Hello M4M from my queue~
First of all, osu! needs more songs like this (yes, I am partaking in this mission as well)
First of all, osu! needs more songs like this (yes, I am partaking in this mission as well)
Following my Heart
Good luck!- First some timing. The timing point at 10:53:526 - is useless. More like it's wrong, but anyways. Similarly, the one at 10:53:370 - is also at wrong place. It should be at 10:53:682 - (if you had mapped smth here, you should just move the one at 10:53:526 to 1/2 later, but since you haven't you can just the timing point straight there. Now here I'd use some more red points to tie it up neatly from 10:52:283 - but that's really not necessary if you don't want. Anyways, now that you have these points right, you don't need the one at 11:02:432 - since you already have it covered. Or alternatively since you have nothing mapped for this break time, just have the one timing point there where you begin mapping. Which breaks the metronome for break time and all that shit. So preferably just have everything timed correctly (by the way, the current timing "breaks the metronome" as well since it's off-beat wrong. Anyways, lot's of text for easy little fix here lol
- Speaking of timing, I'd also like to put points to places such as 12:41:182 - to "tie it neatly together" as I said. So basically add one point for the one measure that is of different signature.
- Next messy timing place. The red points before 13:11:925 - is unnecessary (or you could put 210bpm 5/4 there or smth) and then this is for apparent no reason timed slightly later than the beat? Okay I see the sounds are pretty much similarly "late" but going forward, 13:20:781 (1) - for example is now late due the timing being late. Also how 13:46:485 - is atleast about back to the old tempo it kinda feels unnecessary to have the middle part timed like that. Well, if the sounds are like that then it's fine I guess, but then you need to time it more, since not all the sounds were like that. Also the overall bpm being half the bpm before seems like abusing for SV, but I'll leave that up to your judgement
- That could maybe be said of some parts earlier too, but imo 3/4 would fit better considering the multiple parts where the emphasis lands on the middle tick of these long measures here during the section from 13:49:913 - on
- 14:39:055 - also now that I saw this off bookmark here, there were also shitton of unsnapped green points for example. Please snap (speaking of snappings, also from AiMod there are multiple objects not snapped as well, fix. Even one kiai seems not snapped, probably due the green points being fucked up here and there)
- Now for the map itself: since it's along af, but it's single map, I'll most likely end up noting some stuff that is repeatedly problematic in my opinion. As in, not going to post the same stuff for the couple hundred times it happens in map this long. Hopefully this is still going to be useful ^^
- Visuals are often kinda lacking or feel wrong. For example straight in the beginning, 00:02:766 (2,4) - overlaps like this don't really fit the neat feeling of the intro, and I would just get rid of them. Stacking stuff like 02:53:288 (7,1) - is easy to fix (this one was prob due the automatic stack pushing the slider the fuck away). Stream aesthetics are the thing that I'm probably most gonna note about (well, lots of streams, duh). For example stuff like 03:49:002 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12) - look kinda crude (as in how the streams is almost straight first, then curves). Also since you are using a lot of sharp, clear changes in the stream direction for on-beats, it doesn't look too good when there's lower-angled, not so clear curves for the same on-beats. For example, 00:37:292 (6,1) - is sharp, 00:37:730 (6,1) - is still following the same idea but then 00:38:168 (6,1) - is almost smooth. But still isn't smooth. So what is it?
- Allright back to earlier places. 00:14:591 - I really like the feeling onwards from this point for some time, like the clearly faster sliders, how it's pretty neat looking and the hitsounds and that shit. But it's very lacking (actually, this one is cool but the intro is way too overspaced) Like, see 00:19:847 (1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3) - vs 00:09:482 (2,3,1,2,3) - lol, aren't they like, pretty much the same spacing, when the first one should have like 2 times the spacing of the intro one. Atleast. lol. Buffing it overly isn't going to help, but tuning the intro both spacing-wise and making some of the circles sliders instead would be good approach imo.
- 00:26:708 (1,2,1,2) - anti-jumps would be cool imo
- 00:44:372 (7) - NC? Or looking forward, the NCing is somewhat questionable at times. Perhaps NC every 1st tick instead of switching according to circles vs sliders (which rhythmically doesn't really line all the time)
- 00:55:759 (1,2) - kinda weird place for stacking stuff, maybe make the stream blanket the circle instead
- 00:56:635 - guitars getting more intense but the spacing of the circles from them is now reduced to 0 instead
- 01:03:204 (3) - just use the same NCing logic here?
- 01:14:518 (6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1) - speaking of stream aesthetics, this very slightly curved stream doesn't look too good here. Same with 01:16:343 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - tbh. Aand, going forward, stuff like 01:27:730 (1,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6) - look pretty messy. Mixture of overlapping streams, different angles of direction changes, crudely blanketing streams and different stream curves and so on. As an more overall point, in a map like this with the stream-justifying sounds being very consistent and neat most of the time, it would be best to have consistent and neat streams as well. Something along the lines of stuff like 00:29:482 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12) - and then just adjust the spacing. Obviously, stuff like 03:18:145 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - is completly different matter since the basis of emphasis is different.
