Hi, everyone! I just started osu a few weeks ago, and I really want to make a beatmap!

"HRGH HRGH READ THE STICKIES"

I did, even watched the videos. They helped quite a bit with navigating around, mm hmm. But I'm really stupid, which brought me here;;

For my first beatmap, I kind of want to map this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQueJ4IjXpM

I really, really like this song, and I'm a bit surprised there isn't a ranked one yet. (Or maybe someone is working on it somewhere.) If there's a timing expert in here, may I know what's the BPM for this song?

Anyways, my questions are as follows:
- What's the difference between a timing and an inheriting section, and how do they affect the beatmap? I seen some songs only have a few or these, while some have quite alot.

- I'll be honest. When it comes to playing 5 star maps, I get kicked around like an empty bucket in the savannas, so I really have not much experience if I'm going to create a 5 star map. This will be a stupid, but should I tackle making 5 star maps when I can't even complete one, much less know how to make one?

- How does the offset affect the beatmap? I set it really high and it did... nothing, at least from how I see it.

- What's... lock notes? I know they explained, but I don't get it. Same for Stack Leniency.

- This will be a stupid question, but what makes a Normal beatmap 'Normal, and a hard beatmap 'Hard'? I know it's more notes, speed, and stuff, but how do you know when to put the notes in the timeline and not put too much that it looks like you're just placing random circles everywhere?

- Is there anything I should keep in mind when making a beatmap?

Thank you very much for your time, and thanks alot in advance!

CielWing wrote:

- What's the difference between a timing and an inheriting section, and how do they affect the beatmap? I seen some songs only have a few or these, while some have quite alot.

Timing for a beatmap holds the maps offset and beats per minute (BPM).

There are 2 types of timing sections, regular ones (showed as red lines) and inherited timing sections (showed as green lines.)
- Every map has atlast one regular timing section (red line(s)) which holds the BPM/offset. There are some maps that could have multiple BPMs so there are more then just one regular timing.
- Inherited timing sections (green lines) they don't actually change the song's timing. They change some fetures like slider speed, hitosunds, adding and removing kiai time, etc. without modifying the song's timing.
http://osu.ppy.sh/wiki/Timing

CielWing wrote:

- I'll be honest. When it comes to playing 5 star maps, I get kicked around like an empty bucket in the savannas, so I really have not much experience if I'm going to create a 5 star map. This will be a stupid, but should I tackle making 5 star maps when I can't even complete one, much less know how to make one?

It would be nice for you to pass your own difficulty so you have some idea of how it plays, but honestly my first map, i couldn't pass the insane diff until recently (more then 2 years...) You can make a 5 star difficulty if you like to but most likely the quality will suffer to some degree.

CielWing wrote:

- How does the offset affect the beatmap? I set it really high and it did... nothing, at least from how I see it.

The offset is the amount of time between the start of an mp3 and the first downbeat (downbeat is the impulse that occurs at the beginning of a bar in measured music) in the song.

CielWing wrote:

- What's... lock notes? I know they explained, but I don't get it. Same for Stack Leniency.

Lock notes, well that's self explanatory really, you can still change around the hitsound but you cannot move the hit object around the playing feild or their time.
Stack Leniency: osu! automatically stacks notes that occur in the same place and close by in time. This is so that players can tell the objects apart. The farther to the right that this slider is, the further apart in time stacking will occur. Rules dictate that if Stack Leniency is set so that stacking no longer occurs, you must manually offset the objects. This option is best left along if you don't know what you are doing.

CielWing wrote:

- This will be a stupid question, but what makes a Normal beatmap 'Normal, and a hard beatmap 'Hard'? I know it's more notes, speed, and stuff, but how do you know when to put the notes in the timeline and not put too much that it looks like you're just placing random circles everywhere?

When making harder difficulties don't think of just adding random circles at random times, that will just make a huge mess. Normals usually have beats on the white and red ticks. They have simple patterns and note placements that appeals to everyone playing but at the same time have more complex patterns compared to easy.
Hard is where you have a higher approach rate, HP drain rate and overall difficulty compared to normal diffs. More complex/difficult patterns show up here also you start to introduce short streams and jumps.

CielWing wrote:

- Is there anything I should keep in mind when making a beatmap?

Get ready to get discouraged. Be patient with your map and be open to all sorts of suggestions! Don't be afraid to ask other people (BATs, MATs, or anyone) for help. 99.999% of the time they would be happy to help!

