Problem details: There are three main bugs that are haunting this game for years, I've explained them all with examples in the video linked below, but I'll make a short summary of what the problems are here:

1) You cannot reliably use the alternate special key bind because the alternate key and the actual special key function as one, therefore you need to FULLY release one of the keys before the other is pressed and in practical scenarios it makes scratch jacking (hitting consecutive 1/4 or higher notes on special lane that are DESIGNED to be alternate-able) impossible to use, therefore limiting the keymode as a whole but also heavily limiting mapping of said keymode, thus leading to no ranked 8k maps in the game since late 2018.

2) Mirror mod with Special style does not work as intended. Special style is an option that solidifies the special style column into a fixed position, as 1st or 8th. However mirror mod completely ignores that, mirroring every single column, making the actual scratch lane unplayable due to not being able to alternate keys when you need to. There is a makeshift solution: putting special style opposite of what you normally play and THEN using mirror to get the same patterns you'd get if you used mirror on your preffered special style, however that still nullifies the alternating aspect of it.

3) The "Use Special Style(N+1 style) for mania" setting in the editor DOESN'T DO ANYTHING. This has been an option for multiple years, as a way to differentiate symmetrical 6/8K charts from 5+1/7+1K ones. However special style setting in the "osu!mania layout" options completely overwrites that, so even if you have a symmetrical chart that CLEARLY doesn't have the option enabled, as long as you select the special style in options you can shuffle 1st column into the 6/8th column respectively.
This is especially dangerous considering that ALL ranked and loved 6K maps are symmetrical, and along with mirror being how it is, you can get 4 combinations of patterns (or 6 even, I did not fully test that). You can manipulate what patterns you get to a small, but very significant degree, especially since it's 100% certain you will get what you want with it.


Video or screenshot showing the problem:


osu! version: Stable 20200715 (latest)

I think all of these are better suited here: https://github.com/ppy/osu-stable-issues/issues

Though I think #2 at least is intended? If that's the way it functions in Lazer, then that's definitely the case. Could make an argument for changing it, but it wouldn't be a bug at that point.

thnx for explaining #3, that's got to be one of the most unintuitive parts of the game and confused me for so long when I was trying to map 5k+1

Death wrote:

I think all of these are better suited here: https://github.com/ppy/osu-stable-issues/issues

Though I think #2 at least is intended? If that's the way it functions in Lazer, then that's definitely the case. Could make an argument for changing it, but it wouldn't be a bug at that point.

Feerum already made a post on github a while ago and got dismissed with a simple "it's intended and too complicated of a fix" to #1 (https://github.com/ppy/osu-stable-issues/issues/31) even though this is the reason why nobody makes maps for 8k anymore.

#2 I'm fairly sure isn't intended, or rather, it's not an educated choice based on playing expertise. There is zero reason to do that and you can still semi-do it yourself, just with a handicap.

I'm also unfamiliar with github so I will make the post there only if that's the only way to get those issues on the radar, but I'll be up to date with the thread so lemme know!

That GitHub repo is currently used for tracking issues with the stable client. I think #3 does actually belong there because having that setting in the editor when it doesn't do anything does not make sense. It's confusing and I do agree that something should probably be done with it.

On second thought for #2 though, it might actually be better to create an issue in lazer's repo instead (https://github.com/ppy/osu/issues). The mirror mod was backported directly from lazer to stable, and so it should really function the same. I think you're more likely to see a change happen for this in lazer as well.

I'm not really sure what to say about #1 if it's already been said by the devs that it was intentional and changing it would be complex.