the flow would be up, down and left, then right. I want to avoid this motion here.

Normal is basically perf.

[Normal]

00:30:676 (3) - this type of overlapping on normal no go. do this: http://grab.by/pSM8
01:36:676 (2) - angle this off a bit of the slider end about half, so it's actually visible to new players that thats not where to start.
o i don't know what else to say about normal... o
Fixed above!

Ok. Thanks for showing me this. Forum pm me back for a recheck anytime and ingame pm me whenever you need something.
Make sure to respond to this mod or: Blacklist. Good luck.
Thank you!

Hello, sorry for dealy

[General]

I think this mapset must have Easy diff
I talked with a BAT about this and they said that the Normal was fine, and that an Easy was not necessary.

[Normal]

00:29:009 (4,1) - this jump is too big for normal
01:08:676 (1) - ^
01:11:009 (3,4,5) - ^ alright all kiai filled with this kind of jumps and you know that this is easiest diff and such approach makes this mapset unplayable for newbies. orz Easy diff may resolve this issues too.
Personally I don't think these jumps are an issue, and I'd really like to keep them because I think they make play less monotonous, and more fun. I also think that the jumps that I have fit the music.

00:30:676 (3,4) - also stacking circles under sliders maybe confusing
Fixed!

00:36:009 (4,5) - strange spacing and placement, maybe blanket here? something like http://puu.sh/4h1iS.jpg
collapsed text
Fixed, and thanks a lot for including the .osu script!

01:24:676 (1,2,3) - and this one pattern pattern is way confusing for normal players, consider to unstack
I really like how this flows, but I can see your point. I'll consider changes.

[Lunatic]
00:23:509 (8) - this SV, maybe leave this as 1.2
Slider leniency here is huge and you really only have to be halfway up the slider to land this one.

01:06:676 (1) - such high SV not match any emphasis in music, consider to reduce
This is just something that I really don't want to change, because I like how the slider interacts with the musical elements at this point.

other of this 2 thing, diff looks clear

Hard and Lunatic really well-made but you need to decide what to do with your [Normal] because it's quite hard to be easiest diff. :\

Good Luck!
Thank you!

Ello! :3 Random mod!


Hope this helps! >~<
It did, thank you!

[Lunatic]

Increase the hp drain by +1?
Okay, drain +1.

00:56:676 (1) - this part (before the spinner) is kinda lack of hitsounds, maybe consider add some whistles?
I added some whistles at the start of some of the patterns.

[Hard]

00:43:759 (1) - this new combo seems weird, I suggest to remove it
01:17:843 (2) - try to stack this one perfectly？
Fixed both above with apaffy's approval.

[Normal]

01:05:343 (1) - note maybe too soon and too far away from the middle of the spin after the spinner for a diff played by new players, maybe move it nearer the middle of the screen?
I decreased the length of the spinner; hopefully this solves the problem!

nice storyboard :3
Thank you!

Here are the minor suggestions of patterns / hitsounds. It's your own choice whether to follow these suggestions.

01:01:676 ~ 01:03:843 - Maybe it's me, but imo the hitsounds don't fit the drum well ? ( eg 01:02:009 doesn't seem to have k sound ? ) You can consider this, but it depends if you want to keep the consistent drum-only style.

01:16:176 (2) - Blue note ? ( Although this is following vocal rather than drum, the feeling of 01:16:843 (2,1) tells me that this small section can be more based on vocal. Your choice though )

01:27:343 (1,1,1,1) - O O O O ? ( Considering the finishes in kiai tend to follow vocal more, I think using KDDK can keep this consistent style better )

Here are the minor suggestions of patterns / hitsounds. It's your own choice whether to follow these suggestions.

01:27:343 (1,1,1,1) - O O O O ? ( Basically same as oni )

01:05:343 (1,2,3,4) - O O O O ( imo using DDKK can show the different pitch variations better than only K )
01:37:343 (1,1,2,2) - O O O O ? ( The reverse of DDKK. imo this can keep your style consistent and follow the pitch of instrument better at the same time. Also contrasts with the above suggestion. Optional though )

01:48:676 (1~5) - ooooo ? ( It has an even higher pitch than 01:48:509 (1) and so I think using k instead of d fits better. Also fits the pitch-oriented finishes after this 1/4 )

[General]
I'm not sure the circle of artists is used as the artist in osu!. Often times it's just the singer or arranger (see Alstromeria Records beatmaps)
It's hard to say, you should ask around.
Changed artist to vocalist (3L) and adjusted tags accordingly. The only ranked Arte Refact map is Cake Hime * Masaruumi & JUMA - Eiya no Parade, which lists the artist as the vocalists, so I'll do the same for consistency.