- 03:28:073 (4,1) - shouldn't 1 be the one, form which on the stream is lower spacing?
- 03:40:431 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1) - looks cool, but way too strong stream shape emphasis for stuff that's around almost all the time in the song
- 04:03:573 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12) - could use less curves
- 04:47:573 (2,3,4,5,6,7) - not looking good
- 05:36:002 - where's that triple here. Other one ahead in this section, but after that you begin mapping it. Maybe map em all?
- 06:22:431 (12,13,14,1) - shouldn't these have the same distance from both the sliders? I think that's how you've done most of these so far. Doing it like this reminds me more of the spaced triples you have couple here so far.
- 06:31:002 - definitely buff these sliders (make them circles as in jumps). Not feeling like guitar solo stuff atm. The intensity is about the same as with just casual slider parts there have been.
- 07:09:288 (1,1,1) - cool idea, but there are couple little problems I find with it. First of all, the vocal emphasis is one the sliderends. Secondly, on 07:10:145 (1) - the vocals aren't on beat, thus making the object misaligned with the song. And finally, it's necessary to have huge SV to make the star 07:11:002 (1) - which doesn't line up with the intensity of the vocals, which is basically going down from the first one, until the actual chorus begins. The background sound getting up at the star doesn't really make up for it imo. All in all mostly small things, aside from the misaligned rhythm which actually bothers me when going through this part
- 07:17:788 (20) - smth is kinda questionable here when you combo is going up to 20 (just once, so it's not even consistently according to smth). Like, I know its 6/4 but if you have it go up like that only once, you aren't having some consistent idea behind the NC. Same stuff occasionally during the section from 08:33:573 - on as well
- 07:55:859 (1) - make the sliderends of these ones a lot more quieter. Not sounding nice atm
- 08:19:145 (11,1) - good place for anti-jump as well
- 09:11:288 (13,1) - looks ugly how this is not stacked (dunno if it can here, but do something will ya)
- 10:19:859 - pretty cool scream tbh (also cool how the atmosphere is darker too)
- 11:09:541 (2,3,4,5,6) - uh what is this, I don't think it fits the guitar too well tbh. The guitar is smooth (sounds are similar) instead of heavily focusing on every second one, which would kinda lead to possible emphasis being executed like this
- 11:19:932 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - I don't think the lowering spacing is necessary here. The effect it can bring about with only few circles is kinda minimal, and just having consistent spacing for these looks better.
- 12:27:822 (6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,1) - another somewhat straight looking passage of streams that doesn't really look good
- 12:43:057 (1) - not sure what rhythm this is but doesn't matter, there is nothing in the music that justifies this. (pretty much everything is 1/4) So just get rid of all these lol
- 13:03:628 - I think it woudl be really cool if you just kept going with the jumps here, but instead of circles it would be kicksliders (for the 1/4) as long as the drum pattern is the snare+bass stuff. Well, here it would basically be until 13:09:628 - and the 1/3. Or just alternatively have streams with jump-like kicksliders ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- 14:51:341 - god bless this guy actually has pretty decent sounding clean vocals. I wonder what it sounds like if he would sing louder stuff with this good voice (choruses aren't really that type of cleans as in you can't distinguish the actual stuff)
- 18:11:341 (2) - noticing around here that the timing's actually off for this outro (the song is clearly earlier than the map). Maybe slightly wrong BPM, maybe fucked up offset of that timing point. Check that stuff
- Didn't end up that much on the overall side as I thought tbh, but finally gonna say couple things for the streams. For visuals you could perhaps try to interact little more with the surrounding objects with the streams, in similar way you woudl do with sliders (blankets and such for example). That makes the structure better. For the streams itself, avoid changing the strenght of the curve mid way (like I mentioned with couple examples), basically keep them smooth if possible. Changing the direction of the curve (=making multiple curves) works, but preferably keep the curves of about the same angles (for the same point). And avoid somewhat straight curves (completely straight streams are cool sometimes when it fits the music (for example for effect or whatnot)). For spacing, I didn't really notice that many places where inconsistent spacings across different streams (compared to the music) happened but just reminder to keep it relevant to the music (looking at every map every with that one super-fuckin spaced stream on a place with music that has been present in the map dozen times already). And finally, I'd avoid stuff like 11:37:119 (1,2) - (not the best example, I see where this is coming from, but the map is so fuckin long I can't find the example I wanted anymore.)
- Guess that's bout it. Very cool song. I have heard some of their earlier stuff and it was pretty nice but not nearly as epic as this. Keeping eye on these dudes now. Map needs a lot of work, but that's the case with long maps.