Hi. Here because Sotarks requested a M4M of some kind. Long mod is long and subjective, so take your time, and I won't feel bad if you reject all of it. Hope this helps
[General]
Set AudioLeadIn: 1500
This makes the beginning of the map have an additional 1500 ms in dead air to give the player a chance to adjust to starting the map. To do this, go to File → open .osu in notepad, and audio lead in is one of the first things at the top. Do this for each difficulty.
00:47:638 (1) – I'm not sure I see a reason for this to be a kiai section, but I'm not sure if this matters that much, or it might be handled by a BN
[First Impact]
00:00:554 (1,2,3) – Why is the distance at (1,2) bigger than that at (2,3) when there is no guitar on (2) but there is one on (3)? Shouldn't (1,2) be 1.3x DS and (2,3) be 1.4x or bigger?
00:01:804 (7) – Consider angling this so that it forms a line with 00:01:491 (5) -
00:02:897 (3) – I'd like to see a bigger change in flow/angle here to emphasize the guitar and stay consistent with what you did at 00:01:022 (3) - . If you do, you might also want to throw in a small jump (DS 1.6x?). For example:
http://puu.sh/mntjo/4fcf5e3747.jpg00:15:810 (1,2) – The curvature of these could fit better by changing (2) so that these are more equidistant like:
http://puu.sh/mnqiy/475303e01a.jpg00:17:028 (1,2,3) – Set this up so that (3) blankets (1)?
http://puu.sh/mnqoo/59ba937f17.jpg00:20:683 (1,2) – could be blanketed nicer by moving the red anchor closer to (2)
00:26:775 (1,2) – these are a little close visually, so maybe give them a bit of space?
00:35:455 (1,2) - This rough example makes the design nicer:
http://puu.sh/mnqII/50cff94ad2.jpg or
http://puu.sh/mnqMC/b067a5634e.jpg00:36:064 (2,3) – Compared to the above, the DS here is a little small. Whether you go with the above change or not, try making the DS the same for these two.
00:36:673 (4,6) – Consider a SV change here. The guitar is really intense, and it'd be pretty cool if you emphasized them more. I said a lot of points about how I interpreted this part in Sotarks map, so I'll copy that here:
00:36:673 (2) – You made the SV go down? It seems like these guitars are wicked, and they increase the intensity rather than decrease it. I'd also say the guitar is more important than the vocals here for that reason, so you should focus on going with the guitar instead, and if the decrease is in SV was for the singer then I would recommend against it. It looks like the idea is to decrease SV in order to possibly build tension, and then release it on 00:37:282 (1) - . If that's what you were going for, I could see it working, but you would need to make 00:36:673 (2) – have an SV of about .25 and then have an SV of about 1.2x at 00:37:282 (1) - . Otherwise you could make 00:36:673 (2) – have .9x SV and 00:37:282 (1) – have 1.2x SV with good (as in higher) spacing into one of the notes at 00:37:130 (3,1) – (probably (1) since that's where the strong note is). 00:37:739 (1) – Keep the jump into this being relatively bigger though.
00:36:673 (4,6) – Consider making these parallel instead since there isn't enough difference between them when you mirror them like this.
00:37:739 (1) – Compare the spacing in this section to the spacing in the section before it. It feels you don't increase it across these sections enough, and so the pacing feels a little flat. Try having this section be just a little bigger, or the section before this be a little smaller, or a little of both.
00:39:719 (8,9) – Why stack this? I feel like something like this plays nicer since it gives a similar rest but doesn't change the momentum of the movement as dramatically (since I don't see what's happening that is significant enough to emphasize) (Comment below very related):
http://puu.sh/mnrJ5/8dc2f5400b.jpg00:41:089 (4,5) – These stacks aren't that bad though since the spacing into them isn't as big. But when you emphasize the above one with a bigger spacing, the stack doesn't play as well. So maybe instead keep the stack above but make the jump into it smaller and more in flow with the rest of the pattern since the flow change into it also gives it emphasis.
01:13:830 (5,6) – I feel like this has a similar issue, though it isn't as big. Do try patterns like this though:
http://puu.sh/mntR4/1be25d502f.jpg00:46:419 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,1) – The stream raises the intensity of the map a little too suddenly and makes it a little too intense for me. Try reducing the spacing of the stream to .9x or .8x (or .85x to go with your previous SV). (don't do ctrl shift s though since this will make the curve too tight). Furthermore, I keep wanting to say to increase the spacing of the section at 00:47:638 (1) – , and that's partly because the stream is building into a higher intensity section. So, lowering the build up lowers the expected intensity of the next section enough for me to complain less.
