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[Proposal] osu!standard ruleset draft (Specific)

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Topic Starter
Okoratu
Hello!

After literal months of discussions going back and forth along with making a bunch of difficulties that test out the things we discussed with everyone involved in the United Beat-Knights of Ranking Criteria, I'm here to announce what kind of rules and guidelines we agreed upon in this draft. Notice this is NOT the final result, as we need the feedback of the community first before getting it officially bumped into the wiki.

Frequently Asked Questions

(read this in all cases before posting)
  1. Is it necessary to read the entire draft before commenting or asking questions?
    -> Yes, else you may complain about/mention things that are not related to this draft or are actually already present here.
  2. Is this the entire new Ranking Criteria? I feel like this is missing a lot of things...
    -> This is not the entire Ranking Criteria. This draft aims to be add to the rules and guidelines that end up on on the osu!-specific Ranking Criteria.
Before posting, please think through if what you want to add belongs into the standard-specific general draft or the general Ranking Criteria. Thanks!

The proposal starts on the Difficulty Specific part, the Glossary is on here so people have an easier time reading the draft!

Glossary



Common terms


Difficulty Names

  1. Easy
  2. Normal
  3. Hard
  4. Insane
  5. Expert

    Refer to t/178700 for alternative difficulty naming methods.

    Advanced: A difficulty combining elements found in both Normal and Hard difficulties. It is often used to fill the gap between lower-level normals and higher-level hards.
    Extra/Extreme/Ultra: Names used to replace Expert and to indicate increasing difficulty among multiple Expert difficulties.
Gameplay

  1. Jump: Hitobjects spaced further apart from each other in comparison to the average spacing for such patterns. Usually snapped to 1/2 beats.
  2. Stream: Consecutive circles grouped together. Usually snapped to ¼ beats.
  3. Stack: Two or more hitobjects placed in the same spot on the grid.
  4. Stack Leniency: A setting used to determine if hitobjects stack or directly overlap each other. Increasing its value will cause hitobjects to stack at longer time intervals.
  5. Overlap: Hitobjects touching each other where they do not stack.
  6. Snapping: Timeline tick where an object is placed.
  7. Slider head/tail: The start/end positions of a slider.
  8. Slider border: Visible outline of a slider's path. When this is distorted through overlaps, sliders can become harder to read.
  9. Slider anchors: Tools used to shape the body of a slider. Gray anchors shape a single curve, while red anchors end the current curve. Also referred to as “nodes”.
  10. Slider Velocity: A slider's speed defines how much space it travels within a given beat. Base slider velocity can be controlled in the timing panel and additional changes can be made through inherited (green) timing points.
  11. Buzz slider: a slider snapped to 1/8 or denser with more than three reverses, causing a "buzz" rather than individual hitsounds.
  12. Short Reversing Slider: A short slider (usually 1/4 or 1/8 snapping) with 1 or more reverses. This allows a player to keep their cursor in one place while the slider reverses.
  13. Hold Slider: A slider requiring the player to keep their cursor in one place rather than follow the sliderball.
  14. Burai Slider: A slider directly overlapping its own body, resulting in an unclear slider path.
  15. Extended slider: A slider whose tail is not snapped to a specific beat in the music, but is instead expressing a prolonged sound. The most common extended slider is ¾ of a beat.
  16. Slider Tick Rate: The amount of slider ticks that appear per beat of music.
  17. Spinner Recovery Time: The time between the end of a spinner and the following hitobject.
  18. Time-distance equality: Spacing between hitobjects is proportional to the duration of time between them. Also known as using a constant distance spacing
  19. Hitobject/Note density: The average timeline gaps between hitobjects expressed in fractions of a beat (such as 1/1 for one beat, 1/2 for half a beat).
  20. Keysounding: Hitsounding using samples extremely similar or directly from the song in their respective places. This method of hitsounding usually provides low feedback to the player.

Difficulty Specific



Rhythm related guidelines apply to approximately 180 BPM maps.
If your song is drastically faster or slower, some variables might be different. Apply reasonable judgment in these cases.

