Hello everyone, I know this comes out of nowhere, but to me, ranking a map really shouldn't be exclusive to a mappers only, as this can form opinions division between players and mappers, even though the game from the start should involve both parties coexisting together to bring the ranked map category a more fun, and balanced area to find new maps for everyone.
This system will look a bit too out of the ordinary and maybe people will ignore this enourmous rant, but I did this because I truly enjoy the game and would like to see the best come out of it. And i tried my best at counter arguments to my own points so that it's something well structured and not just a random opinion thread.
So, what's the problem with the current system?
- Mappers/modders currently are the ones who choose which maps should be ranked, regardless of player feedback after it gets qualified;
- Qualified section at the moment is mostly just a placeholder for maps during a week for QATs or other people to find unrankable issues, or other really strong issues with the map, but most go by as any map can be ranked regardless of ''quality'';
- Maps can be ''speedranked'' if knowing the right people and have help prior to submitting the map, while alot of unknown mappers are left behind.
- The only way for players to vote maps they like are with hype to help nominate a map (even though mappers can easily obtain 5 hype just from modders alone), or voting for loved section maps.
Well, to say what is wrong with a system and not bringing a solution from my part would be a bit obnoxious, then here is my idea:
1 - First of, Nomination to Qualify section rework.
At first I thought the new qualify section would be a tool for more mappers to get their maps under revision, but instead its a more ''early access'' ranked section, nothing really changed except avoiding unranks on maps already approved to the ranking system.
The new system I present here will completely change how a map gets nominated in favor of lesser known mappers.
This solution is by allowing the mapper itself to apply their map for qualify, by actually choosing themselves when to put it when fit ready.
There are new requirements to do this below:
After all 3 requirements are verified, the mapper will be able to unlock the ''Push to Qualify'' button on their mapset thread if they see their mapset fit ready for qualifying, as this could be an autonomous method for checking if maps do have the requirements already before giving the mapper the choice to push forward to the next step.
*About the Aimod, sending a mapset with issues from Aimod, gives a trigger to the submitted mapset thread saying that it could not get ranked and thus not being allowed to push to qualify yet.
2 - Qualify section rework.
After your map has gone into Qualified section, it will stay there for 2 weeks, and players will now have a ''Would you like this mapset to be ranked?'' voting below after submitting a play on it (or 1 in 2 different difficulties if it has more than 1 difficulty, this can be another solution to troll voters). After a certain percentage, let's say, 80-85% or above voted in favor, then the map after 2 weeks of not receiving more information on issues it presents, will move automatically to ranked. It should be clarified, that if people think that most people shouldn't vote regardless of their rank, well you are probably forgetting that the most non-dedicated players wouldnt probably play qualified maps anyway, so this is why the voting is within the map thread for those willing to help the game in a way so they think which maps should be approved for ranking or not.
About the new mapset getting qualified, other players, and modders alike, can still submit suggestions or report any issues they find with the map, if a certain number of issues has been reported and the mapper chooses to fix said issues because, it may impact on the map vote % if these issues are too bad, then it will continue in pending for at least another week, giving time to fix said issues and for the mapper to improve now that they got more publicity to their mapset thanks to the qualified section and it's leaderboards.
About the number of maps limited for qualifying, I will talk about this during the next section about the QAT system.
---
So what have we established so far:
- Unknown mappers don't have to rely on the current beatmap nominator circles to qualify their own map;
- Qualified section gets more exposure to all mappers for people interested in seeing new maps;
- Players can play a role in what they want to push forward to ranking.
Because this is a community driven game, the whole community should be part of what goes into ranked section, not just the mappers as they have drifted so far away from what other players would like to play on a song.
And lastly, the bigger impactful section:
3 - The Quality Assurance Team and the removal of Beatmap Nominators.
So why remove Beatmap Nominators?
The sole purpose of Beatmap Nominators is to push a map to qualify, yet when the mapper themselves can now put their maps into qualified, there is no need for BNs, instead the focus should be on the QAT system. With this, there is no modder with special attributes and they simply have to help everyone equally removing the BN circles. This is also the solution to certain BNs not helping other mappers being inactive on the modding scene and qualifying maps only within the said BN circle. Everyone gets to be equal here.
Except, well, QATs.
And what is the QAT system going to do now?
The QAT system will keep an eye on the maps now on qualified, they can be more active now and the same thing they do currently: they check if mapsets have any unrankable issue, see if there are more serious issues and look at other people's opinions as to why the map shouldn't be ranked yet.
