news
28 Feb 2020
The Mappers' Report: February
The Mappers' Report: February
A new shiny news post was spotted at the horizon and coming to you now every month. It's the Mappers' Report! This news post series will inform you monthly about happenings within the osu! mapping scene.
Some of you may remember the old QAT Gazette articles. This will be something similar, yet different. The Mappers' Report news posts will keep you up to date with Ranking Criteria changes, NAT meetings, and team movements. Additionally, we will include mapping related wiki changes.
We even have something new in the works! The "Mapper Showcase" will be a section where each month we write about one mapper who deserves more attention. We'll be looking for mappers with unique mapping styles, amazing storyboarding, or even something like a particularly excellent bit of hitsounding. The game mode for the showcase will switch every month, so don't worry about being left out if you're a creator for another mode!
With that being said, let's begin right away with the news!
This month's issue of the Mappers' Report contains following topics:
Ranking Criteria Changes
A new month brings a new avalanche of updates to the Ranking Criteria (RC). These past two months were especially productive with the implementation of a few new rules:
All modes
- Custom Difficulty Naming Updates:
A description has been added to the rule "A beatmapset's custom difficulty naming must follow a common theme or pattern related to the song…" to clarify its meaning. - Spread and Length Requierements: The requirement that drain time must be 80% of play time has been removed from the point that "Difficulties lower than the highest difficulty can use their play time as a metric instead of drain time".
- Sped Up Ver. Markers: Songs that have been edited to have a higher tempo are now required to use a (Sped Up Ver.) marker in the title field. For songs where the genre is Techno, Trance, Dance, or other similar genres, (Nightcore Mix) will be used instead.
- Hitsound File Length: The minimum length for hitsound files has been reduced from 100ms to 25ms, after testing showed that 25ms hitsound files will behave correctly in-game.
- Cutting Songs Guideline Changes: Cuts are required to maintain the general impression and intensity of the full song, however the guideline about the cuts having to be 1:30 or above in length has been removed.
- Background Requirements: New minimum width and height sizes have been added in addition to the already present maximum width and height rules. The new minimum sizes are 160 pixels wide and 120 pixels high.
- Background Quality Guideline: A new guideline has been added specifying that background images should be of reasonable quality.
osu!taiko
- Drum Sampleset: A rule was removed which disallowed the use of the drum sampleset. Previously, the game had no drum sample set support for osu!taiko, but this has since been fixed and default samples added. Thus, the rule has been removed as the sampleset is now usable.
osu!catch
- HP Difficulty Guidelines: The difficulty specific guidelines for HP settings have been adjusted for Cup to Overdose to be in line with community standards.
osu!mania
- Hitsound Additions Requirements: Following this change, osu!mania beatmapsets containing only difficulties of Insane or above do not require hitsound additions.
- Difficulty name requirements:
A new specification has been added that sets with a single key mode must not use the key mode in the difficulty name. - Long note changes in Easy and Normal:
The previous guidelines in Easy and Normal that "A long note cannot be released during another long note's body" have been removed. They have been replaced with "long note releases should be at least 1/1 beat from each other" for Easy difficulties and "long note releases should be at least 1/2 beat from each other" for Normal difficulties. - Chord usage change in Hard:
The wording of the guideline that chords should be used sparingly got changed into "Chords within 1/4 streams should be at least 1/1 beat apart from each other".
NAT Meetings
The past 2 months have been filled with public meetings organized by the NAT, aimed at improving the ranking system based on community input. A wide range of topics such as BN/NAT activity requirements or transparency of the application process for both groups have been covered so far, and there is more to come! If you wish to participate in future meetings, join the osu!dev discord server and go through the verification process.
Upcoming meetings will be announced with a specific time and agenda in the #modding channel of the osu!dev Discord server, as well as in an announcement post in the Mapping Discussion forum. The next meeting is scheduled for 1st of March, but the topic and agenda are still being worked on and will be announced soon in the channel mentioned above.
Jan 3rd, 2020 - Promotion of NAT Members
The most important takeaway from this meeting was the discussion surrounding the addition of new NAT and its team size. The NAT wiki article has also been updated to include relevant information such as how the team size of the NAT depends on what is needed and in what work fields. If more help in one work field is required, a new NAT will be considered.
Jan 18th, 2020 - Application Evaluation
The BN application modding requirements have been made more clear, and the BN website has also received several improvements, the biggest one being a "Would you nominate this map. If not, why?" checkbox on the application form. It vastly improves the fair evaluation system.
Another topic of note was the delivery of a "taiko care package", a special policy allowance that allowed old osu!taiko BNs who left the team on good terms to rejoin much more easily. This was a trial run of sorts for implementing a similar system in other game modes, so if you're a previous contributor to the Beatmap Nominators and are thinking of getting your feet wet again, keep your ears open for more details in the future!