Hopefully that helps you out ^_^

Most of the information can be found on the wiki

Weez basically covered everything, so I won't bother with re-answering questions. However, if anything comes up, I highly recommend going to #modhelp and ask mapping questions there since you will will be able to receive live assistance there (assuming ppl are there)

First of all, thank you very much for the in-depth reply! O_O I never expected someone to take so much of their time to do this.

By Locked notes, do you mean their position remains unchanged during modes like hard rock?

Anyways, with all those in mind, I attempted to start mapping the music today! I set the BPM to 138, hopefully I got it right...


/WHAT-AM-I-DOING.JPG IS THIS EVEN NORMAL MODE. DO THESE SLIDERS LOOK OKAY /WORRYWORRYWORRY

And it's only 12.4% too, and it's only in the 30 second mark. It's a 5 minute song, so maybe I'm biting more than I can chew? Well I really like it though 8DDD

@Yoshi: Been to the chatroom too, they're really friendly so far!

Thank you very much, everyone!

No, lock notes, prevents you to accidentally move notes when mapping, useful when you're hitsounding.

As for the map, is better if you give an osz rather than a screenshot (better yet if you upload it to osu!) so we can give you more accurate help.

Hi Sakura~

Ahh, it's fine. I don't think I need help YET. Just showing it for the sake of showing. XD It's VERY far from done to receive proper evaluation yet, anyway. =] (Like, not even 1/4 done.)

Thank you very much for offering, though!

With patterns like those arcs, you should try to align the ends vertically and make them blanket each other perfectly. You know, something vaguely like this:



As it's your first map, don't make the mistake of getting too ambitious with patterns and slider shapes. It doesn't hurt to experiment, but if something looks and feels awful in comparison to ranked maps, then scrap it without question. If it feels and/or looks better than what you see in ranked maps, then it'll become a means to make your maps much more distinct and intersting.

In terms of difficulty, normal shouldn't have too many objects 1/2 after each other--as in, don't use too many half beats (the gap between a white tick and a red tick in the timeline). You should also try not to make everything occur on beats, as this will make your normal difficulty very boring. You will also want to base patterns more around longish sliders and leave some space between combos. What I mean is, don't have everything flowing into each other relentlessly, as this would become tiresome for a newer player. For more experienced players, this would also be boring and monotonous.

Hard difficulties should feel a little bit like normal, in that you're still using a good balance of longer sliders and circle patterns, but you can generally follow more of the detail in a phrase. In a moderate vocal song, you would probably be able to follow most of the singer's words. In terms of how many objects you can get use, it's generally a good idea to make patterns with around 4-8 half beats, as long as you don't overdo it and kill the difficulty curve of the map.

Contrary to popular belief, you're allowed to use confusing patterns in [Hard], as long as the spacing indicates them clearly and they're following obvious cues in the music. You should try to repeat them quite frequently in a section, so that the player has time to get used to them. You can also use patterns which force the player to read them by their numbers--again, as long as the spacing is consistent. In any difficulty, switching the order of objects at random is unfair and would make the player feel cheated. I certainly feel like that a lot.

Easy diffs should be kept very sparse and have a lot of space, rhythmically, between objects. It should also be painfully clear as to where objects should be hit. You should still use varied rhythms, but they must feel consistent and predictable. Get good at making easies interesting, yet playable, and you'll be much better at making the other difficulties tidy and enjoyable. Far too many people skimp on their easies and normals and the entire mapset can suffer because of this.

I'd also like to suggest playing songs on each difficulty in 'Ouendan 2,' or at least watching gameplay videos. Many people decry the style of the maps, but they are very good indicators of how to achieve the overall feel for [Easy] through [Hard]. Also, try to learn to use copypaste for these difficulties, in ways which fit the music and still remain interesting. Many people also hate copypaste, but when patterns recur and vary slightly, they help the player to feel where they are in the music and generally bring together the style of the map as a whole. I've learned a lot from practising this.

I'm prepared for the usual tsunami of Haterade, but thinking in detail about all of the above, as well as paying close attention to how things are aligned as per the screenshot, have helped me to progress in leaps and bounds. It takes a long time to refine a style, but if you work hard enough, you'll surprise yourself at how natural it feels after a time. Don't be afraid to ask questions in the game's chat and feel free to PM people with specific questions. You'll do well to get a good range of opinions. Most of us are patient and forgiving enough to talk about stupid questions.