[Normal]
The star rating is quite high (3.24), it's hard to rank maps with a high star lower difficulkty. Try toi get it as close to 3 as possible or under 3.
Spacing overall is really weird, stuff like 01:09:343 (2,3,4) - should theoretically have similar spacing on a Normal diff. This is especially an issue in places like 01:48:009 (4,5) - .
I removed every jump in the map and adjusted spacing to be consistent to ~0.90x, with ~1.20x used in the Kiai section. After applying spacing changes, the star difficulty is now 3.18, which is hopefully better!

00:54:509 (3) - This slider moves over itself, so it is burai and unrankable. The slider must not go over itself like that!
Fixed; slider doesn't move over itself anymore.

[apaffy's Hard]
00:20:009 (1,2) - This is a nasty antijump, this will mess up a lot of players because of how close 1 and 2 are.
Fixed by moving (1) so that its end stacks on (2), and applied a 30 degree CCW rotation to improve flow from the previous note.

01:06:343 (1) - Remove new combo, this just messes up HP drain.
01:07:009 (1) - Same as above
01:36:009 (1,1,1,1) - Same as above, just lessen the amount here
01:41:343 (1,1,1,1) - Lessen the amount of new combos please X_X, it's pretty but it does mess with gameplay.
Fixed all above.

[Lunatic]
00:23:509 (8) - This slider moves over itself, so it is burai and unrankable. The slider must not go over itself like that!
Fixed

00:56:676 (1,2,3) - This is a very strange rhythm and I recommend avoiding it. Putting these three circles into a repeat slider would fix the issue.\
00:58:676 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - Same with these. Two repeat sliders would be awesome here.
This was something that you mentioned a while back, but after experimenting a bit with repeat sliders I couldn't find an arrangement that I liked. I don't think these are too much of an issue; the spacing is relatively exaggerated which makes it somewhat easier to read, and even if do end up causing a player trouble during their first run through the map, it's not a problem that would persist throughout multiple playthroughs.

01:06:676 (1) - This slider moves over itself, so it is burai and unrankable. The slider must not go over itself like that! Dang this one's crazy
Fixed!

01:35:343 (10) - This slider moves slower than 0.5x slider speed because of its compression. Compressing sliders like this is a gray area, but it's usually okay as long as it isn't slower than the slowest achievable slider speed. This one is slower, so keeping it is a risky thing to do.
01:46:009 (6) - Same as the above.
Fixed both above. I kept the compression, but decompressed them enough so that they aren't slower than a 0.50x slider of the same length.

01:48:009 (1) - This slider changes its speed mid-slide. These are extremely risky to use and even more of a gray area than the compressed sliders.
This was also something we talked about a while ago in chat. You mentioned that this was debatable, but I want to keep this if possible because I like how it fits the instrumentation. If a BAT tells me that it's definitely unrankable though, I'll remove it.

01:50:676 (1) - Remove this slider, there's no need for it
The last few bass notes in the song fall on the ends of this slider. I like how this closes out the map, so I want to keep it.

11t wrote:
Hi, thanks for your reply!

As for the Lunatic, I'd still like to keep my current new comboing pattern. The 13 combo in the beginning definitely lasts for more than two measures, but I don't think this is an issue because the arrangement is slow and drastically easier in comparison to the rest of the map.

None of the other combos exceed two measures in length, and I still believe that the current new combos match the phrasing of the music better than a pattern of new combos based solely on downbeats.

I still haven't had a chance to look back at the map, but from what I remember there were a lot of short 3 note combos that seems to be there more to make a pattern more readable rather than fitting the phrase of the song. Anyway, we both have our take on it - just as long as you understand where I'm coming from, it's fine.

I actually thought that breaking the previous feel of my map with these slowdowns would add contrast to the gameplay, and help to emphasize these particular points. As long as it was a readable slowdown, I felt that it in the end it would have a positive contribution to the map. Of course I didn't want to overuse this though, so I only chose to emphasize the phrasings that occurred right before the streams at the end of these sections. Overall I think that these slowdowns diversify the gameplay, are easily readable, and fit the music both visually (with the vibration effect) and mechanically, and these are very strong reasons for me to keep them.

