Hi. Here from Christmas Queue. Hope this finds you well! I completely missed your post in my modding queue, but if you still want to M4M, my map is
right here.
[Beginner]
00:31:034 (1,2) – These sliders don't have good visual synergy. The middle portion of the two are very different which makes them work against each other. I recommend picking the slider that you like more and doing a copy-paste of it for the other one.
[Normal]
00:00:208 (1,2) – I'm not a fan of how the strong white tick at 00:00:758 – is passively mapped with a slider end which requires no click, but then a weaker note at 00:01:034 (2) – is actively mapped with click. Naturally after ending with a slider at 00:00:758 – , I want to take a 1/1 break to match the melody of the piano. The ½ note creates an experience that feels fast and speedy between these two notes, and it didn't connect to me why to do that. I prefer having 00:00:758 – be clickable, which you can achieve by doing a rhythm like
this00:22:777 (2,3,4,5) – The aesthetics can look more cohesive imo. See how
these two lines aren't at the same angle. I think a consistent aesthetic of these lines would look nicer. So don't manually create this. Just like you copy-paste the same slider, do copy-paste to set up (4) in a nice position. Copy-paste both (2,3), then move the copy over the (3) slider to find where the (4) slider should go.
01:01:860 (1,2) – The (2) slider made no sense to me. I had no idea I was supposed to click there. The strong melody note on (1) made me want to hold that note, so I thought clicking at (2) was going faster than the song.
01:06:263 (1) – This slider is off the screen on smaller screen sizes:
http://puu.sh/yC5hL/171b4bc78a.jpg. Find a way to move it over to the right.
[Hard]
01:08:740 (2) – The end of the (1) slider points downwards, but to get to the (2) circle, I have to go up, which creates a strong emphasis in the flow. This (2) circle didn't feel like a strong note in the song to me, but the flow of the current map really emphasizes it in a way I don't like. Consider moving it below (1) to 380, 300.
[Insane]
A fair amount of the ¼ sliders didn't make sense to me. The rhythm was really hard to decipher my first couple plays like at 00:04:062 (5,1) - .
00:06:263 (4,5,1) – For instance here. How am I supposed to know I'm supposed to speed up at (5) with a ¼ slider? What's the musical cue? If it's that wood-knocking sound, shouldn't (4) also be a ¼ slider?
00:10:117 (3,4,5,6) – and 00:22:777 (1,2,3,4,5,6) – these ¼ notes made sense so these seem fine.
00:32:685 (4,5,1) – This is pretty subjective, but you didn't really sell me that this was a strong part of the song. The note at 00:32:685 (4) – didn't feel emphasized all that much in spacing, and I think it's a strong note. I event think the note is stronger than the (5) note and would have liked to see a weakening of DS between (4,5) after a bigger spacing at (3,4).
00:53:052 (1,2,3) – One issue I have is the slider shapes. Bland symmetric curves don't have a strong appeal to me, and I think you can do better. Sometimes, having restrictions can make you be more creative, so if you want a restriction to inspire you, try forcing yourself to make a nice-looking slider with at least two red anchors in it.
00:53:052 (1,2,3) – The other bigger issue I had was that (2) looks like it's 1/1 rhythm. A long-slow slider at (1) made me really calm down and think this was a slow section. As a result, having something that looks like this really expected me to keep time-distance equality, and that naturally leads to (2) reading as 1/1 rhythm. This is another reason I think a different slider shape would help you out, but I strongly encourage you to communicate the ½ rhythm in a more clear way to the player, perhaps like you did in the Hard.
The lower diffs look fine, but I have issues with the Insane. I don't necessarily disagree with your intentions in the rhythm, but I think you can work on how they are communicated to the player (though I might just dislike overmapped ¼ sliders too much). Feel free to ask me in game if I can clarify those views. Good luck!