Now there should be more maps ofc in the qualified section, but that also means there should be a limit per day (15-20), as QATs and other people will have a large influx of maps in the qualified section to look after since they stay for 2 weeks now. I said 2 weeks because they early the map is in qualified section, the more bound for others to find issues increases, the last days of qualified section is when QATs can be more active in checking the mapsets to see if any issues still arise. And let's not forget that mapsets still need to have the requirements in order before jumping straight to qualified, specially the case with the 2 weeks after submission and enough people to look at it.
If modders have established outstanding performance in the modding scene helping other mappers, they could be hand picked to join the QATs if they wish to do so, allowing more disperse members of the QAT to look at more mapsets. The requirements of entering QAT can be more harsh but even so, there is no longer a need to get more members into the BN group to look at enough maps, the qualified section give it more attention already.
About kudosu and hype:
Since now it requires more hype for a beatmap to be approved for qualifying, I suggest increasing to 2 hype per week. And as a modder since kudosu no longer means anything except more reputation as a modder, you can exchange each 15-20 kudosu points into 1 hype point to help other mappers, this benefits everyone!
---------
TL:DR - So the whole point of the system:
- Mappers themselves picking up what should go for qualify when ready and fit requirements, making everyone equal;
- After qualified, during the 2 weeks, players themselves have a chance can vote maps fit for ranking;
- Maps can still be judged during qualified just like in the current system, and can still be disqualified if issues are present;
- Removal of BN system, and more focus on QAT.
All this is to bring the community more together in the quality of maps that get ranked, and help those less successfull in the ranking process to shine more. Well known mappers will still be popular because their maps are known to be good so that won't change.
Now there are those that would say that this would never be implemented, and peppy ''doesn't care about it because it's too much work''. But I am not posting this expecting to be implemented, I was just giving my idea, my opinion, on a different take on the beatmap ranking system, instead of just complaining or waiting for someone else to do something about it, giving 0 contribution to the discussion.
So because this is such a massive rework on the current system, I tried my best at seeing all counter arguments to each point so that it was the most well structured thread possible, because really the current system has many flaws, so I made this with the most responses to each problem I could find. Hopefully you find this thread interesting enough and would like to see a new change. Opinions are welcome.
This system will look a bit too out of the ordinary and maybe people will ignore this enourmous rant, but I did this because I truly enjoy the game and would like to see the best come out of it. And i tried my best at counter arguments to my own points so that it's something well structured and not just a random opinion thread.
So, what's the problem with the current system?
- Mappers/modders currently are the ones who choose which maps should be ranked, regardless of player feedback after it gets qualified;
- Qualified section at the moment is mostly just a placeholder for maps during a week for QATs or other people to find unrankable issues, or other really strong issues with the map, but most go by as any map can be ranked regardless of ''quality'';
- Maps can be ''speedranked'' if knowing the right people and have help prior to submitting the map, while alot of unknown mappers are left behind.
- The only way for players to vote maps they like are with hype to help nominate a map (even though mappers can easily obtain 5 hype just from modders alone), or voting for loved section maps.
Well, to say what is wrong with a system and not bringing a solution from my part would be a bit obnoxious, then here is my idea:
1 - First of, Nomination to Qualify section rework.
At first I thought the new qualify section would be a tool for more mappers to get their maps under revision, but instead its a more ''early access'' ranked section, nothing really changed except avoiding unranks on maps already approved to the ranking system.
The new system I present here will completely change how a map gets nominated in favor of lesser known mappers.
This solution is by allowing the mapper itself to apply their map for qualify, by actually choosing themselves when to put it when fit ready.
There are new requirements to do this below:
- No unrankable issues (wrong timed objects, number of difficulties based on mapped length, etc (Yes AiMod needs to be fixed for this*))
- A map requires at least 8-10 or above Hype;
- At least 10-15 people need to give at least 3 different suggestions to your map;
- Each difficulty needs at least 3 different modders with 1 suggestion each;
- A mapper would now have to wait 2 weeks after submitting the map (maybe 3 weeks is more appropriate).
After all 3 requirements are verified, the mapper will be able to unlock the ''Push to Qualify'' button on their mapset thread if they see their mapset fit ready for qualifying, as this could be an autonomous method for checking if maps do have the requirements already before giving the mapper the choice to push forward to the next step.
*About the Aimod, sending a mapset with issues from Aimod, gives a trigger to the submitted mapset thread saying that it could not get ranked and thus not being allowed to push to qualify yet.
2 - Qualify section rework.
