BounceBabe wrote:
I can only offer to modify the difficulties themselves to further enhance the spread to your liking but I will not add another unnecessary difficulty that is not needed for this mapset.
What changed:- Renamed Easy to Beginner, Normal to Intermediate and Feels to Advanced.
- Toyed around with the difficulty settings of each difficulty so the settings gradually increase with each difficulty level.
- Increased the hitsound volume from the start to 40% in all difficulties.
- Changed the combo colour patterns accordingly to the SB.
- Changed something in the SB too.
- Added a few more elements in Easy.
- Increased the difficulty of the Normal to create a middle piece between Beginner and Advanced. Added small jumps, spacing changes and the KIAI has a 1,15 SV change. Added a lot of new elements as well as changing some existing ones. Remapped some parts.
- Removed the "Extra" stream from Feels.
- Fixed any spacing inconsistencies. Even the nazi suggestions listed.
- I got a concussion due to my head accidentally hitting my desk several times in a row when fixing the spread.What needs checking:Mostly Intermediate due to the jumps, spacing changes and SV change in the KIAI time that I've added.
Also need a hitsound check on every difficulty for consistency due the SB being a hitsound SB.Intermediate:
00:14:246 (1,2,3,4,5) - 00:30:246 (4,5,6) - 00:33:801 (4,5,6,7) - 00:40:912 (3,4,5,6) - 00:45:579 (5,6,7) - 00:48:023 (4,5,6,7,8) - 01:01:579 (2,3,1) - 01:17:579 (4,5,1) - 01:30:246 (4,5,6,7,8) - 01:34:246 (4,5,6) - 01:38:468 (1,2) - 01:43:135 (1,2) - 01:45:135 (5,6,7) - 01:52:912 (4,5) - 02:06:912 (6,7,8,1) -
Advanced:
01:48:023 (4,1,2,3) - spacing
01:36:023 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4) - stream to slider change
Bonasai wrote:
If you have concerns about spread in other maps, feel free to voice them there.
t/463506/start=0 The Easy plays like a Normal and it's gameplay is advanced, not suitable for beginners. There are a lot of rhythmical changes, aside from being too many elements in an Easy. The Normal is only slightly harder so the difficulty level increase from Easy to Normal is only little. The Hard plays like an Insane due to the high BPM of the song and really large DS, even if it doesn't have many jumps, it's definitely hard to follow and a huge jump in gameplay from Normal to Hard. The fast tapping due to the BPM make it more advanced than a Hard. The Hard is a Hard-Insane. This should be addressed as well.
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/1011753&m=0 The Hard difficulty has more advanced gameplay than it should have and is even partially overmapped for a Hard. Patterns like 00:59:367 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - 01:24:539 (2,3,4,5) - 01:27:470 (1,2,3,4) - are not easy to play and is not suited for Hard difficulties and should be used in Insane and Extras. There are a lot of inconsistencies in the spacing as well. Not to mention several SV changes that are pretty big. This is also a Hard-Insane and not a Hard. Compared to the Advanced, which has linear patterns and easy to read patterns that are mostly 1/1 and 1/2, the jump from Advanced to Hard is too big in gameplay. Additionally, the spread itself is not even as it is dominated by harder difficulties. The Normal as it's lowest difficulty has a star rating of 1,7 which is fine but the rest is above 2 stars, so there should technically be an Easy in order to have a balanced spread that is not dominated by harder difficulties.
This is the exact same on this mapset
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/978443&m=0 The Hard difficulty has a star rating gap of 1,5 and the gameplay is more advanced that it is suited for Hard difficulties due to it's large DS. Patterns like these 00:38:694 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,1,2) - are very long, need endurance and more experience in regards to readability in order for players to be able to play this properly without misses or combo breaks. There is a SV increase in the KIAI that makes the whole difficulty even harder in gameplay which can already be considered as them being jumps but with consistent spacing.1,8 DS is also a little much for how the difficulty is played. Additionally, the difficulty has several SV variations, not only in the KIAI which increase the hardness or the difficulty in gameplay, again. Another Hard that is a Hard-Insane. By comparison, the Normal has no SV nor DS changes and has easy to play 1/1 and 1/2 patterns and doesn't require as much experience in regards of gameplay knowledge. The Normal also consist of a lot of sliders which makes the Normal even easier compared to the Hard, whereas the Hard has multiple jumps in a row sometimes, more circle and slider variations that need more experience in order to play them good. And what I already mentioned, the large DS and even SV changes make it even harder. This makes the jump between Normal and Hard, again, very big and this should be addressed as well.
https://osu.ppy.sh/s/353398 Not to mention this mapset. The BPM is horrendously high and this makes the spread hard to be balanced. First of all, the Hard difficulty plays like an Insane due to the slider being so "short" in gameplay because of the BPM. Especially two notes in a row play like doubles in a usual Insane that has lower BPM. Like here 01:44:025 (3,4,1,2,3,4) - this pattern requires quick thinking, reaction and finger tapping in order to successfully play it. Especially this streak of objects 03:31:052 (4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2,3) - is very hard to play due to its many rhythmical placement variations that require experience in reading, movement and tapping accordingly. Compared to the Normal, which has linear 1/1 objects placement, the gameplay of Hard is like an Insane and should not be named Hard. Additionally, the Easy difficulty only has a minimal difficulty level changes. The Easy should have a lot less elements and longer and also reversed sliders to keep the difficulty increase from Easy to Normal balanced.
