Mniam wrote:
I disagree
Main counter-arguments
Using any hypers on droplets let you create somewhat technical vibes. Since it's equivalent to osu!'s insanes, where they sometimes do even more nuts stuff, I think we should let some unconventional patterns be present. It doesn't mean it must be used, but let's mappers have a choice.
I also think, big droplets have almost no difference from normal fruits. They count into combo, misses and trigger hypers. I could just do the same or even crazier stuff without slider usage and it could still be ass to play for this player base. (I undestand that it's a little more nerfed than normal fruits, so that small droplets aren't in every pattern. Ranking Criteria limits you just perfectly imo.)
It could be other issues than just droplets, that make you concerned about rain difficulty:
1) There are almost no restrictions about dash usage. You could make a consecutive 62ms wiggle dashes (240bpm 1/4) and it doesn't break even a single guideline.
2) Rain allows for 4 consecutive lower-snapped hypers, which is a big gap from platter. (Lower-snapped hypers have different ms from platter.)
3) "Hyperdashes that are higher-snapped must not be used in conjunction with higher-snapped dashes [...]" is easily abused. You can just make double 1/4s left-right that initially have walks between hypers, but everyone would rather just hold dash since it's easier.
4) "Hyperdashes that are higher-snapped should not be followed by antiflow dashes with a gap lower than 250ms." is a guideline that could also make the difficulty too hard. I think antiflow dashes after higher-snapped hdashes are too hard to manage, and just having an antiflow walk can make a player anxious enough to use dash because how snappy it can be.
So maybe it would be better to take care of other points if you want to make rains easier.
A little off-topic
As it was mentioned that players leave around platter/rain level - I think it's maybe because platters are too comfy?
Cups = they are just to teach the player move.
Salads = kinda same as cups, but just sometimes have some dashes.
Platters = more common with dashes, but hypers are used sparingly.
This spread feels a little wrong with me.
Lower diffs spread could be buffed to achieve easier progression.
Dash is something that could be used (sparingly) from beginning in cups in an extremely easy/lenient way (like e.g. 400ms+), so that players actually can see that there is such a keybind. Also would additionally let some more creativity/emphasis be added to those diffs, as they all feel quite dull and some mappers even just do them brainlessly.
Salads are somewhat balanced, but to keep it with the idea above, they could consist of 250ms+ hypers.
Platters tend to be flowy. Hdash/dash restrictions are somewhat fine (could be balanced/buffed if what I said above would work out).
Although it's nothing said about walks in the Ranking Criteria. That could change a lot on how mappers make lower difficulties spread. For examples: cups can have only transition changes if at least 125ms is between the transitions (with some definitive restrictions), same with platters but at least 62ms. That would introduce more catcher control and harder movement to newer players, while as well making it more clear for new mappers how to avoid doing unbalanced patterns.
TL;DR
Droplets aren't a problem in rains. There are more concerns that can be pointed out in Ranking Criteria regarding difficulty.
yes, i agree with you in regards to other stuff that could be done to fit into making rains easier, which includes some of what you already mentioned, but most of it i simply have a general idea but never went forward because they in the end can also more or less fit easily on what phob mentioned regarding letting it to bn's judgment, so it all needs to be properly thought out. with that aside the same could be said regarding other stuff in the rc but yeah
hyper-drops in rain and the rewording in cup (
community/forums/posts/9259236) i already had in my mind since a long time ago just never went forward with it, and it's much simpler to approach it if compared too, nonetheless, more or less saying "hey u should focus other stuff instead" seems to rather disregard what's been brought up, which is not positive for further discussion of the topic
for the rest of the stuff offtopic ngl imo u are cooking too hard with the lowkey too antimeta stuff that should probably just be kept out for rc simplicity and easier approachability but go off king 🔥
Underscorebaka wrote:
Heavy disagree.
Fundamentally hyper-droplets are used to introduce more complexity to patterns, and I don't think they're used enough to be honest with you (from the perspective of a 2k), gameplay wise they're hit likewise to regular hyper-dashes, with little gameplay difference other then often being surrounded by small droplets instead of full notes, if we are to assume rains are supposed to lead into overdoses, this leaves the player not knowing how to approach hyper-droplets in general.
I'd personally like to see them used more often, as if prompted I can only name a single map off the top of my head with a hyper-droplet, which is a convert, upon asking other people in my rank range about their experiences with them, I had a 3.5k unironically tell me they hadn't encountered them before.
