news
11 Apr 2020
The Mappers' Report: March
The Mappers' Report: March
Another month passed and that means it’s time for another Mappers’ Report! Full of news about the Ranking Criteria, meetings and the Beatmap Nominators! Additionally, this month we are ready to introduce the Mappers’ Showcase as well as other community news! So let’s jump right into it!
This month's issue of the Mappers' Report contains following topics:
Ranking Criteria Changes
The Ranking Criteria. For some a blessing, for others a curse. On top of that, it’s changing all the time. This month we didn’t have many changes in the Ranking Criteria, that’s why we had a great idea. From now on we will also list ongoing discussions in the Mappers’ Report to give them a bit more of attention. The Ranking Criteria affects all mappers, and everyone should be aware of what is going on or what is going to happen. So let’s start right away with this month's Ranking Criteria changes.
All modes
- Applause File and Passive Hitsounds: Previously a Rule, this has now been changed to a Guideline. Applause files and passive hitsounds should use .mp3 or .ogg files. The only exception of this is when using a .wav file will result in smaller file size.
- Generalised Mode-Specific Guidelines about Custom Hitsounds: Previously found in the osu! and osu!catch Ranking Criterias, this guideline has now been modified and moved to the general Ranking Criteria. The hit finish in soft and normal sample sets should not be replaced with frequently used hitsounds because these can sound obnoxious for anyone disabling beatmap hitsounds. osu!taiko beatmaps are exempt from this Guideline because the mode has its own mode-specific hitsound sample guideline.
- Storyboarding Conflicting Commands Guideline: The existing guideline Avoid illogical, conflicting and obsolete commands has had its description improved to clarify that commands of the same type with overlapping intervals should be fixed to no longer overlap.
osu!taiko
- 1/3 Patterns in Futsuu: The osu!taiko Futsuu difficulty Rule and Guideline regarding 1/3 pattern has been modified. The clause about rest moments was moved from the Rule to the Guideline.
Open Ranking Criteria Proposals
As said previously, the Ranking Criteria is a never ending process. Everyone can suggest changes to it and there are currently a lot of proposals which need more input from the community! Every proposal can be found in the Ranking Criteria Forum. Here a small list of the most important and longest open proposals:
For all modes:
For osu!:
For osu!catch:
These and many others are currently discussed and need more input. So head right over to the Ranking Criteria Forum and be part of the changes which will affect the future of mapping!
NAT Meetings
As mentioned in the past issue of the Mappers’ Report we were holding regular meetings, and the past several weeks were no exception. With these two meetings we also managed to go through all pending discussion points we had, meaning meetings will be less frequent going forward.
If you have any topics which should be discussed in future meetings, please do not hesitate to contact any NAT members about it For smaller things you can reach out to them right away. If it’s about something bigger, please consider making a proposal first to present to a NAT member.
Once enough topics are gathered, future NAT meeting dates will be announced in further Mappers’ Report issues, in #modding on the osu!dev Discord server and in the forum!
Mar 1st, 2020 - Cultivating BNs
In the Cultivating BNs meeting, we discussed the State of BN subdivisions, Mentoring new BNs, as well as the current perceived lack of modding among BNs and whether or not that’s true. The main conclusion after reviewing these factors is that, at present, there are no plans to make changes in these areas - but it is good to make sure that’s the case! Several community members are also working on proposals and research that will be brought to the table in the near future as well.
Mar 22nd, 2020 - State of QAH + misc
This meeting discussed the current state of the Quality Assurance Helpers (QAH) and Ranking Criteria subforum engagement as its main topics.
For the QAH topic, we revisited the current state of the QAH and focused on evaluating the new changes made since the previous meeting about this topic in early December. The meeting helped to gather information about what features the BN website is currently missing that could help make QAH work better. Additionally, the NAT has decided that QAH activity will count as 1/4th of a nomination for BN activity, although this number may be adjusted in the future.
For the RC subforum topic, the meeting reviewed the current status and hashed out a plan going forward. Whenever possible, Ranking Criteria topics will be mentioned in both the osu!dev modding channel and this Mappers’ Report you’re reading to help give proposals more visibility. If you didn’t see it yet, you can find the proposals in the section above!
Apr 11th, 2020 - Genre and Language Settings
This meeting will be held on Saturday April 11th, 18:00-20:00 UTC. This meeting will discuss revising the website’s current genre system, primarily what genres should be added to help make the website’s genre system more useful than it is now.
Within the Beatmap Nominators and NAT
Just as last month, the BNG never rests. We always have new additions and retirements. This month is no exception!
