Here's the problem, we've heard it here before: "EZ mod does NOT make the map easier." Additionally, the score reduction makes it possibly the least practical mod to use.

The difficulty I see in altering the current EZ-mod, or -- God forbid -- removing it completely, is the impact it will have on saved scores. Ask Azer about how it feels to have a score wiped because something had to change -- FeelsBadMan, indeed. We (and especially peppy!) shouldn't want anyone to go through that, regardless of who or why they used the mod.

Therefore, my suggestion is this: rather than change or remove EZ, we instead ADD other similar mods in gradient fashion to bridge the extreme gap between a NM AR9.5 play and an EZ AR4.75 play.

Like we see with DT/NC, Relax/Cinema, and the osu!mania 1-9K mods, simply add more mods in a stack where EZ is currently, gradually cutting it's difficulty (and score multiplier) until we reach the original EZ 1/2x change. In this way, the probable most difficult task will be to change EZ's mod handle to something consistent for score tracking.

peppy has done some legit math to draw smooth bezier curves in the Editor, I'm sure finding an average multiple for difficulty reduction will be much easier (slap me if I'm wrong, I'm only just learning C#). Here is my last suggestion for this implementation:

Mod Names: 1 Star Off, 2 Stars off, ... 4 Stars off (Handled as 1S, 2S, etc... in score tracking this will appear as "-1S", "-3S", etc., thus making total sense when read)

Difficulty/Score Reduction Gradient:

4S (Original EZ Mod): .5x
3S : .66x (i.e., 2/3x)
2S : .8x
1S : .9x

Of course, alter this to how you see fit. Here's an example of map difficulties before/after mod use:

NM: CS5 / AR10 / OD8 / HP7 (1.00x)

1S: CS4.5 / AR9 / OD7.2 / HP6.3 (.90x)
2S: CS4 / AR8 / OD6.4 / HP5.6 (.80x)
3S: CS3.3 / AR6.6 / OD5.28 / HP4.62 (.66x)
4S: CS2.5 / AR5 / OD4 / HP3.5 (.50x)

Mod Selection Order:
NM - 1S - 2S - 3S - 4S - Reset

I hope that, with this in place, more users can enjoy the benefits that EZ intended, without the radical difficulty changes, and without deleting old plays.

This sounds rather nice
I'll likely just stick to the 0.5 EZ though, still waiting for it to give more points/pp at star rating over 4.5*

After reading and thinking about how this would work, I think I find this to be a nice streamlined way of implementing a better EZ mod. I think the mod names would be misleading though since simply lowering AR, HP, CS and OD on a map doesn't have a very drastic effect on star rating as the mod names would suggest.

Of course, that's a great point. I don't mean to be misleading!

Ultimately, I think the names have to follow two rules:

-They can be simplified to 2 characters
-They are a series (e.g.; 1K, 2K, 3K...) or at least understandably similar (i.e.; Easy, Normal, Hard)

The purpose of the mod isn't to deduct an exact 1*, but "1 Star Off" was the best I could come up with. Please, if anyone will, suggest away at something better.

After fiddling with glorious McOsu!, I tested a few maps with these multiples to see how they would turn out. A .8x reduction on Apparition definitely does not slow it down at all! But, the approach rate and circle size difference make it feel less like Mazzerin's wrath of hellfire and more like a stream-heavy Marathon. Another example is Speed Of Link -- of course, no player is going to pass it if they can't tap 220+! But the difference can be huge to someone who can't read the kicksliders: the speed can matter less if the map is unreadible, or if OD+HP turns any stream into a slaughter.

EZ was intended to make maps easIER -- NOT easy! It isn't built to make a 3* player pass FOUR DIMENSIONS, that's ridiculous! Challenging maps are designed from the first circle to be challenging. This mod is intended to bridge the gap between passing and failing. We all have maps that just elude us -- but I would take a .9x score to pass United any day! Passing is encouraging, stumbling by with NF isn't. Streams become streamable, jumps become jumpable, and maybe I would be a few ranks higher since I might be able to hold a combo (cri everitiem).

The reason mods exist is to benefit the players, but EZ as it is now isn't helpful to a vast majority. I'm sure players would appreciate a buffer for maps in Multi that are just out of league for them, I'm sure players will apreciate an FC with reduced PP rather than NO PP because they break in the same stream section, and I know people would appreciate a new mod pair for HD. I hope that makes it clear!