Okorin wrote:
If a mapper is going out of their way to custom-extend a mp3 to dodge a spread they do just that: dodge a spread and thus content they would normally have to provide to the game's different target audiences which is detrimental to a mapset's quality overall and not just plainly lazy. The whatever diff they make out of it's quality would remain untouched if they made a full spread plus it would offer other target audiences something to play.
Again, mappers that extend mp3 to 5min are not going to be making a full spread because of this rule. It's just not going to happen. They'll just pick a different song to map. Extending mp3 can't be detrimental to a mapset when that mapset wouldn't exist at all without the extension. Between 1 map and 0 maps, clearly the 1 map is the better option.
Keep in mind that not everyone has enough friends to gather mods/gd's/bn's for a 4:58 ENHIXU set, only a small handful of even well-known mappers can make that happen. Limiting the kinds of songs that can be reasonably pushed forward is definitely detrimental to the quality of the ranked section.
From my personal experience as a new player, experiences I've had with irl friends getting into the game, and just talking to less skilled players, in general maps above 4 minutes are not appealing to new players. They're just too long and exhausting, constant focus on not failing for 4 minutes straight is a skill only Insane/Expert players, and maybe some Hard players have developed to begin with. Making a rule forcing mappers to appeal to a target audience that would never find the map appealing is not beneficial to rank quality.
Okorin wrote:
You claim that some songs don't need a spread whereas I think at this point in the thread it's kind-of obvious that adding a spread will not be detrimental to a map's quality and if you let it influence your maps quality you should probably rethink why you are ranking stuff in the first place.
Feel like I may have implied something by mistake here. I didn't mean to say the rule would be detrimental to map quality, just that it wouldn't improve it. It does nothing at best. It only punishes "lazy mappers", reduces the diversity of songs in the ranked section, and doesn't provide any major benefits outside of this.
If you really think it necessary to restrict mp3 editing to this degree, then please instead implement something closer to what Shad0w1and suggested
here. This would lead to more maps for more players to play that would actually be played. Seems like a reasonable compromise.
Okorin wrote:
it has been agreed upon that the one hosting a set has extra tasks which he voluntarily takes over by hosting the set, but to be able to do so there needs to be some sort of failsave to assure that the mapset's host has contributed to the mapping side of a set that he hosts unless we want to see people ranking gd-only sets again.
I don't see how gd-only sets is a bad thing. All the gd-er's are aware and consenting to being in a set that the host didn't participate in. They are the only people who should be concerned about getting credit for their work, and they're still in the set. If they don't care, why should we? Is it just an issue of staff not wanting to give contest/BestOf rewards to someone that didn't map anything? Because the rewards are still given in the case of someone who only mapped an Easy for their ENHIIXXU4K5K6K7KTaikoCTB set. There's little difference between rewarding this and rewarding a gd-only set.
Okorin wrote:
At least an explanation as to why you're using a different alias every goddamn set without changing your username for no other reason than lolz would be nice. This guideline is intended to bring forward more clarity about who a guest diff indicating possession is actually crediting because with recent developments this became quite unclear in some cases
Then why isn't the gd'er fully required to put their username in the difficulty? I think it's way more unclear to have "
Insane by Kibbleru" than it is to have "
Quibboo's Tragic Love Insane feat. Kibb by Kibbleru".
But as I said already, any diffname restriction is unnecessary in my opinion, because star rating shows map difficulty to a reasonable degree for the average player to have a reasonable expectation of difficulty. We've just recently had multiple cases of the mapping community rejecting mappers' silly
Yuri Imouto with a Sword diffname, showing the RC limitations aren't helpful (these were all rankable) or needed (community can oversee itself to ensure nothing too ridiculous is ranked). This isn't exactly the most serious game out there (our lord creator peppy makes this clear enough), osu! is just a fun hobby, so what's wrong with a teeny bit of fun? Diffname affects map quality literally 0%, restricting in any way is excessive imo
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In regards to 8diff as a guideline, I don't see how that's enforceable. There's no clear line for what makes 2 diffs of the same level distinct enough experiences to say "this set is unrankable under this guideline, while this other set is perfectly rankable." It would be case-by-case, heavily swayed by the current atmosphere of whatever was recently ranked, inconsistent, and lead to unpleasant community interactions.
In regards to 8diff as a rule:
It's been said the rule is intended to break up top-heavy sets, but the current implementation would be breaking up sets with an even spread that are just really big, like Hitorigoto, the most-played map since it was ranked. Why are we removing sets clearly approved of by players?
And I still don't see how top-heavy sets is a bad thing. It's still more maps being ranked. More maps is never a bad thing. Loctav used the term "content bloat", but breaking up the Expert diffs into other sets would create even more bloat, since now there are also multiple low diffs, across multiple sets, which requires multiple downloads, and makes it harder to find a different song when browsing through newly ranked. If anything we should be encouraging mappers to combine their sets for player convenience.
Since 2015 Insanes have been the most-played difficulty judging by Ephemeral's numbers. There are plenty of sets that are Insane-heavy as well as Expert heavy, that this rule would cut out. This is yet another way the rule would be going against the playerbase's desires. Really disagree with a rule that goes against what both players and mappers like.