Content

Density Graph:
To be perfectly honest, I made this term up since I don’t know its actual name. What you can observe over here is the density of individual parts in the map. The harder a part is, the bigger the bar inside this graph. If a part has reached its biggest considerable density, the bar for said section will turn pink and it will range from the left to right rim of the line. Make sure this does not occur too often, as less than 30-40% of the map should contain pink bars! To emphasize the magnitude of pink bars on the star rating (SR): This maps SR is 4.1.

This is almost entirely incorrect - you would be right situationally. The density graph is on an absolute scale, not a relative scale. This means that once a section reaches a certain density threshold, it will always appear pink. It doesn't matter as to whether or not the rest of the sections are 40 NPS (i.e. much denser) or 5 NPS (i.e. nowhere as dense), the bars will be pink.

The density graph is bordering useless in a sense, since it will mainly be useful for charts that are of a particular difficulty range (probably mid Insane at most?) and you want to check for NPS consistency. The 30%-40% rule of thumb doesn't make sense either, it all depends on the song itself. I'm not sure if most songs have a climax that lasts for 30%-40% of the entire song, but that seems way way too high. Most choruses last for about 15%-20% combined, maybe except for TV sizes in which it'd last for 25%. We don't usually chart TV sizes though, so 20% is probably better if you want a solid figure. I don't think a rule of thumb is needed for this - basically the question should be "does the density of this section (that is measured through the density bars) make sense relative to the entire track?".

You can even add own difficulty names. The only important part of the naming process is that the chosen names have to show a clear indication of their difficulty.
This does not apply to marathon maps.

Missing information. "This does not apply to both the highest difficulty of the mapset (this includes marathons - maps that are of 5:00 drain time or longer)."

HP drain/OD section

It would be a good idea to give rules of thumb on how high the HP drain/ODs of certain difficulty ranges should be. Also always point out that it's ultimately a guideline and should be adjusted accordingly based on the song itself (usually the scarier/more tense it is, the higher the OD and/or HP drain).

I also would like to show you a little program that can be really helpful to find the right BPM really fast. It is called MixMeister BPM Analyzer. This program will show you the average BPM of your song. It has just one weak point. It can not show you multiple BPM. It will show you the average BPM of all BPM points in your song. To say it simple: It helps with single BPM only. You can search for it on Google or just click here.

That weak point is a very big weak point - and it's worth emphasising. It's also much better to place this right below the single BPM section rather than the multiple BPM section, because like you said, MixMeister only works with single BPM tracks. There's also the fact that MixMeister would potentially give you a BPM that isn't a whole number - which is usually wrong as most tracks these days have whole number BPMs.

You could probably mention that most electronic songs have whole number BPMs somewhere in the timing component, actually.

Explaining what a long note is

Playing and charting are intertwined - so you have to elaborate on the mechanic of the long note as well.

Explaining what a burst is

Not really the best explanation. A burst is basically a short rhythm that is noticeably faster than the general rhythms of the song (maybe you can give an example like say, a 1/8 rhythm in a song that's predominantly 1/4s). You can also talk about the fact that "bursts" could potentially be significantly harder than the rest of the chart, so it's up to the charter to find the ideal pattern for a given rhythm. (this is a bit of a complicated explanation however, so try to water it down kinda)

Explaining what a stream is

Streams are usually 1/4 or higher - inclusive of 1/4 rhythms. In your post, you wrote that streams are mainly rhythms that are faster than 1/4, not inclusive of 1/4 rhythms. Also prefer include the term staircase along with zigzag - since both terms are interchangeable and the former is actually more commonly used. The part about being able to chart up to "1/8 streams" contradict what you said about only charting what the track provides - so you might want to edit that.

Explaining what a stair is

This is more of a pattern configuration rather than a pattern itself. You COULD have this section, but I find this section a bit offplace compared to the rest of the patterns listed. If you do want to include it, also include the term "rolls" with stairs as the term "roll" is quite commonly used as well. Rolls are also more commonly used for 1/8s rather than 1/4s because they are normally used for bursts (as most songs are also predominantly 1/4 rhythm based), since rolls are also the easiest pattern configuration to hit compared to any other stream pattern.

Explaining what a jack is

The part about being able to chart up to "1/6 jacks" contradict what you said about only charting what the track provides. I think the main thing you need to mention is that jacks at a given speed are much harder than streams of the same speed (you probably won't need to elaborate on this), so it's better to use them sparsely (both in length and frequency) and only in rhythms that are relatively slow, as using jacks incorrectly could potentially create an unwarranted difficulty spike.

Think most of the things about allowing certain patterns to be charted up to a certain rhythm is unnecessary in general - it creates a good amount of misinterpretations and arbitrary rule following. It's necessary to elaborate as to whether or not a certain pattern would be harder at a certain tempo than another pattern of the same tempo for sure, and listing down whatever snap it should be at is not the way to do it.

