it's 2018, and i just started getting into osu. the first thing i see is a big EDIT tab, and i'm intrigued by it. i knew you could make beatmaps, and i really wanted to make one. so there i started. most of the things in the editor were self explanatory, although i didn't know green lines existed, so i used red timing points to change the slider speed. i never even touched pishi's videos until months after, and then my first map with that knowledge, shissou (which is still available), was the first one i actually made. i didn't know how to make extra diffs, so i just pasted the same song into osu again and remapped that one. then after that, i made more maps. my new maps, starting with alumina, were different. i realized that i shouldn't splatter circles on a screen, and tried giving thought behind each circle. although i mapped in a similar process to rlc (where i map the song along the way), i still tried thinking of concepts.

in this practice map i made, i mapped the first half similarly to a normal map, with some hints that it's not a normal map (the flow being off as an example). in the buildup, i kept the weird flow, and started adding weird slider shapes, and soon messy overlaps. the chrous changes from a 160 bpm rock song to a 244 bpm (488 because streams) metal beast. so in the 2nd half, i went all out and used a lot of messy sliders, messy overlaps, and bad flow.

so i want to know, if i applied more outlandish concepts, would i get better at mapping? i don't want to be the next hw or anything, but i just want to apply more concepts to mapping. i think i could improve if i apply more concepts. i really hate using a lot of sharp sliders in my maps, but if i do break out of my comfort zone and use them more often, i could get better at mapping

MinNin wrote:

if i break out of my comfort zone, i can get better at mapping

you basically said it yourself

Yes, if you limit yourself to just one mapping approach then you will just get better at that specific mapping style. This isn't always a bad thing but if you want to expand your knowledge base and become more flexible as a mapper, you need to practice things outside of your comfort zone.

A good map is one that uses 'concepts' consistently. That is, using the same type of flow consistently, using the same types of rhythms consistently, being able to consistently show the difficult and less difficult sections of the song, using consistent visual structure, etc. These things are prevalent in any good map, regardless of style. Once you master these fundamentals you will be able to apply it in a thousand different ways.