After your map has gone into Qualified section, it will stay there for 2 weeks, and players will now have a ''Would you like this mapset to be ranked?'' voting below after submitting a play on it (or 1 in 2 different difficulties if it has more than 1 difficulty, this can be another solution to troll voters). After a certain percentage, let's say, 80-85% or above voted in favor, then the map after 2 weeks of not receiving more information on issues it presents, will move automatically to ranked. It should be clarified, that if people think that most people shouldn't vote regardless of their rank, well you are probably forgetting that the most non-dedicated players wouldnt probably play qualified maps anyway, so this is why the voting is within the map thread for those willing to help the game in a way so they think which maps should be approved for ranking or not.
About the new mapset getting qualified, other players, and modders alike, can still submit suggestions or report any issues they find with the map, if a certain number of issues has been reported and the mapper chooses to fix said issues because, it may impact on the map vote % if these issues are too bad, then it will continue in pending for at least another week, giving time to fix said issues and for the mapper to improve now that they got more publicity to their mapset thanks to the qualified section and it's leaderboards.
About the number of maps limited for qualifying, I will talk about this during the next section about the QAT system.
---
So what have we established so far:
- Unknown mappers don't have to rely on the current beatmap nominator circles to qualify their own map;
- Qualified section gets more exposure to all mappers for people interested in seeing new maps;
- Players can play a role in what they want to push forward to ranking.
Because this is a community driven game, the whole community should be part of what goes into ranked section, not just the mappers as they have drifted so far away from what other players would like to play on a song.
And lastly, the bigger impactful section:
3 - The Quality Assurance Team and the removal of Beatmap Nominators.
So why remove Beatmap Nominators?
The sole purpose of Beatmap Nominators is to push a map to qualify, yet when the mapper themselves can now put their maps into qualified, there is no need for BNs, instead the focus should be on the QAT system. With this, there is no modder with special attributes and they simply have to help everyone equally removing the BN circles. This is also the solution to certain BNs not helping other mappers being inactive on the modding scene and qualifying maps only within the said BN circle. Everyone gets to be equal here.
Except, well, QATs.
And what is the QAT system going to do now?
The QAT system will keep an eye on the maps now on qualified, they can be more active now and the same thing they do currently: they check if mapsets have any unrankable issue, see if there are more serious issues and look at other people's opinions as to why the map shouldn't be ranked yet.
Now there should be more maps ofc in the qualified section, but that also means there should be a limit per day (15-20), as QATs and other people will have a large influx of maps in the qualified section to look after since they stay for 2 weeks now. I said 2 weeks because they early the map is in qualified section, the more bound for others to find issues increases, the last days of qualified section is when QATs can be more active in checking the mapsets to see if any issues still arise. And let's not forget that mapsets still need to have the requirements in order before jumping straight to qualified, specially the case with the 2 weeks after submission and enough people to look at it.
If modders have established outstanding performance in the modding scene helping other mappers, they could be hand picked to join the QATs if they wish to do so, allowing more disperse members of the QAT to look at more mapsets. The requirements of entering QAT can be more harsh but even so, there is no longer a need to get more members into the BN group to look at enough maps, the qualified section give it more attention already.
About kudosu and hype:
Since now it requires more hype for a beatmap to be approved for qualifying, I suggest increasing to 2 hype per week. And as a modder since kudosu no longer means anything except more reputation as a modder, you can exchange each 15-20 kudosu points into 1 hype point to help other mappers, this benefits everyone!
---------
TL:DR - So the whole point of the system:
- Mappers themselves picking up what should go for qualify when ready and fit requirements, making everyone equal;
- After qualified, during the 2 weeks, players themselves have a chance can vote maps fit for ranking;
- Maps can still be judged during qualified just like in the current system, and can still be disqualified if issues are present;
- Removal of BN system, and more focus on QAT.
All this is to bring the community more together in the quality of maps that get ranked, and help those less successfull in the ranking process to shine more. Well known mappers will still be popular because their maps are known to be good so that won't change.
Now there are those that would say that this would never be implemented, and peppy ''doesn't care about it because it's too much work''. But I am not posting this expecting to be implemented, I was just giving my idea, my opinion, on a different take on the beatmap ranking system, instead of just complaining or waiting for someone else to do something about it, giving 0 contribution to the discussion.
So because this is such a massive rework on the current system, I tried my best at seeing all counter arguments to each point so that it was the most well structured thread possible, because really the current system has many flaws, so I made this with the most responses to each problem I could find. Hopefully you find this thread interesting enough and would like to see a new change. Opinions are welcome.