THIS IS A CRITICISM POST, NOT RANTING!
Since this forum is the closest thing to a feedback section I'm tossing it here.
I've been playing Osu for a long time now and I've had the pleasure and displeasure of seeing Osu advance through the years. I can solidly say this game is heading into some bad territory which you may end up fixing eventually anyways, so why not look at it now. From one developer to another I shall try to assist in pointing out the flaws I see pop up. Sorry if I come off harsh anywhere, I have a bad habit of typing like that at times, but it's never meant to be as hostile as it comes across.
I'm going to wrap it up here, I have some work to do but just remember this isn't me ranting. Osu is a free game, I love it and I cut it a lot of a slack because of that. That doesn't mean it's immune to criticism though, because I myself value criticism more than approval. I'm not however going to say "this is how you fix this" because a wise developer once told me that fan suggestions aren't always the answer either,since it's all biased opinions. It's up to you to figure out what you want the game to become, but I'm more than fully willing to discuss ideas. Everything has ups and downs to it though and I like to go out of my way to just let users customize things themselves.
Also, why isn't osu direct better? I'll support osu till I stop playing it and beyond but that's because I've played it more than any 60 dollar game I've ever bought. Osu direct though is still a tad bit insulting though, all it's good for downloading linked songs, the site is still far better when I need songs.
Anywho, have a good day osu team!
Since this forum is the closest thing to a feedback section I'm tossing it here.
I've been playing Osu for a long time now and I've had the pleasure and displeasure of seeing Osu advance through the years. I can solidly say this game is heading into some bad territory which you may end up fixing eventually anyways, so why not look at it now. From one developer to another I shall try to assist in pointing out the flaws I see pop up. Sorry if I come off harsh anywhere, I have a bad habit of typing like that at times, but it's never meant to be as hostile as it comes across.
SPOILER
1) Customization - Priority Low
One of the best things about Osu is that players can customize things all they want. Now there's this problem where the game is designed more in terms of "it gets the job done" but isn't really optimized efficiently. So it leaves users in a less favorable position modding wise. A lot of things change, some things became obsolete, other stuff just straight up can't be changed and end up conflicting with the users design choices. Yeah eventually it'd be nice to see more communication between players and dev and more user friendly modding options.
2) Sorting - Priority Medium
This has actually been one this that never bothered me until recent changes. These tabs fairly bad. If you're going to be doing this maybe let the user customize them. For example the only setup was perfect for me because it had everything I needed. Now look at it, Recently Played & By Artist are two filters I never use. I'm sure it's useful for a lot but for a bunch of others it won't be. Also why would you ever remove Date? That's easily the most important since people want to play the newest downloaded beatmap. Relying on the drop down is lazy and not a solution, it just causes inconveniences . There's room for improvement here but it's going to be rough because there's a lot of opinions and in the end you're going to piss off a lot of people regardless. If I had to pick 4, I'd do Collection, Date, Recent, All. Those seem to be the most vital tabs even though I don't use recent or all.
3) Collections - Priority High
I consider this one pretty high since it's the only real way for users to setup ideal filters for themselves. The problem here is that there is absolutely no way for a user edit the list themselves. This needs to have something that lets the user be able to arrange the folders how they want but as it is now the game auto sorts folder into unfavorable positions. Maybe I want Music Videos next to Full Length, the game is sorting it in a way that prevents this.
4) The List - Priority Very High + Low
This istwo three parts:
I understand peppy/team probably aren't super experienced, hell I'm not either which is why I'm not offering my services fixing it. This is getting pretty rough though. I've noticed a lot of changes and a lot of odd performance hits from them. Osu is a game in which it should never have performance issues. It's a very basic video game yet it demands more from a computer than other games like it. The focus of a rhythm game needs to be performance and not style, but it is what it is.
One of the best things about Osu is that players can customize things all they want. Now there's this problem where the game is designed more in terms of "it gets the job done" but isn't really optimized efficiently. So it leaves users in a less favorable position modding wise. A lot of things change, some things became obsolete, other stuff just straight up can't be changed and end up conflicting with the users design choices. Yeah eventually it'd be nice to see more communication between players and dev and more user friendly modding options.
2) Sorting - Priority Medium
This has actually been one this that never bothered me until recent changes. These tabs fairly bad. If you're going to be doing this maybe let the user customize them. For example the only setup was perfect for me because it had everything I needed. Now look at it, Recently Played & By Artist are two filters I never use. I'm sure it's useful for a lot but for a bunch of others it won't be. Also why would you ever remove Date? That's easily the most important since people want to play the newest downloaded beatmap. Relying on the drop down is lazy and not a solution, it just causes inconveniences . There's room for improvement here but it's going to be rough because there's a lot of opinions and in the end you're going to piss off a lot of people regardless. If I had to pick 4, I'd do Collection, Date, Recent, All. Those seem to be the most vital tabs even though I don't use recent or all.
3) Collections - Priority High
I consider this one pretty high since it's the only real way for users to setup ideal filters for themselves. The problem here is that there is absolutely no way for a user edit the list themselves. This needs to have something that lets the user be able to arrange the folders how they want but as it is now the game auto sorts folder into unfavorable positions. Maybe I want Music Videos next to Full Length, the game is sorting it in a way that prevents this.
4) The List - Priority Very High + Low
This is
- High Priority: This is a common mistake but the impacts are very harsh to some people. So much that it's common practice for most devs to go out of their way to make adjustments. That's the transparent font. Well not exactly but it's the problem that comes from transparency; colorblindness! First off even without colorblind issues it's a pain in the ass looking at beatmaps with that transparency, it's not stylish, it's not pretty, it's just an inconvenience. Now lets add the colorblind problem. Since it is transparent that means you have (for example) blue on blue... yeah. Self explanatory really and I doubt I need to go into it at all.
- Low Priority: The text you're using in the song list is pretty sloppy and crammed together. The change from 5 star to 10 star is a big improvement, it evens out the long song text a bit but overall the most important information you get from a beatmap is the name of the difficulty not the star rating. The rating for songs is really bad anyways honestly. There have been songs that are 4 stars that play like 5, it's a system that should either be removed or adjusted really, but isn't important in any way. The point is the name is more important than stars and this crammed text has it pretty small and sort of unfocused in the design.
- Low Priority: I'm adding this why not. Redo the star system or remove it. As I said 10 star is nicer design wise but it's almost less practical, 10 star system is a bit rougher to read than 5 star so there's that.
I understand peppy/team probably aren't super experienced, hell I'm not either which is why I'm not offering my services fixing it. This is getting pretty rough though. I've noticed a lot of changes and a lot of odd performance hits from them. Osu is a game in which it should never have performance issues. It's a very basic video game yet it demands more from a computer than other games like it. The focus of a rhythm game needs to be performance and not style, but it is what it is.
I'm going to wrap it up here, I have some work to do but just remember this isn't me ranting. Osu is a free game, I love it and I cut it a lot of a slack because of that. That doesn't mean it's immune to criticism though, because I myself value criticism more than approval. I'm not however going to say "this is how you fix this" because a wise developer once told me that fan suggestions aren't always the answer either,since it's all biased opinions. It's up to you to figure out what you want the game to become, but I'm more than fully willing to discuss ideas. Everything has ups and downs to it though and I like to go out of my way to just let users customize things themselves.
Also, why isn't osu direct better? I'll support osu till I stop playing it and beyond but that's because I've played it more than any 60 dollar game I've ever bought. Osu direct though is still a tad bit insulting though, all it's good for downloading linked songs, the site is still far better when I need songs.
Anywho, have a good day osu team!