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[Guide] How to rank your first map

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Topic Starter
Drum-Hitnormal

Intro

This doesn't guarantee you a BN check, just increase your chances slightly

my background: 10 years player, 6 years mapper, 1 year BN

Mentality

BN have thousands of map to choose from, make sure you put your 1000% to make your map good to stand out
Getting picked is winning lottery, not being picked is normal
Don't be rude, spam or rush anyone, you just gonna ruin your chances instead, they have friends too, u might just end up in blacklist of many
Show some appreciation to people who are wasting time to help you rank a map, no one owns you anything, and consider giving back to the community for next generation
Takes about 10x more effort to check newbie map vs experienced mapper, you better make it worth
Nothing is free, its give and take
Reply mod fast, and upvote for helpful ones, no one wants to wait for you to resolve it
Make sure you GDs are active, experienced and responsible people, they might reduce your chance of getting BN (what's worse than 1 newbie? 2 newbies)


Finish your map

  1. do self check against RC: wiki/en/Ranking_criteria
  2. check general issue with AImod in game and Mapset Verifier: https://github.com/Naxesss/MapsetVerifier
  3. make sure you are satisfied with your map, don't do huge remap after BN starts checking
  4. try to get as many mod as you can, even if BN already accept your map, do M4M gives you higher chance of receiving mods community/forums/60
  5. try with small set/short duration/ simple map for as your 1st ranked map, BN average 2-3 check per month, make it easier to check = higher chance of accepted
  6. Keep a list of modders on your map description to show appreciation for those modders + show BN that you put effort on polishing it.

Finding BN

  1. Go through the full list of all BNs, look at their profile for song/map preference, and what is their preferred way of contact, don't disturb their personal life. groups/28?mode=all
  2. take notes which BN is likely interested and capable of checking your map/song
  3. make sure the BN you are requesting is skilled enough to check your map. Not all BNs are 3 digit players.
  4. follow their Trello to know when they open, click the watch button on pending list
  5. join mapping community and be notified when new BN joins, they are most likely to accept your map (less busy/burned out)
  6. you can mod BN maps and maps they accepted to increase your exposure
  7. become a BN yourself
  8. open mod queue and mod other experienced mappers, they might become BN one day, don't waste time on newbie maps, who knows when they quit.
  9. when you request, explain why your map would be a good fit for that BN, consider this as a job application. Everyone and their mom knows you want rank it, but why should they care?
  10. go on BN site, and check ones with low activity and about to get their eval, they are either retiring or desperate for easy nom: https://bn.mappersguild.com/users

if you still can't find BN after doing all that, keep improve and search what can be made better from your map. Your chance will keep getting higher the more you learn on having better map as time goes on
As time approaches infinity, so does your chance of winning BN
Xelasto
You are so real and true for that
tatatat
How to rank your first map:
Message drum-hitnormal
Scotty
i think i'm a bit late but i also have 2 points that could be useful for mentality

1- mods don't just improve the map, but the mapper as well: for a new mapper, mods are gonna basically teach some basic mapping aspects but they won't mention every problem. you have to pick up what modders point out and think about how it applies to the map as a whole and in future maps to make big progress

2- being ready to remap/move on: a new mapper's first map with mods from 25 different people isn't closer to rank than a map they make later with 0 mods (assuming they applied point 1). newer mappers can fall into sunk cost thinking with their first map (i did at least 💀) when moving onto another map would go much smoother. you need something decent from the start

tl dr nothing is a waste of time as long as you learn from it, it's the mapping knowledge/experience that counts
lewski

Scotty wrote:

2- being ready to remap/move on: a new mapper's first map with mods from 25 different people isn't closer to rank than a map they make later with 0 mods (assuming they applied point 1). newer mappers can fall into sunk cost thinking with their first map (i did at least 💀) when moving onto another map would go much smoother. you need something decent from the start
this is very true and applies a bit later on as well; it's easy to go "this is the one" on a map that really isn't the one when your execution momentarily catches up to your ability to analyse maps and you feel super good about what you just made
Serizawa Haruki
I feel like most of these things apply to ranking a map in general, not just someone's first ranked map.

Personally I don't really agree with a few points though:

Show some appreciation to people who are wasting time to help you rank a map, no one owns you anything, and consider giving back to the community for next generation
Takes about 10x more effort to check newbie map vs experienced mapper, you better make it worth
Nothing is free, its give and take
Reply mod fast, and upvote for helpful ones, no one wants to wait for you to resolve it
Yes, showing appreciation to people who help you and being grateful for it is the right thing to do, but it doesn't mean that if someone mods/nominates your map you necessarily have to give them something back, unless it's a M4M. I don't consider modding/nominating someone's map a waste of time or something purely done as a favor to that person, even if they're inexperienced, because after all it's a service to the entire community that helps mappers grow and improve, as well as providing new content for players. Plus, as a modder you can learn things to improve your own skills too.
The same principle goes for replying to mods too, if someone's waiting for their BN to mod for months, they can't be expected to resolve all of them within 2 days, but of course getting it done asap is best for both parties.

As time approaches infinity, so does your chance of winning BN
I totally get what you're trying to say but unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that. I'd say it's a mix of skill, effort/dedication and luck. At the end of the day there's never a guarantee that a map will get ranked (even for experienced mappers who invest lots of time in their map), it's just about increasing the chances as you said.
Topic Starter
Drum-Hitnormal
think u misunderstand my point, show appreciation doesnt mean u need mod back, just few words goos enough

give back is to help other mappers (not neccessairly ppl who helped u)

by waste of time i mean there are better maps and more motivated mappers, that time i wasted can be spent more effectively
Serizawa Haruki
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess the wording just wasn't very clear.
Randomness64
what about someone who already done all the above yet cant find a bn just because my style is different?what do you suggest for me? (already learned every aspect of mapping except storyboards)
Topic Starter
Drum-Hitnormal

Randomness64 wrote:

what about someone who already done all the above yet cant find a bn just because my style is different?what do you suggest for me? (already learned every aspect of mapping except storyboards)
become BN, find BN with unique taste, teach a mentee to become your BN
Nao Tomori
i think point 5 is applicable up to a point, there is like a bell curve there. bns will just insta deny noob mapper + easy normal 30s map just like they will deny noob mapper + 9* metal marathon. ideal is probably tv size / rhythm game size with easy normal hard insane type spread.
Topic Starter
Drum-Hitnormal

Nao Tomori wrote:

i think point 5 is applicable up to a point, there is like a bell curve there. bns will just insta deny noob mapper + easy normal 30s map just like they will deny noob mapper + 9* metal marathon. ideal is probably tv size / rhythm game size with easy normal hard insane type spread.
thats interesting havnet seen anyone deny 30s easy normal spread in mania, but they usually deny very low bpm (80 bpm) cuz they find it boring even with insane diff.

alternative is single diff 3-4 min , avoid gap/spread issue.

Some people also struggle to make easy diff they always overmap and break RC
Randomness64

Drum-Hitnormal wrote:

Randomness64 wrote:

what about someone who already done all the above yet cant find a bn just because my style is different?what do you suggest for me? (already learned every aspect of mapping except storyboards)
become BN, find BN with unique taste, teach a mentee to become your BN
ah so i just have to build my own pyramide scheme,got it
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