Okay, this is better.
[General]
Both of your difficulties have the exact same diff settings. For a better spread, I'd change them to the following:
- Easy: CS3, AR2, OD3, HP2
- Normal: CS4, AR4, OD5, HP3
In both your difficulties, the AR is way too high. New players have trouble reading AR7, let alone AR9. Beginners also respond better to bigger circles, especially if they're new to aim oriented games - hence my suggestion to decrease the CS in easy. Raising the OD and HP in normal was done simply to provide a proper difficulty progression throughout the mapset.
Both of your difficulties aren't made with
time distance equality in mind. Take the third note in easy for example: 00:01:677 (2,1) - . There is a sudden increase in distance snap, whilst being in the same distance away on the timeline. For an easy/normal, this is very very bad. I want you to go over both difficulties, and fix
all of them. Here's something you can do to help: look at the
following image, do you see the yellow numbers I've highlighted in the corner? On
every note, these two numbers should be the
same. No exceptions. So go through each difficulty thoroughly and make sure that distance snap is correct.
Apply hitsounds. Ranking criteria states that:
You must use hitsounds. Without these, things get way too monotonous as you are throwing away one of the main elements of variation present in mapping. You don't need to place them on every note (and are discouraged from doing so), but they must at least be frequently heard when playing.
Hitsounds come in three flavours; whistles, finishes, and claps. You want to form a consistent pattern with these sounds which isn't random, has clear reasoning, and emphasises the correct sounds. One common hitsounding method is to add
a clap every second and fourth beat in a measure.
Use less slider velocity (sv) changes throughout the map; ideally no sv changes. This is because new players will have problems reacting to the changes, causing them to become confused and misread most of the patterns. Take the slider at 00:05:731 (1) - for example. If you get rid of the sv change, the slider will be longer; but it will also be easier to read and much easier for new players to grasp.
Remember that your two difficulties are easy and normal. Both of these are aimed at new players. Easies are aimed at these who have only just installed the game and are doing their first beatmaps, and normals are aimed at these who can get A/S ranks on easies and would like to try something harder, so keep that in mind whilst applying your changes.
Also, add a red timing point at 01:24:916 - changing the bpm to 84. This is better because your notes are on the correct ticks, and it's correctly timed.
I guess I'll look through the difficulties now and point things out. But honestly, the problems I've highlighted above are much more severe and I want you to spend the majority of your time on these. Keep in mind that I'm assuming you'll remap most of your patterns since you have to comply with distance-time equality/getting rid of sv changes, so this is mainly going to be in a more general sense.
[Easy]
- 00:00:867 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,1,2,1,2,1,2,1) - You use too many 1/2 sliders here, which new players can have trouble following. I suggest utilising a wider range of rhythms here, such as 1/1 sliders, circles, etc.
- 00:25:191 (1,2,3,4,5) - This is bad because again, new players may have trouble following this due to the amount of circles. It's also laid out in a way that they will not understand due to the lack of structure and the overlap with 00:26:002 (2,5) - . I think you could map to the low pitched humming here, using one long slider throughout. It'll fit because it's an easy diff, and it is a very calm section of the song.
- 00:31:677 (2,3) - You can improve this blanket; make sure that the slidertrail of (3) is parallel with the end of (2). It should look something like this.
- 00:39:725 (2) - This slider is completely inappropriate for an easy diff because of 1/4. New players will find this very fast, and they will not be able to read it, play it, or follow the slider. Throughout the map, you should stick with 2/1 rhythms, 1/1 rhythms, and 1/2 rhythms. This suggestion applies to all the 1/4 rhythms you have, such as 00:47:408 (5) - and 00:55:091 (1,2) - .
[Normal]
- This difficulty doesn't have a source, creating a metadata inconsistency with easy.
- 00:46:311 (4,6) - You want to avoid overlaps like this whilst mapping because they genuinely look ugly, and players will have a lot of trouble reading them.
Honestly, a lot of work is needed. The two key things though would be to fix the distance snap and to get rid of your drastic sv changes. This should result in you having to remap your difficulties, unfortunately. But it'll be good because
the quality of the map will improve as a result. If you have any questions, please PM me in-game. Otherwise, good luck and I hope for the best with this mapset in the future!