00:48:704 (5,1) – You decided not to go with the singer here by not making 5 a 1/1 slider, but you do at 00:53:577 (1) - . Why the change? I think it would be nicer to go with the singer at 00:48:704 (5,1) –
, and maybe make the jumps into 00:48:704 – a little bigger to emphasize the singer here. I see that you rejected Milan's suggestion about this. I'd like to reassure you that this type of rhythm of ignoring the white tick is quite common in the melody of a lot of songs. It's called
syncopation, and it makes a lot of sense to ignore the downbeat because you aren't following the drums with the rhythm you have, you're following the singer, and the singer doesn't hit the downbeat, so it makes more sense to not put a note on the downbeat.
00:54:795 (1,2) – Giving this a small blanket looks nicer imo:
http://puu.sh/mnr5L/a62f0c634e.jpg00:56:013 (4,1,2,3,4,5) – This looks like it's intended to blanket. However, due to the way osu stacks this, (4,1) is not blanketed and that's the more important one to blanket. So either due +20x, +20y to undo the stack placement change or move it down so that it doesn't look close to a blanket:
http://puu.sh/mnrff/f913efc890.jpg01:02:105 (1) – This note is one of the more emphasized notes in the song, so it feels odd to have it stacked under the previous slider. Consider doing something like this to start off the energetic kiai section with more energy:
http://puu.sh/mntJr/88e48987ad.jpg, scratch that, this feels nicer
http://puu.sh/moOZi/cb8d494b7f.jpg.
01:26:013 (1,2,3,4) – This is the climax of the song, so I think increasing the spacing of this pattern will reflect the higher intensity here. (especially at 01:25:709 (3,1) - , you might want to make a jump here.)
[Sotark's Insane]
00:01:491 (3,4,5) - This says two contradictory things to me. You increase the intensity by increasing the rhythm at 3,4 and you also add a jump into 5. This says that the intensity of the notes after 5 have some intensity in them. However, 5 is a reverse slider. This says that these notes (esp at 00:02:116 - ) have low intensity. Try instead deleting 00:02:272 (6) – and making 5 a ½ slider and then putting another ½ slider at 00:02:116 – to fit the guitar better. This also makes the whistle there sound and play nicer. Really I didn't need the long winded explanation; the point is that 00:02:116 – plays much better when it's clickable.
00:05:554 (5) – This could flow better from 4 (using the tangent line at 5's head). Try rotating 00:05:554 (5,6,1,2,3) – by like 15 degrees
00:09:262 (5,6) – This spacing is quite high. Can you defend this? I don't see anything that would suggest 6 is high intensity, nor does this fit well with the pacing of this section of the map.
00:11:394 (2) – This is off the grid due to how its stacked. You can see that this is a problem because it touches the HP bar which looks really strange, so try moving this whole combo down. It also would look better if it were blanketed in 00:10:937 (1) - .
00:15:658 (6,1) – Try having this spacing be bigger to emphasize the guitar and contrast with the constant DS of 00:13:678 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6) - .
00:17:028 (5,1) – This jump is a little too big, and there isn't much flow change to it, so it makes the spacing feel like more of an issue. I also feel like you chose this spacing to fit the design as opposed to having a musical reason to go with it. In fact, the strong note of the guitar, which is what you have been mostly going with, gets syncopated and is actually on (5), which is a reason to not have a big jump here. It's hard to change what you have because of the design you're going for, but you can try putting 00:16:876 (4) – at 223, 164 (00:15:810 (1) – 's midpoint) to give you more to work with, though this makes the repetitive flow kind of an issue (to me) ...
00:21:140 (2,3) – Due to slider leniency, this spacing is a little low. I'd like to see the spacing increase here, and while you're changing this, it might be nicer for design and flow to have these slider be curved here, so experiment with that.
00:22:054 (5) – “This 1/1 reverse slider slows down the map more than I would like. See if there is a rhythm you like that gets a little more clicks in” is what I thought a month ago. It kind of has a role in slowing the map down to reset some of the pacing, but I can kind of see why players like me 1 month ago might not like this (to be clear, I don't care if you change this, just thought I'd throw the idea out there).
