This thread is unorganized and I don't even know what exactly I wanted to tell you guys with it.
Yo. Zarerion here, I'm that shit player with no ranked maps and zero experience in mapping and modding. You can ignore this thread.
Alternatively, you can take a few minutes to read, and maybe even understand, and maybe, just maybe, even learn a tiny bit from this thread, which is kind of supposed to be a gathering of my experiences in mapping. If you experienced other stuff, that's fine, tell me, I'll listen, but please respect my own opinion as well.
Keep in mind everything in this thread only applies to Insane/Extra difficulties. Discussing the AR and readability of lowdiffs makes no real sense to me.
First of all, for now I'll focus on how AR, BPM, and Reading are related to each other, and how AR should be used in my opinion.
Let me define them first, to avoid any kind of misunderstading.
Approach Rate: This should be obvious and not need further definitions. (If it's not, this thread isn't directed at you.) For anyone interested, Here you can find the Approach Rate Table. Approach Rate is related to the pacing and the readability of the map.
BPM: BPM means Beats Per Minute. This usually refers to the speed of songs. However, maps don't always are as fast as the song is, but have doubled map speed. This is done by, instead of mapping the main map-rhythm which is usually on the red ticks in the editor timeline, using the blue ticks (doubled speed). Examples are Pluto or Scarlet Rose (Don't be confused, the song Scarlet Rose is 160 BPM, val doubled the BPM for some reason, that doesn't change gameplay in any way). This is a legit form of mapping I just might talk about later on.
Keep in mind when i talk about BPM I'm referreing to map BPM, not the song's original BPM, because what matters for the gameplay is not how fast the song is originally, but how fast is what needs to be played.
Reading: This is kind of tricky to define, it's more like a thing that needs to be experienced to be understood. Let's assume you play AR9 maps all day every day, which is basically 98% of today's [Insane]/[Extra] maps. Playing it all the time, you assume you can read it. But that is not necessarily the case. What many players do at this point is not reading, but reacting.
Where's the difference?
When reacting, a player sees something and will just move the cursor to whereever that is and will do whatever he needs to do, click, stream, slide or spin. This requires a fair amount of training, especially when it comes to reacting to AR10 or even AR10.3, which will challenge your physical ability of seeing, brain processing, and reacting (as in, moving cursor and clicking). Reacting at high AR becomes harder by A LOT when any kind of 1/4s are involved. Reacting to triplets is harder than reacting to 1/2 jumps.
However, reading is not related to that at all. When reading a map, you consciously look at the objects appearing, and click them one by by one, exactly knowing where you are. One extremely important note right here: Even when reading, most players won't read every single circle in the map. For example: Short, lowly spaced streams can be read as single object. The only information the brain needs to process is when the stream begins and when it ends. Everything else is done by muscle memory. That is why Streams, unless overlapping with other objects will not increase the reading difficulty.
Okayokayokay.
Now let's get to the point, shall we? I just KEEP getting into discussions about AR's on maps. Because as I already said mappers KEEP USING AR9 ON EVERY GODDAMN MAP.
How hard reading a map is related to how many objects need to be processed by a player at the same time. Not taking into account streams which are in many cases readable as single object, that means that the difficulty of reading a map is related to the AR and the BPM.
Now let's take one more step and say that most Insane and even Extra maps are mapped in a very similar manner, they have a slow intro with low spacing and almost no streams, then they have a kiai time involving a shitton of 1/2 jumps and more or less complex patterns. Afterwards there's the verse with more jumps, which are a bit less intense (assuming the mapper is good) and so on.
My point ist: Basically, the note density, which sets the reading difficulty (because note density is amount of circles on the screen at the same time which needs to be processed by player), is very similar for almost every map of the same BPM.
Since reading difficulty is pretty much fixed for every current map, a mapper should choose an AR that fits that kind of reading difficulty. If he does not, understanding a map can be either disproportionally easy (slow maps having faaar too high AR) or disproportionally hard (fast maps having faaar too low AR). Granted, the latter thing only rarely happens these days, but you get the point.
Okay, having all that said, what AR does fit? Knowing that AR8 is not fitting for 220 with a shitton of overlapping and cluttered notes doesn't help for the generic 160 BPM Animu TVSize.
For that let me just give you a small list of what I, personally, according to my own experience only, think is fitting.
BPM 100 - 140: On such slow maps it depends on the mapping more than anywhere else. I'd usually say AR7 would be fitting for the pacing of most tracks this slow. But many people tend to full spread 1/4s (they're not touching each other anymore) when mapping this. If they do, they could also consider using AR8. Putting AR9 on something like this is, in my personal opinion, stupid as fuck.
BPM 140 - 160: AR8.