Since this has gone through multiple BATs (and a rank!) with a few of them telling me that they enjoyed the scrunching, I guess it's not unreasonable for me to be resistant to changes here. But at the same time I also understand that an unrankable issue in this map has also gone through multiple BATs (and a rank...), and inconsistency as you mentioned is a significant downside to using these slowdowns. In the end though, I think that sometimes it's viable to sacrifice consistency to bring unique elements into your map, as long as those elements are readable, fit the music, and don't completely catch players by surprise. This is one of those cases where I think this works.

I think the biggest part for me is that the slowdown was simply too drastic. It felt out of place and felt more like a bad design decision rather than something special. If you did a slowdown that wasn't as extreme, you would still retain this same effect without breaking the flow as badly.

I'll try to catch you in game so we can talk about this a bit and sort it out quicker, but if not, please PM me and let me know what you think about these things!

Overtime pay is just too tempting, haha. Hopefully I can get some time in Friday evening, but no guarantees, though I think we've mostly gotten our points out here. I'll get that screenshot to you when I can.


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11t
about 36 hours ago
Hi, thanks for your reply!

Garven wrote:
The new combo concerns mostly have to do with the HP Drain mechanic. If you have too many too frequently, you artificially gain too much HP and 'break' that aspect of the challenge. Too few, and it becomes unfair in the difficulty to recover from a mistake. Generally comboing should be used to reflect the phrasing in the music as well, so usually setting them to change every two measures or so (tall white ticks) fits most modern songs.

This makes sense; I'll fix the new comboing in the Normal.

As for the Lunatic, I'd still like to keep my current new comboing pattern. The 13 combo in the beginning definitely lasts for more than two measures, but I don't think this is an issue because the arrangement is slow and drastically easier in comparison to the rest of the map.

None of the other combos exceed two measures in length, and I still believe that the current new combos match the phrasing of the music better than a pattern of new combos based solely on downbeats.

Garven wrote:
The storyboard might be due to my resolution since I'm running at 16:10. Something to consider in your SB design, perhaps. If I recall, it was cutting off about about "Onosakihi" I'll get a screenshot when I can.

A screenshot would be great, thanks!

Garven wrote:
The slowdown sliders... well, for me it was more an issue about the pacing of the cursor. There were many similar phrasings throughout the melody that continued the normal pace of the rest of your mapping, but when those slowdown instances came about the drastic slowdown just breaks the feel of your map up to that point. I can provide a more specific response later if this doesn't make sense.

I actually thought that breaking the previous feel of my map with these slowdowns would add contrast to the gameplay, and help to emphasize these particular points. As long as it was a readable slowdown, I felt that it in the end it would have a positive contribution to the map. Of course I didn't want to overuse this though, so I only chose to emphasize the phrasings that occurred right before the streams at the end of these sections. Overall I think that these slowdowns diversify the gameplay, are easily readable, and fit the music both visually (with the vibration effect) and mechanically, and these are very strong reasons for me to keep them.

Since this has gone through multiple BATs (and a rank!) with a few of them telling me that they enjoyed the scrunching, I guess it's not unreasonable for me to be resistant to changes here. But at the same time I also understand that an unrankable issue in this map has also gone through multiple BATs (and a rank...), and inconsistency as you mentioned is a significant downside to using these slowdowns. In the end though, I think that sometimes it's viable to sacrifice consistency to bring unique elements into your map, as long as those elements are readable, fit the music, and don't completely catch players by surprise. This is one of those cases where I think this works.

I'll try to catch you in game so we can talk about this a bit and sort it out quicker, but if not, please PM me and let me know what you think about these things!
Garven
about 39 hours ago
The quick and dirty reply because I'm throwing this up between overtime shifts:

The new combo concerns mostly have to do with the HP Drain mechanic. If you have too many too frequently, you artificially gain too much HP and 'break' that aspect of the challenge. Too few, and it becomes unfair in the difficulty to recover from a mistake. Generally comboing should be used to reflect the phrasing in the music as well, so usually setting them to change every two measures or so (tall white ticks) fits most modern songs.

The storyboard might be due to my resolution since I'm running at 16:10. Something to consider in your SB design, perhaps. If I recall, it was cutting off about about "Onosakihi" I'll get a screenshot when I can.

The slowdown sliders... well, for me it was more an issue about the pacing of the cursor. There were many similar phrasings throughout the melody that continued the normal pace of the rest of your mapping, but when those slowdown instances came about the drastic slowdown just breaks the feel of your map up to that point. I can provide a more specific response later if this doesn't make sense.
11t
about 43 hours ago
Hi, I couldn't catch you in game, but I have a few questions about my map which was recently unranked.