Eliminating hyper-droplets from the early game is as functional as eliminating them from the game as a whole, as I don't see them, ever in overdoses, maybe I just farm too much, but I don't see this helping lower level players either.
"I don't see them ever in overdoses" fair point, if you dont seem them **ever** in overdoses why would you see them in rains at all? and "Eliminating hyper-droplets from the early game is as functional as eliminating them from the game as a whole" not true, most hyperdrops have a place mostly in higher-end/level maps once fundamentals are solid, might be why you dont run into many.
as you said yourself, most overdose difficulties, which rain is not meant to mimic, do not rely heavily on hyperdroplets either, regardless of the level of difficulty (since a overdose/deluge has a multitude in range of skill level) them being reserved mostly to higher-end beatmaps.
rain sits between platter and overdose in the spread progression, its role is to provide an even more challenging version of platter basics before the full complexity of overdoses+ which contains a multitude of different skill ranged difficulties, including hyperdroplets at the rain level disrupts the natural spread order. it adds a newer game mechanic (that is used mostly in high-end difficulties) before the player have fully mastered what even is a hyperdash, and when paired with whats been said before by me + other users in the thread regarding spread/overall rain difficulty makes so that the disparity is even more clear.
Jemzuu wrote:
highly disagree
there are definitely appropriate and fitting ways to use this specific element, I'd say it would just have to depend on the song choice - you would not see this in an anime map at all which caters to 'newer' players, but this kind of technical mechanic could be/are used on more complex songs to give special emphasis and sort of challenge rain players that are good enough, so if a 'relatively new' player is playing such technical maps, then they are simply not practicing the appropriate maps in order to learn the mere basics of said difficulty.
I'd also argue that such elements used are not that hard at all. for reference, I used three (3) sliders with "hyper-drops" on my ZxNX - Schadenfreude rain (beatmapsets/1698949#fruits/3488354), yet if you look at the no mod leaderboard, it is full of fcs. if anything, i'd only suggest having a hyper-drop distance limit similar as to what's in the platter rc: "Strong hyperdashes should not be used. For basic-snapped hyperdashes, a limit of 1.5 times the trigger distance is recommended". all in all, i think it's completely fine keeping this as a guideline
ctb is already easy to learn as it is, removing such element would hardly change anything at all when it comes to the difficulty scale because at the end of the day, it all depends on the general patterns used in the difficulty. additionally, platters allow hypers on sliderheads, overdoses allow higher-snapped hyper-drops, wouldnt it be contradictory in the "learning curve" if we remove basic-snapped hyper-drops on rains when it's simple enough?
also fwiw the map u linked does not make use of the element very fittingly, i personally think this kind of technique should only be used if the sliderend/tick that it's emphasising is uniquely strong, so if that bothered u just point it out in the modding forum, dont have to generalize when it can be used properly : (
i disagree with "ctb is already easy to learn as it is" - it's only "easy" from cup to salad - as already said before, from personal experience and also almost all my personal acquaintances struggled/quit around platter/rain.
being "full of fcs" is also not a very good argument as we would simply be looking at it rather shallowly from above, disregarding who are the players who did such and their actual level. by looking quickly on the filtered nomod top 100 page it seems that most users are/were overdose-level players by the time their scores were set.
u also clearly did not read my subreply, it also already was brought up on the map and fixed
beatmapsets/1972973/discussion/4206012/timeline#/3924621 due to indeed the poor usage as u said regardless of this proposal
with that aside, addressing what u said lastly, this proposal was also not based with that map in mind, it was simply the map I remembered that utilized this mechanic when I was first writing up the post, so i attached it as an example. reacting strongly in the heat of the moment (to the point of even making a whole proposal) is uncharacteristic of me, even more so if "out of spite" due to something allegedly "bothering" me, so that definetely is not part of my character. as already was said in the introductory post, its something that i had issue with for a long time already, hence why the proposal.
but anyways, while I still do not believe it belonging of a rain game mechanic, even after the counterarguments *and do not plan to nom any myself on the future either, a proper acceptable middle-ground i can come in terms with would be further limiting the usage as Hex mentioned, I might try to write something up another day when available, for now thats too much writing for me already. if someone else wants to step-up with potential stuff that would be awesome
anyways, i already expected this to be controversial but did not expect this many responses, we only got to current improved rc/guidelines because of many epic dudes of the past that also discussed certain game elements in their respective diffs extensively, thanks for all inputs guys 👍
controversy is good for the gamemode