Riince wrote:
hidden is basically a playstyle choice, it's barely even a mod. it's analogous to hidden or flashlight in mania which mania players have agreed do not make the map harder but just changes the way it plays to fit their preferences. ideally it wouldn't give bonus pp at all but standard is understandably different than mania and there are times when hidden makes things harder.
Which brings me to my next paragraph.
Why does it give bonus to aim?. Jumps are by no means more difficult with hidden, yet jumps are what require aim to complete. Overlapping and stacks and the like that DO get harder with hidden, are not exactly heavy on the aim requirement. I guess tom just couldn't think of anywhere else to put hidden since it doesnt really change anything, aim included, but just felt he had to give it something.
IMO Hidden
does make the map slightly harder to read (slightly), there are maps where the difference barely matters (basic patterns, consistent spacing, hit every 1/2 beat, no stacks/overlaps/streams, AR9-10...) and maps where Hidden plays in a lot (complex jumps/patterns, weird spacing, complex timing, stacks/overlaps/streams, low AR). Point being, the difficulty in hidden comes with reading the map--it's just a bit harder to notice all of the notes and to be able to time when to hit them correctly than on nomod. It is a slight difficulty increase, but it's still there, with the added effect of having to figure out how to time everything without approach circles, or keep track of where everything is.
The problem with pp is that it doesn't take in plain reading, because there's no pattern recognition, nor is there really any way to be able to tell you correctly read everything if you miss it. I think Tom tried to squeeze in that reading aspect by boosting up the aim bonus (verifying you can read it) and a very slight bit to accuracy (verifying you can time it), which would be pretty sensical in my eyes.
Just as my two cents on this, though I only play Hidden casually, I actually think this way is pretty accurate and Hidden is pretty fairly balanced right now. Like tfg50 mentioned, the only way to make it more accurate is to add in pattern recognition.
Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, like I said I only play Hidden casually.