00:26:013 (2,3,4) – It'd be nice if the visual spacing was the same throughout these sliders (see
p/4733934)00:45:201 (1,2,3,4) - ^
00:17:181 (1,2,3) - ^
00:40:328 (1,2,3,4) - ^ particularly at (2)
00:34:084 (4,1) – This a rather big jump for a relatively calm section. It is especially odd since, again like 00:17:028 (5,1) – , the singer is syncopated and her strong note is at 00:34:084 (4) - . I'm having a jump here, but this seems too bit to me considering your spacing with the other parts of this section.
00:35:455 (1,3) – To me, the music on these notes feels a little repetitive. This makes the current pattern feel off since they're so different. Consider a slightly higher spacing as opposed to stacking, and also consider making 3 a slider
00:36:673 (2) – You made the SV go down? It seems like these guitars are wicked, and they increase the intensity rather than decrease it. I'd also say the guitar is more important than the vocals here for that reason, so you should focus on going with the guitar instead, and if the decrease is in SV was for the singer then I would recommend against it. It looks like the idea is to decrease SV in order to possibly build tension, and then release it on 00:37:282 (1) - . If that's what you were going for, I could see it working, but you would need to make 00:36:673 (2) – have an SV of about .25 and then have an SV of about 1.2x at 00:37:282 (1) - . Otherwise you could make 00:36:673 (2) – have .9x SV and 00:37:282 (1) – have 1.2x SV with good (as in higher) spacing into one of the notes at 00:37:130 (3,1) – (probably (1) since that's where the strong note is). 00:37:739 (1) – Keep the jump into this being relatively bigger though.
00:36:673 (2,1) – Do these need to overlap or can you space them out more?
00:37:587 (2,1) – You could give these a little more room visually since they looked a little cramped, especially with what you have before this
00:43:678 (4) – This is me being subjective, but I don't like the horizontal slider for how it looks. See if you can give this a curve that flows into the next note better. Actually, try moving it to 145, 275 for visual spacing reasons and because the angle might flow better. Or you know try whatever.
00:48:094 (2,1) – These don't look great, see if you can stack them or not overlap here.
00:50:987 (4,1) – This jump is too big. Bring down the spacing some. It's nice that you syncopated it nicely, but I still think you overdid the spacing based on the jumps in similar parts like at 00:48:704 (1) – and 00:49:770 (5,6,1) - . To further explain myself, the pitch of the singer goes lower at 00:51:140 (1) - , which generally I interpret as being lower intensity.
01:02:105 (1) – I feel like this is an important note, so the spacing into it being so low doesn't feel exciting to me. This is might be fine as is, but do consider a slight jump here.
01:02:866 (4,5) – Why did you choose to stack here? What makes the music feel like it's stopping that makes the player want to halt his/her momentum? Move (5) to 345, 89, test it out, and compare to what you have.
01:07:130 (1,3) – As a mapper, I find this interesting. I would not have chosen to repeat the flow like this, but I think it works nicely, so it's cool to see your different perspective working. Do try to increase the spacing a little bit into (3) from 1.6 to ~1.8 or 2.0x since it feels a little small
01:22:967 (1) – Consider rotating this a little and stacking 01:23:577 (3,4) - on 01:22:663 (5) – so that (5) looks nicer next to (1)?
01:24:033 (1,2,3,5,7) – This is a mess to read. Try spacing these out so the player can see what's going on more easily:
http://puu.sh/moJRQ/1f2c341203.jpg01:26:318 (4,5) – Consider moving this to 155, 11. I like this change because these are the dramatic finishes to the song, so they should break free of the pattern you have and express something different instead of conforming to the standard pattern. If you really wanted to express this idea (which I recommend doing), you might want to have (4) have x = 16 to provide a nice flow change to go with it, but this would really only play well if you could move the 01:25:404 (1,2,3) – pattern over so that then (4) isn't jammed in the corner.