- Easy

Rules
  1. If stacks are used, Stack Leniency must be set high enough for 1/1 hitobjects to stack. Directly overlapping hitobjects cause reading problems for new players.
Guidelines
  1. Time-distance equality should be used. Variations are acceptable if they are clearly different from spacing used for different rhythms. When hitobjects are more than 2 beats apart and have relatively high spacing on the playfield, time-distance equality doesn’t need to be as precise.
  2. When distance snap is used, try to keep it between 0.8x and 1.2x. Values too much higher or lower may make the difference between slider velocity and spacing counterintuitive. A higher distance snap can be used to avoid overlapping, but the slider velocity should be increased if you find yourself doing this often.
  3. Note density should consist of mostly 1/1, 2/1, or slower rhythms.
  4. Avoid using sliders shorter than 1/2 of a beat. These are too fast to be comprehended by new players.
  5. Avoid overlapping circles, slider heads, and slider tails. These can be confusing for new players. 1/1 overlaps due to distance snapping should be avoided with higher spacing or slider velocity.
  6. Avoid 1/1 sliders with multiple reverses. New players are unable to read additional reverses because they are visible for such a short amount of time.
  7. Avoid slider-only sections. Aiming and following a lot of sliders in a row can be tiring for new players. In such cases, circles and rest moments without hitobjects to click or follow should be used.
  8. Manipulating slider velocity is discouraged. Slider velocity should only be changed for sections of music with different pacings and should not be drastically variable.
  9. Use straightforward and easily understandable slider shapes. New players may not understand how to follow more complex shapes.
  10. Spinner recovery time should be at least 4 beats. This is to ensure adequate time to click a hitobject following a spinner.
  11. Avoid spinners less than 4 beats. Players need time to recognize that they have to begin spinning.
Difficulty Setting Guidelines
  1. Approach Rate should be 5 or less.
  2. Overall Difficulty / HP Drain Rate should be between 1 and 3.

- Normal

Rules
  1. If stacks are used, Stack Leniency must be set high enough for 1/1 hitobjects to stack. Directly overlapping hitobjects cause reading problems for new players.
Guidelines
  1. Time-distance equality should be used. Variations are acceptable if they are clearly different from spacing used for different rhythms. When hitobjects are more than 1 beat apart and have relatively high spacing on the playfield, time-distance equality doesn’t need to be as precise.
  2. When distance snap is used, try to keep it between 0.8x and 1.3x. Values too much higher or lower may make the difference between slider velocity and spacing counterintuitive. A higher distance snap can be used to avoid overlapping, but the slider velocity should be increased if you find yourself doing this often.
  3. Note density should consist of mostly 1/1, occasional 1/2, or slower rhythms.
  4. Avoid overlapping circles, slider heads, and slider tails. These can be confusing for new players. 1/2 overlaps due to distance snapping are an exception.
  5. Avoid long chains of hitobjects with 1/2 gaps. Too many consecutive hitobjects overlapping can be confusing for new players.
  6. Avoid 1/2 hitobjects after sliders which appear underneath the previous slider’s path. Players at this level fully follow sliders’ paths, so placing a hitobject directly after the slider is more intuitive. This also includes stacks underneath slider ends.
  7. Avoid 1/2 sliders with multiple reverses. New players are unable to read additional reverses because they are visible for such a short amount of time.
  8. Avoid slider-only sections. Aiming and following a lot of sliders in a row can be tiring for new players. In such cases, circles and rest moments without hitobjects to click or follow should be used.
  9. Stacks are acceptable, but avoid switching between 1/1 and 1/2 stacks repeatedly. This may cause reading issues for new players, since two different rhythms are visually the same.
  10. Manipulating slider velocity is discouraged. Slider velocity should only be changed for sections of music with different pacings and should not be drastically variable.
  11. Use straightforward and easily understandable slider shapes. New players may not understand how to follow more complex shapes.
  12. Spinner recovery time should be at least 2 beats. This is to ensure adequate time to click a hitobject following a spinner.
  13. Avoid spinners less than 3 beats. Players need time to recognize that they have to begin spinning.
Difficulty Setting Guidelines
  1. Approach Rate should be between 4 and 6.
  2. Overall Difficulty / HP Drain Rate should be between 3 and 5.

- Hard

Rules
  1. If stacks are used, Stack Leniency must be set high enough for 1/2 hitobjects to stack. Directly overlapping hitobjects cause reading problems for players of this level.
Guidelines
  1. Spinner recovery time should be at least 1 beat. This is to ensure adequate time to click a hitobject following a spinner.
  2. Note density should consist of mostly 1/2, occasional 1/4, or slower rhythms.
  3. Avoid streams made of more than 5 notes. Short reversing sliders can be used in exchange for these when the song supports it.
  4. Avoid visually similar 1/2 and 1/1 spacing. Spacing variation through jumps on points of emphasis are encouraged, but only if these jumps are recognizably different from 1/1 gaps.
  5. Avoid mixing 1/2 and 1/4 rhythms in the same stack. Different rhythms of this density without spacing indication can cause reading issues.
  6. Slider tick hitsounds are discouraged. If you want to use them, then make sure that their volume is balanced (i.e. notably quieter than regular hitsounds). A very loud slider tick, especially when only used once or twice, can be extremely jarring.
  7. Avoid spinners less than 2 beats. Players need time to recognize that they have to begin spinning.
Difficulty Setting Guidelines
  1. Approach Rate should be between 6 and 8.
  2. Overall Difficulty should be between 5 and 7.
  3. HP Drain Rate should be between 4 and 6.