[Normal]
Garven wrote:
01:06:676 (1,1,1) - Please don't new combo spam.
01:12:009 (1,1,1) - ^
01:17:343 (1,1,1) -
01:22:676 (1,1,1) -

If this is a strictly unrankable issue I'll change it, but if not I'd like to keep these new combos if possible for a few reasons. Having a new combo on each of these large sliders gives this section more impact. The vocal melodies at these sliders are both symmetric yet distinct; that symmetry is captured by the symmetry of the sliders shapes, but I also wanted to preserve the sense of distinctness by splitting the combos. This might seem a bit contrived, but I also felt that having new combos in these particular areas added a more flavorful mix of color to the visual field. Removing them makes the kiai section seem more mundane. I don't see any particular gameplay concerns or issues with readability in this particular use of additional new combos.

If these reasons don't seem valid to you, or aren't enough to outweigh whatever downsides these new combos might bring to the map, I'll remove them.

[Taiko]
Garven wrote:
The storyboard image is scaled a little bit too high. It's cutting off Ono's name.

This looks fine to me in-game: http://puu.sh/4MfNT.png
I'm using 1366x768 resolution. Would this depend on the resolution?

[Insane]
Garven wrote:
What happened to your new combo progression from the Normal? It's all messed up in this difficulty. :<

Rather than follow downbeats for new combos, I chose to follow the vocal melody and placed new combos at the start of each new vocal phrase. For a high-paced difficulty like this, using this sort of new combo pattern makes more sense to me than adding new combos on downbeats which may be right in the middle of a vocal phrase, leading to what seems to me as an unnatural combo split.

Anyway, that's my reasoning for it. Let me know if I'm just totally off the mark, though.

Garven wrote:
00:10:010 (13) - You should just add a second grey combo so this doesn't get so high

Is this really necessary? I feel like a 13 combo isn't that large, and I like how keeping everything in a single combo reinforces the idea of monotoneity and uniformity that I was trying to convey in the intro here. Are there any gameplay issues with this? My knowledge of osu mechanics is pretty poor so if this actually has some sort of huge impact on score or playability, please let me know.

Garven wrote:
01:35:343 (1) - Eew what is that. This completely breaks your flow and any sort of pace you had established earlier.
01:46:009 (1) - ^ I guess these were the old scrunched slider spots, huh? From how you've used them, they were a bad idea from the start anyway if they slowed down to this degree.

Yes, these were two of the old scrunched slider spots ;_;
I was told that all scrunched sliders were unrankable, but after talking with other BATs apparently this isn't the case. Scrunched sliders are acceptable, just not for sliders that change speed midway, and as long as they don't move slower than a 0.50x slider.

I had scrunched sliders at these two places, and while they were more or less consistently scrunched there were pretty large bits of unscrunched slider at the ends so I guess that could have caused some issues.

Is something like this alright?
Image

I'd like to have scrunched sliders here if possible. I think that the vibration effect matches the timbre of the instrumentation, the increased slider width makes it easy to read, and the slower speed reflects the held note and the halted pace of the melody here. I don't think there are any gameplay issues with this, and no one ever had any trouble with my previous sliders during all of the testplays that I asked for, many from BATs. If scrunching isn't possible here, the next best thing I could think of was to simply reduce slider SV, though as you noticed that wasn't nearly as readable nor did it really match the music at all.

Anyway, if this isn't possible, do you have any particular suggestions for what I could here?

I fixed everything that I didn't mention here. Thanks a lot for taking a look at the map! I appreciate you taking the time to try and move this forward.

[Lunatic]
00:02:676 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13) - the combo seems too long. You should use 2 different gray colors and add some NCs and switch colors between them.
This really wasn't something I wanted to change because the combo is only 13 notes long, and the duration of the combo isn't an issue because the section is extremely easy to play in comparison to the rest of the map. I also felt that mapping the intro in a single combo helped to reinforce the idea of monotoneity that I was trying to convey, and that using another combo color, even if it's another gray, would compromise this.

Well, I changed it now anyway because everyone keeps bringing this up.

[Hard]
00:02:676 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) - maybe same as Lunatic
Changed as above.

[Normal]
01:20:009 (1,2,3,4,1,2) - spacing inconsistency?
01:26:343 (2,3,4,1) - spacing inconsistency?
Fixed both by reworking sliders.