Well since nobody said anything about it in the beatmap help forum, I will assume that everything is okay with it

So here's my first beatmap. I intentionally made it difficult, but not in a way that takes advantage of the limitations the mouse has compared to a touch screen. I also made it difficult to die, largely because it's very long and it would suck to have to wade through 3 minutes of song until you get to the part you're still trying to figure out.

And yes, I know it has some pretty big breaks. Once storyboard mode is implemented, I plan on making it a real epic story of sorts.

So there you have it! Enjoy!

http://peppy.chigau.com/files/Final%20F ... 0Cross.osz

First of all, sorry that I missed this on the Beatmap help forum - I really need to start checking that place.

I'll get the crits out of the way first:
1. Timing is OK, however there were 3 timing sections all with BPM 180 which are not required. I've deleted these.
2. Some of the sliders need reconsidering. Especially those that look like repeating ones, but stop about 1/8 of a beat short. Also that small spiral/circular one - I don't think it's possible to see where your cursor is meant to follow... why not just put a spinner there? I don't think sliders are really designed to be overlapping - there should be a clear path visible for the player to follow.
3. OK I know you said the breaks were long, but that last one is ridiculous - >1min! And all that just for a bunch of notes at the end (I know it's a nice touch because it's the Victory theme from FF, but still...). I'd really reconsider this part - even with an awesome epic story, there's really not much gameplay happening, and this may deter some players. If you have played Ouendan/EBA, the storyboard sections tend to last 30sec max, except epilogues, and songs are at most 4min long. This should be a rough guide to what your maps should be like in terms of length.

There's heaps of positives though - I really like the timing change from 180 to 360 to reflect the increased urgency of the music. Ingenious! Also there is a nice variety of notes/sliders/spinners which all seem to fit in nicely with the music (at least in Edit Mode - I haven't played this because it's too long ><). It seems challenging enough without being [OMGWTF] difficulty.

Sorry that was a bit wordy, but I hope you can take the advice on board! Great effort for your first beatmap.
eyupz

Download: LuIzA - Final Fantasy Fire Cross OC ReMix (Gilrad) [Epic].osu

1: Yea, those were a relic of ideas that didn't work out and of a time when I didn't know if the BPM changed or not.

2: Could you give me an example of the ones that stop 1/8th of a beat short? As far as that circular slider is concerned, I put it there for three reasons: First, the ticks point out the beat, second it adds more to your multiplier, rewarding those who will make it through the next part without messing up, giving it a bit more weight, and third it lets players know that another double time section is coming up.

The thing with many of these sliders is, you don't need to follow them. They're so short, or they're positioned in the correct way that you just have to find the point where you can park your pointer while having it still register all the important points. That's the case with the round slider; keep the pointer in the middle and there's no problem.

3: Not trying to sound offish here, but I'm not making beatmaps for Ouendan I'm trying to achieve my own style here, one that is heavy on the narritive. Assuming I can keep interest in people with interesting enough animations, I don't think the length of the breaks will be a problem. Except maybe now, when there are no animations

Gilrad wrote:

3: Not trying to sound offish here, but I'm not making beatmaps for Ouendan I'm trying to achieve my own style here, one that is heavy on the narritive. Assuming I can keep interest in people with interesting enough animations, I don't think the length of the breaks will be a problem. Except maybe now, when there are no animations

But you do realize that, except for the first time, watching the same minute-long animation over and over again to finish the beatmap with a high score will still be repetitive and will always be an annoying wait.

It's just like how the intro to Ready Steady Go lasted ~30s, and every time I played it I had to wait for it to play through. I could literally start the song, put down my DS, eat some cookies, then still pick up my DS in time to play.

I must agree with eyup and Echo49 on this one. It's not something very nice to have a 1 minute break. Even with animations, the animation will be the same on that minute (maybe will change if you are in "danger" status, but nothing more than that) and waiting that time can be a bit tedious.

Anyway, is that or play more seconds of the song. So the time to get the highscore will be the same. XD

This could prompt the addition of a "skip cutscene/break" button in gameplay... although this could be quite controversial in itself!

I agree its best to keep cutscenes <20-30s. Maybe you can cut some audio on this one to decrease the break time.