- Insane

Guidelines
  1. Avoid cross screen jumps and spaced streams. These are mapping techniques primarily reserved for Expert level difficulties
  2. Avoid unjustified spikes in difficulty. Difficulty should be representative of the song’s intensity.
  3. Slider tick hitsounds are discouraged. If you want to use them, then make sure that their volume is balanced (i.e. notably quieter than regular hitsounds). A very loud slider tick, especially when only used once or twice, can be extremely jarring.
Difficulty Setting Guidelines
  1. Approach Rate should be between 7 and 9.3
  2. Overall Difficulty should be between 7 and 9.
  3. HP Drain Rate should be between 5 and 8.

- Expert

Guidelines
  1. Avoid unjustified spikes in difficulty. Difficulty should be representative of the song’s intensity.
  2. Slider tick hitsounds are discouraged. If you want to use them, then make sure that their volume is balanced (i.e. notably quieter than regular hitsounds). A very loud slider tick, especially when only used once or twice, can be extremely jarring.
Difficulty Setting Guidelines
  1. Approach Rate / Overall Difficulty should be 8 or higher.
  2. HP Drain Rate should be 5 or higher.

This draft is up for community discussion until the 23rd December 0:00 UTC+0 and will enter revision afterwards
Spaghetti
I love this, difficulty specific rulesets will really help aspiring mappers figure out what's right across what parts of the set.

About the easy, shouldn't you mention that using more than one DS is discouraged, and that it should typically remain at 1x? Same with the Normal outside of the kiai?
Nozhomi
About Easy :

Okorin wrote:

Approach Rate should be 5 or less.
To me, 5 is too high for an Easy, it should be 4 or less because even if the BPM is really fast, the diff would be considered as Normal and not Easy.

Also about distance snap on both Easy and Normal, you should say it can depend about BPM or it could cause readability issues if objects are too close for example. Rest looks fine~
Topic Starter
Okoratu
all limits are upper limits on these or else you'll have your diff either inappropriate for an easy or labled a normal

I do not get your second point whatsover can you elaborate which guideline or rule you're talking about?

Spaghetti wrote:

About the easy, shouldn't you mention that using more than one DS is discouraged, and that it should typically remain at 1x? Same with the Normal outside of the kiai?
Testing showed that people do not play with a ruler while playing the game. This is reflected in the Time-distance equality guideline.
The only issue people really had with variable DS on these difficulties was when it was too variable and could be read as a different rhythm instead
B1rd
I don't like the circle size guidelines, high circle size can work very well for hards and normals.
vipto
Really not liking the fact that the guideline "Avoid cross screen jumps" is missing from the Expert ruleset.
Frostings
Anytime the rules for Easy and Normal are backed up with "this is too hard/confusing for new players" do you guys any proof? Or is it just a general assumption?

Also I think low AR should not be recommended at all. Anything less than 5 is pretty impossible to read. All the new players I've seen are able to HR easies better than No Mod

I also don't really agree with recommending low SV unless you have direct evidence low SV is easier and more intuitive to play
Xinely
I think CS on easy should be 3,5 or less. I cant imagine how newbie will handle CS 4 since its quite small
Also i agree with nozhomi if limit AR 5 for easy is too fast as well
Giralda
Can we concretely define the term "kickslider"? Should there be a change in how the term should be interpreted, it needs to be done before this gets finalized. This is raised as a result of the discussion from: t/470582 and nothing definite resulted from it other than a poll where most voted against the current definition as stated below.

As per osu!wiki:
This pattern consist of a series of sliders that are both short and have many repeats. All sliders usually have the same number of repeats and fall on the whole or half beat in order to make it easy to follow.
Source: https://osu.ppy.sh/wiki/Slider_Techniqu ... ng_Sliders


In addition,

Okorin wrote:

Apply reasonable judgment in these cases.
Edit:

Frostings wrote:

I also don't really agree with recommending low SV unless you have direct evidence low SV is easier and more intuitive to play
+1. It's hard to expect new mappers to exercise "reasonable judgment" to something they have lack of experience in. Low SV in E/N/(H) does not guarantee or assure quality.
Shiirn

Okorin wrote:

The only issue people really had with variable DS on these difficulties was when it was too variable and could be read as a different rhythm instead
i could have told u that 3 years ago
B1rd

Xinely wrote:

I think CS on easy should be 3,5 or less. I cant imagine how newbie will handle CS 4 since its quite small
Quite easily since hitting small objects in a large time frame with a mouse is something that pretty much everyone can do from normal computer usage. CS4 isn't even small, ever compare the escape button on your browser to CS4 circles?
Topic Starter
Okoratu
we avoided using kickslider anywhere on the draft because people seem to be in utter confusion what the term means ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

can any of you provide actual data on your claims about diffstats?
Frostings
most of my beliefs largely come from anecdotal evidence (around ~15 friends I've introduced the game and have seen them play for the first time). I don't really know if there is a way to gather data from a large number of new players, and have it be an accurate representation

I just think it's unfair to make certain assumptions and make guidelines based on them
pishifat

Frostings wrote:

Anytime the rules for Easy and Normal are backed up with "this is too hard/confusing for new players" do you guys any proof? Or is it just a general assumption?
we made a few test maps that broke guidelines, then documented what new players screwed up. the guidelines reflect the results from those tests

HappyRocket88
This is gorgeous! >w<

But isn't the CS 4 on Easy difficulty pretty unusual? I'm not sure if this has to be with the visibility of the circles but I think 3.5 is more acceptable regarding the visibility of the objects.

In the other hand, Isn't anything specified for reverses being covered for the HP bar or other stacks? o:

Rest of it is nicely worded and understandable. :3
Seijiro

HappyRocket88 wrote:

This is gorgeous! >w<

But isn't the CS 4 on Easy difficulty pretty unusual? I'm not sure if this has to be with the visibility of the circles but I think 3.5 is more acceptable regarding the visibility of the objects.

In the other hand, Isn't anything specified for reverses being covered for the HP bar or other stacks? o:

Rest of it is nicely worded and understandable. :3
I believe the second part is actually part of the general draft, since it doesn't matter what diff you are using a covered reversed arrow on, right?
As for the CS, I'm personally fine with it being up to 4. It lets more freedom for rather unusual songs that might fit well with smaller CS overall.

Rip kick sliders
Kencho
Normal
When distance snap is used, try to keep it between 0.8x and 1.2x. Values too much higher or lower may make the difference between slider velocity and spacing uncomfortable.
I think the ds change to between 0.8x and 1.4x will be better because nowadays many normal diffs will use 1.2x sv + 1.4x ds to avoid overlap in 1/2 beat hitobjects.
Snowy Dream
Insane:
Overall Difficulty should be between 7 and 9.
Can it be between 6(or at least 6.5) and 9?
Because some Light Insane diffs need OD 6 imo, also I think OD 9 maybe a bit high for an Insane diff.

And.. I think in an Insane diff, it should avoid consecutive jump with large distance spacing. Many mappers like map for pp now, but it should also be reserved for an Expert diff.
silmarilen

Snowy Dream wrote:

Insane:
Overall Difficulty should be between 7 and 9.
Can it be between 6(or at least 6.5) and 9?
Because some Light Insane diffs need OD 6 imo, also I think OD 9 maybe a bit high for an Insane diff.

And.. I think in an Insane diff, it should avoid consecutive jump with large distance spacing. Many mappers like map for pp now, but it should also be reserved for an Expert diff.

I don't think maps in the insane range ever need od below 7, it's often used in more difficult hards already aswell. OD9 is fine for higher insanes in the 5-5.25* range and sometimes it even works well below 5* (happy30's world's end for example). In the end it's an upper limit and a guideline anyway so you don't have to use it, nor are settings outside of the range forbidden.
raririn
I think that in Easy/Normal diffs, a maximum DS*SV (or sth. like this) should be set depending on the BPM, besides limits on them respectively. Either DS or SV does not presents the difficulty.
SV=1.2, ds=1.2* is greatly different from SV=0.8, ds=0.8*.

Well this is only my personal opinion, and perhaps it's not accurate.


ok i've seen oko's post.


Spinner recovery time should be at least 4 beats.
I also have some questions on this. Maybe it's has been guideline for long, but I do not see it necessary to leave 4 beats. Surely in 180 BPM, 2 beats may be too fast for new players to handle. However, in some low BPM songs, 4 beats is really long. In these cases, if mappers want to put a spinner somewhere, it would make the rhythm of that part very loose and boring. At least, I think 2 beats is fine if the BPM is relatively low.




Also I agree with some of the ideas above.

I support Snowy Dream's idea of changing the minimum OD of Insane diffs to be 6/6.5.
There is Advanced between Normal and Hard, but it's usually still a gap between Hard/Insane when the hardest diff in the map is iconed as I. For the reason a Light Insane might be mapped, and in this case OD7 is kind of too high for it. If OD6 is considered too low, OD6.5/6.7 would also be fine.

As for the difficulty settings, I'd support on a looser rule. Depending on the songs, using a bit higher/lower OD/HP won't harm. Even songs with 180 BPM differs a lot.
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