BPM 160 - 175: I'd recommend using AR8 for many of the tracks in this range, but this is exactly the common DnB-Speed and such DnB maps often include a lot of 1/4 (mine, at least) Especially if those contain 1/4 sliderjumps I'd choose AR9 over AR8.
BPM 175 - 210: Yes, AR9 is lenient as shit, for many many many players it's the easiest AR and generally you can't do anything wrong when using it for this big BPM range.
BPM 210 - 220: I'd use AR9 for this as well. If a map has really complex patterns or really a LOT of 1/4s spread everywhere, including sliderjumps and all that shit, I'd say, AR10 would fit as well.
BPM 220 - 270: ...I have no idea. I realize there are High BPM maps that work well with AR9. But looking at it logically, AR10 would be just as fine. I guess, if you have many sliders like val does, AR9 will be okay, but if you have a shitton of circlejumps everywhere, consider using AR10 rather than AR9.
BPM >270 AR10.
So, that's it. my main point is: Stop using AR9 on songs that require AR7. Thank you.
Yo. Zarerion here, I'm that shit player with no ranked maps and zero experience in mapping and modding. You can ignore this thread.
Alternatively, you can take a few minutes to read, and maybe even understand, and maybe, just maybe, even learn a tiny bit from this thread, which is kind of supposed to be a gathering of my experiences in mapping. If you experienced other stuff, that's fine, tell me, I'll listen, but please respect my own opinion as well.
Keep in mind everything in this thread only applies to Insane/Extra difficulties. Discussing the AR and readability of lowdiffs makes no real sense to me.
First of all, for now I'll focus on how AR, BPM, and Reading are related to each other, and how AR should be used in my opinion.
Let me define them first, to avoid any kind of misunderstading.
Approach Rate: This should be obvious and not need further definitions. (If it's not, this thread isn't directed at you.) For anyone interested, Here you can find the Approach Rate Table. Approach Rate is related to the pacing and the readability of the map.
BPM: BPM means Beats Per Minute. This usually refers to the speed of songs. However, maps don't always are as fast as the song is, but have doubled map speed. This is done by, instead of mapping the main map-rhythm which is usually on the red ticks in the editor timeline, using the blue ticks (doubled speed). Examples are Pluto or Scarlet Rose (Don't be confused, the song Scarlet Rose is 160 BPM, val doubled the BPM for some reason, that doesn't change gameplay in any way). This is a legit form of mapping I just might talk about later on.
Keep in mind when i talk about BPM I'm referreing to map BPM, not the song's original BPM, because what matters for the gameplay is not how fast the song is originally, but how fast is what needs to be played.
Reading: This is kind of tricky to define, it's more like a thing that needs to be experienced to be understood. Let's assume you play AR9 maps all day every day, which is basically 98% of today's [Insane]/[Extra] maps. Playing it all the time, you assume you can read it. But that is not necessarily the case. What many players do at this point is not reading, but reacting.
Where's the difference?
When reacting, a player sees something and will just move the cursor to whereever that is and will do whatever he needs to do, click, stream, slide or spin. This requires a fair amount of training, especially when it comes to reacting to AR10 or even AR10.3, which will challenge your physical ability of seeing, brain processing, and reacting (as in, moving cursor and clicking). Reacting at high AR becomes harder by A LOT when any kind of 1/4s are involved. Reacting to triplets is harder than reacting to 1/2 jumps.
However, reading is not related to that at all. When reading a map, you consciously look at the objects appearing, and click them one by by one, exactly knowing where you are. One extremely important note right here: Even when reading, most players won't read every single circle in the map. For example: Short, lowly spaced streams can be read as single object. The only information the brain needs to process is when the stream begins and when it ends. Everything else is done by muscle memory. That is why Streams, unless overlapping with other objects will not increase the reading difficulty.
unrelated stuff, why did I even write this
This is why lower AR is so much harder for a lot of people: At AR8, depending on the BPM, too many objects appear on the screen, the player cannot process them all at once and tries reacting instead of reading. He will end up clicking everything he sees, clicking too early or clicking the wrong objects, or he will misread stacks and forget (rather: overlook) some objects completely. This is REALLY frustrating for a player, because in many cases he knows that the map would be easy for him physically. He can click fast enough and his aim is precise enough to hit all the circles, it's just that he doesn't understand what to hit. Hence why many players dislike low AR maps so much. It's not that they can't play them, it's that they know they can play them physically but still can't get the score they want. And that is the reason why, while players improved their reaction time in recent years, mappers tended to put AR9 much more than any other AR. It just happened to become a standard AR for any kind of Insane maps.
