Excuse my forum etiquette, it’s the first time I’m posting :3
If a mod similar to (but easier than) hard rock was added, I believe it would help a lot of players transition into hard rock, and make the game better overall.
Following are some of the reasons that I thought of:
I do not think that hard rock is a poorly conceived mod. Rather, it is a great idea, created in early days of osu!, but the game has changed a lot since. Hard rock certainly has a place in osu!, but it would greatly benefit having a easier companion. Today, hard rock is almost entirely absent from best performance boards of players with ranks greater than 10k, or the 99% of osu! community. We can fix this \o/.
If a mod similar to (but easier than) hard rock was added, I believe it would help a lot of players transition into hard rock, and make the game better overall.
Following are some of the reasons that I thought of:
1) Learning curve for Hard Rock is too steep
Little bit about me: I am a player ranked around 15k, and I have several friends with similar ranks. At some point, all of my friends (and I) have tried to get comfortable playing with hard rock, without much success.
Because there are very few players around my rank whose best performances are filled with hr, I believe this problem is not just limited to me and my friends.
Part of the reason that hard rock has such a high learning curve is that it changes difficulty setting of the game too much. If I understand correctly, hardrock modifies the difficulty settings in following way:
cs_hr = 1.3*cs
ar_hr = 1.4*ar
od_hr = 1.4*od
hp_hr = 1.4*hp
In addition to, of course, inverting the objects.
In general, playing maps with high cs require good aim. high ar require good reaction, high od require good accuracy, and high hp require good consistency. Hard rock increases all four of these parameters simultaneously, and I don’t think that’s ideal. Often, it is best to learn one thing at a time. Or, at least a smaller increase in these parameters would be helpful.
Because there are very few players around my rank whose best performances are filled with hr, I believe this problem is not just limited to me and my friends.
Part of the reason that hard rock has such a high learning curve is that it changes difficulty setting of the game too much. If I understand correctly, hardrock modifies the difficulty settings in following way:
cs_hr = 1.3*cs
ar_hr = 1.4*ar
od_hr = 1.4*od
hp_hr = 1.4*hp
In addition to, of course, inverting the objects.
In general, playing maps with high cs require good aim. high ar require good reaction, high od require good accuracy, and high hp require good consistency. Hard rock increases all four of these parameters simultaneously, and I don’t think that’s ideal. Often, it is best to learn one thing at a time. Or, at least a smaller increase in these parameters would be helpful.
2) Sudden transition in difficulty settings
The second reason is similar to the first, but I think they are distinct. Nowadays, there are (unofficial) standard game settings used depending on difficulty of a map. For example, the standard for insane maps (4~5 star maps) are:
cs: = 4
ar: =9
od: = 7~8
hp: 6~8
of course, not every 4~5 star insane maps fall into these values, but majority does.
Imagine a typical insane player. If the player is used to playing no mod, she is comfortable with cs4, ar9, od8, and hp 8. But if she wants to learn hr, she will suddenly be required to play a map with ar10, cs5.2, od 9.8~10, and hp 8.4~10. This is a very sudden transition, and no one (that I know of) made this transition comfortably, if at all. It is very difficult to learn ar10, without playing some ar9.5 first. Worse, if a player used to ar8 wants to play hr, she will have to make a jump from ar8 to ar10.
Of course, there are ways to make these transition smoother. A player can pick easier maps to practice hard rock, use ar8+DT, or modify difficulty setting from editor. These help, but for obvious reasons, they are not ideal.
Lately, I’ve been seeing more maps with difficulty setting specified to decimals (like ar9.3, od 8.5, instead of ar9 and od8). I think it’s a positive step toward making transition easier. However, I don’t think they are not sufficient.
If a mapper wanted to create and rank a 4 star map with ar10, it would most likely be struck down by BN and QAT (or whoever decides these stuff), because a 4 star maps don’t go well with ar 10. But hard rock does exactly that.
cs: = 4
ar: =9
od: = 7~8
hp: 6~8
of course, not every 4~5 star insane maps fall into these values, but majority does.
Imagine a typical insane player. If the player is used to playing no mod, she is comfortable with cs4, ar9, od8, and hp 8. But if she wants to learn hr, she will suddenly be required to play a map with ar10, cs5.2, od 9.8~10, and hp 8.4~10. This is a very sudden transition, and no one (that I know of) made this transition comfortably, if at all. It is very difficult to learn ar10, without playing some ar9.5 first. Worse, if a player used to ar8 wants to play hr, she will have to make a jump from ar8 to ar10.
Of course, there are ways to make these transition smoother. A player can pick easier maps to practice hard rock, use ar8+DT, or modify difficulty setting from editor. These help, but for obvious reasons, they are not ideal.
Lately, I’ve been seeing more maps with difficulty setting specified to decimals (like ar9.3, od 8.5, instead of ar9 and od8). I think it’s a positive step toward making transition easier. However, I don’t think they are not sufficient.
If a mapper wanted to create and rank a 4 star map with ar10, it would most likely be struck down by BN and QAT (or whoever decides these stuff), because a 4 star maps don’t go well with ar 10. But hard rock does exactly that.
3) Unintuitive Capping
With hard rock, any od, hp, and ar above 7.2 gets scaled up to value of 10. If a map was created as ar8, instead of ar 9. I believe there was a good reason for that decision, and I don’t think they should be treated the same way when hr is applied. Besides, it would also help transition into hard rock easier if, for example, od 8 becomes 9.5 with hr.
The Request: Easier hard rock
I will move onto the details of the new mod I’m requesting before this gets any longer. I believe all three issues discussed above can be solved by adding a mod similar to hard rock, only easier. Let’s call it “soft rock” for convenience (and because it’s a very creative name). For example, new game setting multiplier can be:
cs_sr = 1.0*cs
ar_sr = 1.2*ar
od_sr = ... etc
Even with a new mod, I don’t think there will be a big overhaul in top 50 scoreboards, as long as score multiplier is kept reasonably low. However, best performances of individual player will feature significantly diverse set of modes, because: 1) soft rock will give more pp than no mod and 2) people will learn hard rock more easily once they master soft rock.
I think flipping play-field is good idea. We can even flip it vertically, instead of horizontally like hard rock.
Also, soft rock can be made so it can be selected by clicking hard rock twice in mod screen, like perfect and nightcore is selected by clicking sudden death and double time twice, respectively. Soft rock won’t take up a lot of space, I promise
cs_sr = 1.0*cs
ar_sr = 1.2*ar
od_sr = ... etc
Even with a new mod, I don’t think there will be a big overhaul in top 50 scoreboards, as long as score multiplier is kept reasonably low. However, best performances of individual player will feature significantly diverse set of modes, because: 1) soft rock will give more pp than no mod and 2) people will learn hard rock more easily once they master soft rock.
I think flipping play-field is good idea. We can even flip it vertically, instead of horizontally like hard rock.
Also, soft rock can be made so it can be selected by clicking hard rock twice in mod screen, like perfect and nightcore is selected by clicking sudden death and double time twice, respectively. Soft rock won’t take up a lot of space, I promise
I do not think that hard rock is a poorly conceived mod. Rather, it is a great idea, created in early days of osu!, but the game has changed a lot since. Hard rock certainly has a place in osu!, but it would greatly benefit having a easier companion. Today, hard rock is almost entirely absent from best performance boards of players with ranks greater than 10k, or the 99% of osu! community. We can fix this \o/.
