there has been some confusion about spread rules. the intention when oko and i wrote them was to require all diffs to reach minimum play time requirements in order for a set to qualify for higher lowest diffs. this is how it's been enforced since the rule was added (at least, when i noticed a set needed it or was asked about it). the current wording apparently doesn't make that clear enough so after some bn server discussion this consensus was reached:
needs to be changed toold wrote:
If the drain time of the highest difficulty is...
...lower than 3:30, the lowest difficulty of each included game mode cannot be harder than a Normal. Because osu!mania does not have a difficulty-specific Ranking Criteria yet, an osu!mania beatmapset's Normal difficulty is defined as a difficulty below 2.00 stars. For hybrid beatmapsets that include osu! difficulties, the additional modes' lowest difficulties cannot be harder than a Hard.
...between 3:30 and 4:15, the lowest difficulty of each included game mode cannot be harder than a Hard.
...between 4:15 and 5:00, the lowest difficulty of each included game mode cannot be harder than an Insane.
...anything higher, the beatmapset is exempt from reasonable spread rules.
Lower difficulties can use their play time as a metric instead of drain time, but their drain time must be equal to at least 80% of their play time. (Not applicable to difficulties below 30 seconds of drain time.) Judgement regarding the suitability of gameplay elements used for any lowest difficulty Hard and Insane difficulties is up to the Beatmap Nominators and Quality Assurance Team for the corresponding game modes.
posting here instead of a proposal as this is already how things are enforced, this is just more clearnew wrote:
If the drain time of each difficulty is...
...lower than 3:30, the lowest difficulty of each included game mode cannot be harder than a Normal. Because osu!mania does not have a difficulty-specific Ranking Criteria yet, an osu!mania beatmapset's Normal difficulty is defined as a difficulty below 2.00 stars. For hybrid beatmapsets that include osu! difficulties, the additional modes' lowest difficulties cannot be harder than a Hard.
...between 3:30 and 4:15, the lowest difficulty of each included game mode cannot be harder than a Hard.
...between 4:15 and 5:00, the lowest difficulty of each included game mode cannot be harder than an Insane.
...anything higher, the beatmapset is exempt from reasonable spread rules.
Difficulties lower than the highest difficulty can use their play time as a metric instead of drain time, but their drain time must be equal to at least 80% of their play time. (Not applicable to difficulties below 30 seconds of drain time.) Judgement regarding the suitability of gameplay elements used for any lowest difficulty Hard and Insane difficulties is up to the Beatmap Nominators and Quality Assurance Team for the corresponding game modes.
