this is a very random idea i thought just now. i wanna share it before it goes out of my mind...

on some online rhythm games like DJMAX online, on multiplayer rooms, sometimes all the players inside a room doesn't have the same song downloaded. but they're still given the option to play it anyway. but there's a catch; everything will be mute on the actual gameplay.

what the game actually does is download the notechart file off the server and it's used as a temporary placeholder for the player to play on. there's no sound obviously because they don't exist in the first place.

i wonder if we can also do this on osu! too. after everyone in the room pressed "ready" and start the game, instead of kicking out players that don't have the map, the game will force-download the .osu file so the mapless player will have something to play on. there's no sound of course!

osu! keeps the placeholder .osu file and you're given the option to DL all the other missing files by clicking the update button on song select.

"just download the map you lazy person!"
not everyone has fast internet and even if you did have one, you would still be waiting for forever if one of those guys in your room has slow internet.

"funspoiler advantage?"
they're already handicapped greatly due to the fact that it doesn't have a sound. maybe force-download the wallpaper too, but it would make loading much slower...

"it's a useless feature and you should kill yourself for thinking about one"
i'm sorry ;___;

TheVileOne wrote:

I'm on the fence with this idea. You would still need to download the background, and storyboard and skin elements. These elements would need to be placed somewhere and the option wouldn't be very fun to play.

I think a music game isn't a music game without the music.

TheVileOne wrote:

I think a music game isn't a music game without the music.

Drace wrote:

More like introduce P2P downloading for maps not on the servers. Or simply uploading it temporarily to the servers. I would support if someone can confirm that this is risk free (injecting viruses and what-not). And if we already doing P2P or temporal uploading for such maps, I don't see the point in only downloading a part of the map. :/

TheVileOne wrote:

I think a music game isn't a music game without the music.

Oinari-sama wrote:

I agree. The minimum download should include the map (1 diffifulty level only) and the music file, the rest are optional.

But is it possible to download only those 2 osr components out of what's currently on server? It'll be a lot of work if it involves repacking every single map packs.

Another thing to think about is how to handle the existence of such "Vanilla" maps. To be consistent with peppy's policy (not allowing delete of BG/Skin/etc), I think the gameplay using such "Vanilla" maps should be Unranked. The user should be offered a Download button (links to the Listings) when he navigates to the same map later.

Koko Ban wrote:

the point of this feature is to avoid downloading the largest files (usually the mp3's) on the mapset so everyone can play and get into the game fast. playing the temp map can still be ranked though they're at a great disadvantage because of no sound so you still have to DL the whole mapset later anyway if you want better plays and i've already pointed out the "download" thingy on my previous post.

Oinari-sama wrote:

Koko Ban wrote:

the point of this feature is to avoid downloading the largest files (usually the mp3's) on the mapset so everyone can play and get into the game fast. playing the temp map can still be ranked though they're at a great disadvantage because of no sound so you still have to DL the whole mapset later anyway if you want better plays and i've already pointed out the "download" thingy on my previous post.

If playing without the music is your whole point then it's a NO from me. This is a rhythm game afterall.

The largest file in a mapset is usually the Video, which can already be omitted. Depends on how heavily SB'ed a mapset is, the size of all the skin/SB elements added together is quite significant when compared to the MP3 itself. If someone's internet connection cannot even handle just 1 map + 1 mp3 file (4min, non-marathon), then chances are he won't be hearing any music for the rest of the time he spend in a mp lobby. I personally don't think that's the right way to promote a rhythm game.