For example, a trill is harder than a conventional stream because finger movemen is not as nicely distributed. This causes the player to tense (for the lack of a better term) up more to hit the pattern, creating difficulty to hit.

It really helps when you use the 25% playback rate a lot while mapping.

50% should be enough for most songs (since most song structures are rather simple), but yeah 25% works to some extent. Perhaps mention 25%-50%, rather than just 25%.

Maps for approval are not affected of this rule!

Clarify what "maps for approval" are here. While you and I know what they are, most new mappers do not.

While creating a full spread, it is very important to look at the pattern spread, not at the star rating! It can happen that the star rating becomes really high just because of one really dense part in your map.

You have to elaborate more as to why you shouldn't always follow the star rating system. Or rather, maybe briefly talk about how the SR system mainly works, which mainly takes into consideration the maximum density of a chart. That will explain why certain maps seem extremely underrated and some that are very overrated (such as Capsaicin).

Be consistent! What does that mean? Do not use different kinds of patterns for exactly the same sound in your map. As an example; if you use a chord for drums or snare, keep it like that! Do not change it to a single note later on.

First, change "sound" to "rhythm" or "section".

Second, there are exceptions to the rule. If you follow your charting scheme and you end up with a certain pattern that is much harder than the rest of the chart, you are allowed to break away from the consistency. For example, let's say that you're charting a particular mix of sounds as a triple. You then have a 1/8 roll and ending with that particular mix of sounds. Having a triple there will increase the difficulty of the chart gradually, as it creates a minijack. If you make it a double, the minijack will not be present, making the pattern easier.

Try to avoid vocal mapping! While mapping vocals might work in standard kinda well, it doesn’t play well in osu!mania. You should always try to follow the music and instruments as best as possible. Of course you can add notes for vocals but do not overdo it. Follow the rhythm of the music, not the rhythm of the voice!

This is going to be a very long point because the misconception has been going for way too long and it makes me upset that it has.

There are two reasons as to why "mapping vocals" has been frowned upon. The first reason is because there was a time in which vocals do not align with the percussion/rest of the instrumentation, so charting vocals would make the chart unnecessarily difficult to both map and play. However, vocals that do not align with the percussion rarely happen these days - if never at all as metronomes exist in studios.

The other reason is because people chart vocals poorly. I'm not pointing at particular charters, but the common misconception comes with the fact that people tend to have the idea of placing a note whenever there is a sound - regardless of emphasis. This ends up with extremely overlayered charts - most of which is caused by the fact that people place sounds over vocals AND percussion. This is most likely why this misconception has been a thing for so long.

I do think that LAYERING IN vocals is a bad thing when it comes to Extras or high Insanes, and are better represented through something like pitch relevancy, but for NMs and EZs, layering vocals is probably one of the best things you can do because it's the main thing that people hear. Not charting the vocals despite vocals being the forefront of a song while the chart in general is not very dense is ignoring the essence of the song. LAYERING vocals is ultimately encouraged for sections in which they are a lot lighter, or if you are intending to chart a section in a very light manner. If you want to accentuate the vocals in a dense section, you use pitch relevancy - not layering.

Now back to our original program:

Easy charting section

I agree with the 1/1 section and the sparse 1/2 section and generally the rest. The very fundamental thing you should be mentioning is charting whatever is most prominent however - this includes generally vocals and longer sounds - which is something you didn't mention I think. Perhaps also mention about keeping LNs at a low level? There should be more circles/notes than LNs in Easy difficulties.

Bit of an off-shoot, but at the end of the day I think you should just be mentioning the fact that you basically have more leeway as to how much you can chart a song based on difficulty level. For example you can start with charting an Insane, and if you want to make a Hard you have to remove a particular layer and potentially change any patterns that are too spiky, then if you want to make a Normal you have to remove another layer and change certain patterning and so on and so far. Kinda like peeling an onion.

Insane/Extra charting section

You also have to mention that most songs don't really call for Insane or Extra difficulties, so it's best to not force the creation of a certain difficulty. At the Insane/Extra level, it's all about letting the chart "write itself", so to speak. You shouldn't be trying to create arbitrary difficulty by making certain sounds chords. You can make patterns hard when needed, since patterns affect difficulty less than layering, but you still have to be reasonable.

Maybe list down some songs that could make for Insanes/Extras as a rule of thumb? I can provide a couple if needed.

I don't know anything about hitsounds so I'll skip that.

SV = Average BPM / Current BPM

Average should be "mode", maybe provide a link to explain what "mode" is for anyone who is uncertain - it's not a common term.

styles

Examples, examples, examples. Most new charters won't be able to visualise charting styles without listing down certain maps that have this certain "style of charting".

