Proposing the following rule for the general RC:

Do not change the order of objects in the .osu file. This can cause unintended behaviour from the game.

Example:

343,256,2000,6,0,L|334:132,1,100
330,297,3000,1,0,0:0:0:0:
330,297,4000,1,0,0:0:0:0:

Being changed to this via text editor:

330,297,3000,1,0,0:0:0:0:
343,256,2000,6,0,L|334:132,1,100
330,297,4000,1,0,0:0:0:0:

tldr
- Inconsistency between stable and lazer
- Causes bugs that interfere with gameplay
- Strong potential to cause more bugs that we don't know about

This issue stems from osu catch, but it needs to be applied to the general RC since it has potential to affect all modes, we just don't know how since this is unexplored territory.

Background, A while back we discovered that we can control the position of bananas (osu catch spinners) by doing some text file manipulation, but it was unrankable because it required bpm manipulation and having objects with a timestamp of negative billion or something.

A few months ago, I created a map that was able to rng manip the bananas by changing the order of the objects in the map.
This was 100% rankable under the RC and the map was consistent with lazer, so I intended to push it for ranked once MBC results came out.

Example: ss/19683216/93e1
beatmapsets/2405498#fruits/5218780

But since then, lazer updated and it doesn't work there anymore. While it is still technically rankable, I am looking to change the RC to prevent future issues like this for three reasons:

1: Stable/Lazer inconsistency
Somewhere between then and now, lazer updated, so it no longer works in lazer. Having a map be inconsistent between lazer and stable is obviously not ok

2: Bugs
This can break a lot of other things, such as the order fruits are generated, the plate not being cleared after new combo, and the plate not being cleared after a spinner. These are avoidable if worked around, but it's clear that changing the order of the text file just lead to a bunch of bugs that we don't know much about.

3: Saving breaks the map
It's a massive pain to map using this technique since you can't save. All modifications must be done via text editor so it requires a lot of time to make. If anyone edits the map to test something, it will not work for them.

example

Either way it fucks with the drain time listed on the site (regardless of mode assumingly) aight i just tested this and it does look like they fixed it although idk when

should be added tho if it fucks with other modes in weird ways

Also this:


(apollo told me that pp values like this aren't actually possible and its just a bizzare interaction between the map and various pp calculators)

This is too niche to add to RC imo. Who in the world would intentionally mess with an .osu file and submit it without saving once in game?

Ig you did but millions of other players didn't, so this can and should be handled as a special case. Adding such a rule to RC might confuse people and make them read something they don't really need.

A more definitive wording could be the following?

> Timing points and hitobjects should be sorted in chronological order respectively under the [TimingPoints] and [HitObjects] fields in the `.osu` file.

i fear this is gonna be a sort of streissand effect rn because who would do this

tbh probably agreed with it being too specific, just needed a second opinion on this