Feb 1st, 2020 - Progress Report
A brief progress report was held investigating the goals outlined in the previous meetings and if they were met. Most of them were, so the meeting did not last particularly long as things were largely on track.
Some discussion was raised surrounding how often meetings should be held, and how this would work going forward. It was outlined that as long as there are topics in need of discussion, meetings will be held regularly in turn. We expect this to slow down in the future as longer-term goals are pursued and expect to swivel towards more progress reports versus broader meetings.
Feb 15th, 2020 - Current BN Evaluations
The first point the meeting discussed was the activity threshold which is required for a Beatmap Nominator every month. The conclusion from the meeting is that Beatmap Nominators for osu!, osu!taiko and osu!catch need at least 3 nominations per month on average, and osu!mania will need 2 nominations on average each month. The activity will be regularly checked every two months by the NAT. Another point of the discussion was how nomination resets will affect the evaluation of the Beatmap Nominators. Unranks will no longer weigh more than regular nomination resets.
Last but not least, Beatmap Nominators will also be judged by the map quality of their nominations. This is to ensure a fair evaluation. Beatmap Nominators could have a high nomination count, but all maps could be of low quality. To ensure this does not happen the NAT will judge the quality of the nominations.
Within the Beatmap Nominators and NAT
BN Additions
Within the last few months we've had the chance to say hello to a lot of new members to the Beatmap Nominators, especially from the osu!taiko side of things! We're very glad to have all these people on board whether they are new to the group or are returning veterans. We look forward to their help with pushing content to the Ranked section. As this is the first newspost, we will list all nominator additions for 2020 so far.
We'd like to use this section as a reminder that you can apply as a Beatmap Nominator at any time over at BN/NAT website as long as you reach the activity requirements. We hope to see some of your names on this list next month!
BN Retirements
Next, we have those who have taken their leave from the group. We'd like to thank them for their tremendous work and effort within the BNs and wish them the best with their newly obtained freedom!
- osu!taiko: qoot8123
BN Badges
Before we move on to the NAT additions, we would like to honour our long standing members of the Beatmap Nominators! These BNs will receive, depending on the length of their tenure in the team, a shiny new badge for their profile page. We thank them all for their contribution so far and hope to see much more of them in the future! Here is the list of those:
- 3 Year Badge: Xinely
NAT Additions
In addition to the recently added BNs, some new NAT members have been brought on!
The first addition we got on the 6th January was yaspo who served as a Beatmap Nominator for roughly over a year, he will now support the NAT for the osu! game mode. He will mainly help with BN evaluations and applications. He has also shown his skills in leading the NAT meetings already! Welcome aboard, yaspo!
Our second addition on the 26th January was Greaper who's been a Beatmap Nominator for almost 4 months. He will now support the NAT for the osu!catch game mode. He will mainly focus on doing BN evaluations and applications, and make sure osu!catch Beatmap Nominators grow properly! Welcome aboard, Greaper!
Mapping Contests
If you are organizing a mapping contest that will begin within the next 1-3 months, feel free to submit it through the form in this forum thread for a chance of being featured on next month's installment of the Mappers' Report. We are looking to highlight more mapping contests from the community!
Monthly Beatmapping Contest: February 2020
This month's installment of the Monthly Beatmapping Contest (MBC) has arrived! Head on over to the news post to find out all about this month's restriction on your entries. The entry period for February has just ended, but worry not! At the start of March the next contest will begin and you'll have your chance to participate. Keep your eyes peeled for the news post that will be made when the March contest is ready.
6th osu! Mapping Olympiad
For the avid fruit catchers of the world, the 6th osu! Mapping Olympiad has shown itself, a great opportunity to flex your fruit placing muscles! This osu!catch contest requires you to map 2 difficulties for MYLK's Waffle Wave track. Head on over to the contest listing for all the details! As this is an Olympiad, the winner of the tournament will be given the title of Elite Mapper. Good luck to all of those participating, you have until March 13th to submit your fruity feasts.
Newspaper Cup
The fantastic Chinese community organized tournament Newspaper Cup has made its yearly appearance and has now begun! This will be the contest's 6th yearly installment, making it one of the longest standing community organized mapping contests. All of the relevant information can be found in this forum post in both Chinese and English. You have until March 15th to submit your entries for one or more of the 4 available songs. Good luck to those planning on entering their creations into the contest!
Make sure to tune in to the next NAT Meeting on March 1st in the osu!dev Discord Server and to do your best on all those fantastic mapping contests open for your submissions! Thank you for your time reading this quite hefty article. As this is our first installment of the Mappers' Report, any feedback is appreciated, as we are still working hard on setting this up. The next installments should be a bit smaller since we had a lot to cover this time. We hope the information will prove itself useful to you!
See you next time!
—the Beatmap Nominators and Nomination Assessment Team
Comments0