For DCP charting, I recommend Daikyi's Bokutachi no Tabi no Epilogue, highly PR-based and very musically relevant - this is more visible in charts like this because the dynamics of the track are extremely clear. A more subtle example would be Fullerene's quatre mains. Super PR-based, not too much consideration for playability but still very reasonably playable.

Something that is more NB/Yolomania-based would probably be Staiain's Candy Galy[ - not much attention to the music itself other than for layering purposes, patterning is made to be quite fluent as a whole. One thing to point out that this "style of charting" is quite flexible though, and you could easily put your own flair into it. I guess a more developed form would be something like Tidek's burn this moment into the retina of my eye and my When I Think About You I Cut Myself chart. Tidek's chart uses a good amount of pitch relevancy combined with abrasive pattern choices - making the chart very difficult to score on. When I Think About You emphasises a good amount on finger motion - harsher rhythms are usually interpreted as two hand trills as it creates more motion than normal broken jumpstreams.

Both of which emphasise a lot on certain finger motions. In When I Think About You, lots of two hand trills are used to emphasise harsher sounding rhythms, while in Calamity Fortune, there are certain patterns in which minijacks are used to accentuate a certain sound, as minijacks force players to use a more noticeable muscle to hit the pattern, usually the wrist. A non-minijack would cause the player to use their fingers instead, which might not have that much emphasis.

nitpicking
This is where I list down things that bother me but won't affect your guide in the grand scheme of things. It's just a couple of things that might leave the reader confused because you either create an unnecessary loose end or you have too much information.

Lots of grammar issues/redundant content. Generally minor nitpicking, I can make a proofread version after you respond to this post (and maybe Evening's). There's also a good amount of absolutes used, though I can see that they are unintentional. Easily amendable - so it's not too much of an issue.

1.) Mapping Area:
This is where you place your objects. It is divided into different columns, | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | in this case. These are the numbers the editor works with, though many people prefer to use | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | when modding. This is not relevant for now, though.

It's better that you explain why people use 1234 rather than 0123 - maybe something short like "it's a more intuitive way of counting" or "most people prefer to start with the number 1 rather than 0 when they're counting".

7.) Beat Snap Divisor:
A very important tool, especially in mania. Here, you can select in which beat snap you want to map. The default setting is always ¼ and this is the one you should basically use.

Change the word "basically" to "normally".

But don’t forget: Map what you hear! Map 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, etc. only when the song also provides it! Don’t add a random 1/6 burst into your map. This is unrankable.

Preferably better if you rephrase this. Something like "However, if you want to get your map ranked, only map what you hear! Add 1/3, 1/4, 1/6 rhythms only when the song calls for it! Adding 1/6 bursts when the song does not call for it is unrankable."

1.3 Alright! I want to Map!
Now we know how the editor exactly works and we know how to place notes. Should something still be unclear; read it again! You have all time in the world! If you have understood everything we can directly jump to point 2, the basics! This is where i will explain the song setup and how to time your beatmap!

Probably better to remove the part about "knowing how the editor exactly works" and just leave it as "now we know how to place notes in the editor". You might also want to mention that when you first open a song the Song Setup screen will pop up and say that you will explain the Song Setup section from there.

Difficulty: Here you have to give your difficulty a name. The standard difficulty names for osu!mania are “EZ”, “NM”, “HD”, “MX”, “SC” and “SHD”, but you are not forced to use these! If your song is from an other game you can use the difficulty names of that game! For example Sound Voltex, which uses the following names for their respective difficulties: “Basic, Novice, Advanced, Exhaust, Infinite, Gravity”.

Capitalise the SDVX difficulties please. They're driving me nuts.

Inherited Point: The inherited points are also called “Green Lines”. These points are used to add “effects” to your map. With these, you can change the volume, the sample set, the slider velocity (SV) and you can add a Kiai-Time.

"Inherited Point" should be in plural. You didn't really explain what "effects" are either, so it's best to note that you will be explaining those later on. The main thing that people will use this for is for normalisation of scroll speed, so it's best to primarily mention the SV concept more than anything else.

Never use more than six notes at once though, because this is against the Ranking Criteria.

Replace "never" to "you can't", "because" with "as".

Notice: This is still a Guideline! It shows the basics of mapping and how it can be in the best case. Of course you don’t have to follow this guide 1:1!

Should be a bit clearer in your first sentence and say that what you're going to say from here is going to be "guidelines" and should not be taken as actual rules and that you don't need to (and probably won't need to) follow the guidelines verbatim.

And now I would like to explain how to map in best case each difficulty, from Easy to Insane.

Bordering "absolute" phrasing. Perhaps rephrase to something like "Now I'll explain the general guidelines on what to chart for particular difficulties, ranging from Easy to Extras."