Small hint by the way: There are several ways of increasing your reading skill, but they all require you to do the same thing: Force yourself to read. If you need to do it over and over you will eventually learn it. This can be achieved by playing EZ mod (MillhioreF), but you can also improve your overall skill of reading by switching the keys you use occasionally instead of singletapping (not only alternating, just use both fingers and switch between them). Do that on maps you'd normally singletap. This might sound weird, but singletapping takes a lot of the skill needed to read, as most of the executive phase of reading is done by muscle memory (singletapping). Forcing yourself to think about which finger to use will make you more aware of the objects themselves. Another possibility would be playing osu!mania. - "Wait what." Yes. !mania is pretty much reading ONLY, as you don't need finger speed or aim. It simply requires you to put what you see on screen in action with your keyboard. This translates pretty well into osu!standard, but you will need a few hundreds of plays until you can really see improvement from mania only.
My tip: Do all of the above mentioned tips from time to time.
Small hint by the way: There are several ways of increasing your reading skill, but they all require you to do the same thing: Force yourself to read. If you need to do it over and over you will eventually learn it. This can be achieved by playing EZ mod (MillhioreF), but you can also improve your overall skill of reading by switching the keys you use occasionally instead of singletapping (not only alternating, just use both fingers and switch between them). Do that on maps you'd normally singletap. This might sound weird, but singletapping takes a lot of the skill needed to read, as most of the executive phase of reading is done by muscle memory (singletapping). Forcing yourself to think about which finger to use will make you more aware of the objects themselves. Another possibility would be playing osu!mania. - "Wait what." Yes. !mania is pretty much reading ONLY, as you don't need finger speed or aim. It simply requires you to put what you see on screen in action with your keyboard. This translates pretty well into osu!standard, but you will need a few hundreds of plays until you can really see improvement from mania only.
My tip: Do all of the above mentioned tips from time to time.
Okayokayokay.
Now let's get to the point, shall we? I just KEEP getting into discussions about AR's on maps. Because as I already said mappers KEEP USING AR9 ON EVERY GODDAMN MAP.
How hard reading a map is related to how many objects need to be processed by a player at the same time. Not taking into account streams which are in many cases readable as single object, that means that the difficulty of reading a map is related to the AR and the BPM.
Now let's take one more step and say that most Insane and even Extra maps are mapped in a very similar manner, they have a slow intro with low spacing and almost no streams, then they have a kiai time involving a shitton of 1/2 jumps and more or less complex patterns. Afterwards there's the verse with more jumps, which are a bit less intense (assuming the mapper is good) and so on.
My point ist: Basically, the note density, which sets the reading difficulty (because note density is amount of circles on the screen at the same time which needs to be processed by player), is very similar for almost every map of the same BPM.
Since reading difficulty is pretty much fixed for every current map, a mapper should choose an AR that fits that kind of reading difficulty. If he does not, understanding a map can be either disproportionally easy (slow maps having faaar too high AR) or disproportionally hard (fast maps having faaar too low AR). Granted, the latter thing only rarely happens these days, but you get the point.
Okay, having all that said, what AR does fit? Knowing that AR8 is not fitting for 220 with a shitton of overlapping and cluttered notes doesn't help for the generic 160 BPM Animu TVSize.
For that let me just give you a small list of what I, personally, according to my own experience only, think is fitting.
BPM 100 - 140: On such slow maps it depends on the mapping more than anywhere else. I'd usually say AR7 would be fitting for the pacing of most tracks this slow. But many people tend to full spread 1/4s (they're not touching each other anymore) when mapping this. If they do, they could also consider using AR8. Putting AR9 on something like this is, in my personal opinion, stupid as fuck.
BPM 140 - 160: AR8.
BPM 160 - 175: I'd recommend using AR8 for many of the tracks in this range, but this is exactly the common DnB-Speed and such DnB maps often include a lot of 1/4 (mine, at least) Especially if those contain 1/4 sliderjumps I'd choose AR9 over AR8.
BPM 175 - 210: Yes, AR9 is lenient as shit, for many many many players it's the easiest AR and generally you can't do anything wrong when using it for this big BPM range.
BPM 210 - 220: I'd use AR9 for this as well. If a map has really complex patterns or really a LOT of 1/4s spread everywhere, including sliderjumps and all that shit, I'd say, AR10 would fit as well.
BPM 220 - 270: ...I have no idea. I realize there are High BPM maps that work well with AR9. But looking at it logically, AR10 would be just as fine. I guess, if you have many sliders like val does, AR9 will be okay, but if you have a shitton of circlejumps everywhere, consider using AR10 rather than AR9.
BPM >270 AR10.
So, that's it. my main point is: Stop using AR9 on songs that require AR7. Thank you.