What it is
My suggestion is to add a small icon layered on top of the ranking letter in the song selection that indicates scores with a "Perfect" award.
An example will follow.
When I'm talking about a "Perfect" award, I'm talking about scores that earn you this thing:
In standard, it's awarded for getting an FC without taildrops, in osu!mania it's awarded for getting an FC with MAX/300/200 values only. In Catch the Beat, it awards plays with no misses, and in Taiko, you get it for... something.
Why it's useful
The game distinguishes "Perfect" runs using this award, but unfortunately there is no way of seeing whether a score got it without looking at the results screen. It only gets hinted at by the total combo in standard, and it's not always very clear. For example, you can't easily tell if this is a "Perfect" score until you open it.
In osu!mania and Catch the Beat, it's needed even more because S ranks are awarded only for accuracy and say nothing about misses and FCs.
The "Perfect" award is a nice goal to aim for, so it would be useful to show this award in the top 50 and song selection where you could immediately recognize it.
How it's done
The "Perfect" award is mostly independent from rank, whether it's SS, S or maybe a B. Therefore, this could be best achieved by introducing a new skinnable icon that's put on top of the small ranking icon on all "Perfect" runs.
The skinning element could look something like this:
Of course, this is just a sketch to give you an idea, the little star could be anything you want.
Needless to say, it would give skinners the opportunity to come up with prettier alternatives, or creative ways to merge ranking letter and "Perfect" award into one.
(Edited to clean up the structure of the thread and provide a better overview)
My suggestion is to add a small icon layered on top of the ranking letter in the song selection that indicates scores with a "Perfect" award.
An example will follow.
When I'm talking about a "Perfect" award, I'm talking about scores that earn you this thing:
In standard, it's awarded for getting an FC without taildrops, in osu!mania it's awarded for getting an FC with MAX/300/200 values only. In Catch the Beat, it awards plays with no misses, and in Taiko, you get it for... something.
Why it's useful
The game distinguishes "Perfect" runs using this award, but unfortunately there is no way of seeing whether a score got it without looking at the results screen. It only gets hinted at by the total combo in standard, and it's not always very clear. For example, you can't easily tell if this is a "Perfect" score until you open it.
In osu!mania and Catch the Beat, it's needed even more because S ranks are awarded only for accuracy and say nothing about misses and FCs.
The "Perfect" award is a nice goal to aim for, so it would be useful to show this award in the top 50 and song selection where you could immediately recognize it.
How it's done
The "Perfect" award is mostly independent from rank, whether it's SS, S or maybe a B. Therefore, this could be best achieved by introducing a new skinnable icon that's put on top of the small ranking icon on all "Perfect" runs.
The skinning element could look something like this:
Of course, this is just a sketch to give you an idea, the little star could be anything you want.
Needless to say, it would give skinners the opportunity to come up with prettier alternatives, or creative ways to merge ranking letter and "Perfect" award into one.
(Edited to clean up the structure of the thread and provide a better overview)