The QAT Gazette #5

Hello again! A few weeks ago when I talked about the Best of 2016 Voting, I mentioned that I would try to get these delivered on a more regular basis and not leave months between issues, keeping you wondering what we actually do all day.

To that effect, I'll be bringing you a rundown of some of the recent happenings in and around the Quality Assurance Team and what's coming up in the near future.

We have welcomed a new member to our ranks! A hearty congratulations to Nardoxyribonucleic, who will be assisting in the creation of Beatmap Nominator tests for osu!taiko along with DakeDekaane. Be sure to treat them well as they settle into their new role!

The Beatmap Nomination Group for osu!standard has recently been split into two Tiers. This will affect the process of beatmap nomination, so if you're a mapper looking to see your work in the ranked section, be sure to check out all the details here.

Beatmap Nominator tests for non-standard game modes are currently being marked. We expect to see some new faces pushing quality osu!taiko, osu!catch and osu!mania maps forward within the next few weeks! After monthly reviews of BN activity in each mode, this will also coincide with the removal of any inactive nominators.

Updates to the Ranking Criteria are continuing. In addition to the osu!standard General and Specific criteria being formally approved last month, osu!taiko are almost ready to push out their new and improved General Ranking Criteria, with the Timing and Storyboarding sections currently open to feedback, and a first draft of the Metadata section expected to be available for feedback very soon.

Lastly, a quick peek at some upcoming discussion articles on our blog:

• You can find out more more information about the osu!standard BN Tier split and how it will affect the mapping scene in osu! by following the link mentioned previously, but for those wanting to dig a little deeper, you can expect a review on the test design and results courtesy of one of the creators, Mao, very soon!
• Are you a rice lover or a noodle fanatic? If you're an osu!mania player, mapper or modder, chances are you have an opinion on long notes. Our resident ET Blocko will be giving us his thoughts on how they are used in the current meta of osu!mania mapping, comparing their execution with respect to both visuals and playability.
• Have you ever asked for a few suggestions on your map and received a textwall instead? Hopefully you received a lot of useful criticism to help you improve, but maybe you weren't so lucky… What if the modder didn't understand what you intended to do at all and is suggesting a remap? Or maybe you just received a hundred new combo suggestions? Feerum will be presenting his take on understanding the mapper's style when modding, and why long mods are not necessarily better ones.

If you want to find out about all the lovely people who will be contributing to this blog, as well as remain in the loop with upcoming articles, keep an eye on our Announcement Page.

Ask us anything!

We'd love to hear your opinions on our work, suggest ideas for discussions, and also answer any questions you may have about osu! gameplay, mapping, modding and the game/community as a whole. Feel free to get in touch with us here and we'll try to answer some in a future blog entry!

I'll leave it at that for now, but we'll be back real soon with more news, more discussion and more of your questions answered - I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am!

—JBHyperion