[Light Insane]
00:11:394 (2,3) – I get that there is a rotation on (3) and flow change and that's fine, I just think you give too much change that it plays a little odd. Try rotating (3) by 10 degrees and adjusting it slightly so that the flow change/rotation is a little more subtle:
http://puu.sh/moPGT/bc1b110af2.jpg00:51:597 (5,6) – The way these flow into each other does not play well due to slider leniency. Try something more like:
http://puu.sh/moQ7c/781e094faf.jpg01:14:744 (2,3,4) – This is a repetitive flow. What part of the music inspired you to map it this way? I can't really tell, so maybe try doing ctrl + G on (3) and spacing it out a little like:
http://puu.sh/moPPe/966d3d3bd0.jpg. This is just one option, so even if you don't like this, the point still stands about repetition that you can try to experiment with other flows.
Edit: 1/10/16, got around to some of the difficulties
[Hard]
00:01:804 (6) – whistle on the head?
00:03:679 (6) - ^
00:04:304 (1) – Why abandon the whistles? Try putting a whistle on the head of this, a whistle on the head of 00:04:772 (2) - , and a whistle on the head and tail of 00:05:554 (3) – to keep the guitar strong.
00:03:366 (5,6) - rotate these by -10 degrees so that they are symmetrical?
http://puu.sh/mrifh/973862ffea.jpg00:33:475 (2,3) – This rhythm is a little awkward for me because the strong note of the singer is at 00:34:084 – which is mapped as a slider end. Mapping it as a slider end reduces the intensity, and so I expected 1/1 rhythm after this. Instead you use ½ rhythm to get the downbeat. This played fine at 00:28:602 (2,3) – because (3) flowed directly out of (2). But in the mentioned pattern, there is a flow change into 00:34:084 (3) - , which doesn't play well with the reduced intensity of the slider end at 00:34:084 – . So either make it so there's no flow change here, or try a rhythm like this:
http://puu.sh/mrj0I/d7ec34909a.jpg . This rhythm might work for 00:28:602 (2,3) – , but it's not as important there for the reason above
01:26:318 (3,4) – Consider making the audio ~85% to emphasize the final drums?
[Normal]
00:01:179 (2) – This note is extremely weak in the music, so I recommend against making it clickable. Making 00:00:554 (1) – a reverse slider plays nicer imo.
00:04:304 (1,2,3,4) – For here, you might want to try something like this (or make one of the circles a 1/1 slider):
http://puu.sh/mrjr1/4885287287.jpg00:20:226 (5) – I'm not a fan of this flow since the player has to double back into (5), but then is immediately met with anti-flow, which seems too tricky for this part. Try going with something smoother like:
http://puu.sh/mrjHi/adc4c0a66e.jpg00:16:876 (3) – Try a simpler flow here. A rough, bad example:http://puu.sh/mrk6L/049c0e7128.jpg. The reason for this is that the rhythm at 00:15:353 (5) – and 00:17:942 (5) – are a little tricky, so you want to give the player enough easy patterns or rests in order for the player to recoup and get ready again. The anti-flow here though makes it a little tricky since it increases the amount of change in motion the player has to do here.
00:26:013 (2) – This ½ rhythm is a little tricky. Why not delete this and have 00:25:556 (1) – end here instead?
00:27:536 (5) – Why stop following the guitar by not having this at 00:27:384 - ?
00:32:105 (4) – Consider making this a ½ slider? You've already given the player enough rest with the long sliders like 00:29:211 (2) - and 00:34:084 (3) - to come.
00:38:044 (2,3,4,5) – Why use so much ½ rhythm in one combo? This increases the intensity a little too suddenly and by too much, so it's a little confusing to the player, and it seems like poor pacing. Maybe try:
http://puu.sh/mrmvq/6490e578c2.jpg00:40:328 (1,2,3,4) – what do you think of this?
http://puu.sh/mrmqR/27a10211e5.jpg00:49:465 (5,6) – This is overdoing it for a normal. The singer is repetitive, so just repeat the sliders and it works fine:
http://puu.sh/mrkMJ/c47153ccf1.jpg00:54:338 (5) -
00:58:450 (2) – try deleting this and have (1) end here
[Easy]
00:11:698 (2) - Consider making this two 1/1 sliders instead?
00:30:277 (4) - Consider deleting this to give the Easy player a pause.
00:32:714 (5) - ^
I disagree with some other rhythms like at 00:12:917 (3,1) - , but this is kind of the result of mapping a melody that has a lot of polarity changes, and I'm too lazy to go into detail since I'm not sure that I'd actually make it better. I might come back again though if I have the time, I'll let you know.
Good luck!