I'm also very concerned about the difficulty spread of this map
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/1026028&m=0 For one, the Hard has due to it's BPM a lot of patterns that have many tapping changes that are hard to play like this streak 01:39:267 (7,8,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) - It needs endurance, experience and according gameplay for it to be playable and such streaks are not recommendable for Hards as they are more frequently used in Insanes and higher because it requires more advanced tapping / gameplay. Not to mention the many readability issues that I disagree with. Due to it's DS, the clustered pattern placement and constant gameplay changes, the difficulty lacks of readability in order to grant a proper and smooth gameplay. Especially on the first patterns before the break like 00:31:509 (4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1) - 00:37:371 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - 00:41:509 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - The overlaps at 00:55:302 (1,2,1,2) - also are hard to read and not suitable for Hards as they are not mapping characteristics that should be included in this difficulty level.
As for ranked maps:
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/783427&m=0 The Hard difficulty play like an Insane due to it's high BPM and DS. It's the same like I already said in this spread. Although the DS is not as harsh. The high BPM take this away tho, since its faster paced and requires fast finger tapping again in order to play it properly. Luckily the Easy and Normal balance the spread out a bit in total but the Hard's gameplay is not easy enough to have this difficulty level name on it.
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/783429&m=0 The jump between Normal and Hard is, again, too drastic. The Hard has SV and several spacing inconsistencies that are clearly noticeable, whereas the Normal has no SV changes and nicely structured rhythmical patterns that are suitable for this difficulty level. The Normal is perfectly fine here. This needs polishing up as well in order to have a balanced difficulty increase from Normal to Hard.
There are also a lot of other ranked maps that have only minimal changes from Easy to Normal gameplay wise which makes the spread, again, unbalanced and they should be addressed. This is mostly due to the higher BPM and lack of using longer and reversed sliders in Easy difficulties and having those exact same existing mapping characteristics from Easy in the Normal just slightly advanced but almost not mentionable. Some Easys even have more advanced rhythmical pattern placements aside from 1/1 patterns that should be addressed in order to keep the difficulty increase from Easy to Normal balanced. Easys need small red tick breaks between 1/1 patterns as well and not just constant streaks of objects that barely give time to relax for the beginners.
https://osu.ppy.sh/s/443751 https://osu.ppy.sh/b/974116&m=0 https://osu.ppy.sh/b/1058683&m=0I also saw a very unbalanced mapset spreads.
https://osu.ppy.sh/b/915125&m=0 https://osu.ppy.sh/s/205107 These maps have no Easy difficulty and are clearly dominated by Hard ones. The rules say that the lowest difficulty has to be 2 stars but with so many higher difficulties this doesn't apply anymore due to the harder difficulties overtaking the spread and making it completely uneven. The Normal is also not easy enough for beginners and is slightly more advanced. The Normal only serves as a filler that fills the gap accordingly to the rules to have the minimum ranking criteria of 1 difficulty that has to be lower than 2 stars in the difficulty, which is really sad, considering the mapset should be balanced and there should be a difficulty for everyone to play, especially for new players that have no experience with more advanced gameplay which makes it unfair to just provide them with mostly endgame difficulties that can't be played by them yet.
I could go on and on and on about this but that is enough for now to address and elaborate on. I wish you will further discuss this topic in the staff before releasing your RC rule draft in the near future and take this into consideration or else the mapset spread will get out of hand and only become more and more unbalanced.
I already said this in my proposal, the base game should be playable by the average player, everything else is endgame and only for experienced players which may break the rules and have more freedom in regards to mapping. The base difficulties Easy - Insane should be playable for average players though. If you don't, I will definitely not accept this disqualification because it is not justified. Only because I have 3 difficulties and it's easier to notice that the mapset spread is unbalanced and it can be "easily" fixed for me, which it wasn't by the way. It's totally not fair to me, because I also put a lot of work and thought into this. Others have the same problem that you addressed here and they are ignored due to the amount of difficulties. It would be too "difficult" to change a mapset spread with 7 difficulties. I know not everyone can check every mapset but the BNs should check this and be strict with it or it will simply not get ranked if the mapset spread lacks balance. This should be a rule and is the most important aspect about getting a mapset ranked. It has to be balanced. Every difficulty in its own and the whole mapset overall should be balanced in regards to SR, difficulty naming and setting AND most importantly gameplay. Only because the difficulty name says it's a Hard, it doesn't mean it is one. I noticed that mostly the gaps between Normal to Hard and Hard to Insane are extremely unbalanced. Even more because Hards are mapped a lot harder than than they should be and almost become Insanes. They have more characteristics from Insanes than from Normals but actually they should have bost characteristics combined in this difficulty. That's the whole point of a Hard - a middle piece between Normal and Insane.
A lot of people think the same but they are too shy to speak up because they think nothing is going to change and are likely to be ignored, which I totally understand and agree with. By the looks of it, if you really do dislike the spreads so much, but don't address it as a rule, then nothing will change. But I really wish that this will change in the near future. There really should be strict rules. This is getting out of hand.
I actually wanted to use drum sounds here for the musical change oh gosh. Thanks for noticing.