BN Additions
- osu!mania: dudehacker
BN Resignations
- osu!catch: wonjae
NAT Additions
Good news everyone! We have a new person in the team. For osu!taiko, Tyistiana joined the NAT! After over one year of work as a Beatmap Nominator, and recently receiving the title of Elite Nominator, Tyistiana will now support Nepuri and Faputa with the osu!taiko Beatmap Nominator evaluations. Once again, welcome to the team!
NAT Retirement
Just as we had a new addition with Tyistiana, we had to say farewell to Ascendance. After one year of duty as a NAT he decided to take his leave. Ascendance served well in osu!catch and helped bring back life into the osu!taiko BNG with his care package. Thank you Ascendance for all your work and we wish you all the best in the future!
Mappers' Showcase
Mappers' Report never disappoints in bringing you fresh content! This month's addition is the Mappers' Showcase - a new section for overlooked or upcoming mappers, whose skills in the osu!editor's canvas are a force to be reckoned with. For March's report, we would like to introduce two osu! mappers who have shown what they are capable of!
Striderin
A hidden gem of a mapper gone particularly unnoticed, Striderin has been building up a collection of truly innovative maps. Combining small circles, unique flow, and signature breathtaking hitsounds, Striderin fuses the three concepts together to create some inspiring works of art. This can best be showcased through his passion-filled renditions of Wednesday Campanella songs, such as Melos and The Bamboo Princess; the latter of which also features a quite nifty storyboard! Striderin is a must-see if you enjoy maps that stand out from the crowd, ones that go above and beyond compared to most.
KnightC0re
An inspiration to many new mappers should be KnightC0re. He is the shining example that hard work and dedication to one's craft will bear fruits. From expert hitsounding, to developing his style to fit songs of all difficulties and genres, KnightC0re can do it all. Just last year he showed up with a couple incredible ranked maps among others - one of which being his map of Matsumoto Sara's Suika, where he demonstrated his mastery of movement and hitsounding to form a poignant take on a beloved song. Another such example would be his Insane difficulty on sokoninaru's Tenohira de odoru where he showcased his ability to map a whole spectrum of music - from serene instrumental to crazy math rock pieces in any difficulty he likes. We are eager to see KnightC0re's next projects take shape, and so should you.
Even though the Mappers' Showcase starts off with osu!standard, each month will showcase a different gamemode. That means next month will be feataturing osu!taiko. So stay tuned!
Mapping Contests
In addition to summarizing upcoming contests, we will also use this space to highlight recent wins or ongoing contests.
King of Catch Mapping Contest
The King of Catch Mapping Contest is a currently ongoing osu!catch event organized by MBomb that is entering the 3rd of its challenges. The contest uses a quite interesting elimination system featuring a gauntlet of mapping challenges, where the lowest placing participant of a given round is removed from the contest while the others continue, until only 1 mapper is left.
So far in the contest, Jemzuu has found himself at the top of the podium during the first 2 rounds, quite impressive! Good luck to those participating in the approaching rounds and we hope to see more novel well organized contests like this in the future.
Monthly Beatmapping Contest: February 2020 Results
We’d like to congratulate Aphestra on their win in the 2nd Monthly Beatmapping Contest, earning them a profile badge! Good job as well to UndeadCapulet and Mao who were the community vote runner-up and screening crew favourite respectively. Both of them find themselves halfway to a beautiful profile badge thanks to their placements. Full results for the contest can be found here!
Monthly Beatmapping Contest: April 2020
Another month, another monthly beatmapping contest! Head over to the news post to find out all about this month’s restrictions! Additionally the community voting phase of the March beatmap contest has started so be sure to go vote on the contest listing!
Around the Community
Another new section this month! All around the community. Whenever something interesting happens in the community which does not fit into any category above we will include that here. Should you have/know about something interesting that’s happening within the mapping community, do not hesitate to let Feerum or Noffy know about it!
The osu! Map Cast
Starting up 2 months ago, there’s been a new podcast series hosted by Cinnabun titled the osu! Map Cast. This podcast is a series hosted on YouTube where Cinnabun talks with mappers, BNs, and NATs about their views on mapping, modding, and other related topics. With 9 episodes out and new episodes released weekly it will only further grow from here. In the episodes released so far, they’ve talked to the guests about osu! as well as their own personal experiences, so be sure to check it out if you want to learn something new or just want to listen to something osu! related. You can find out more about the osu! Map Cast here!
Community Mentorship
Previously announced in another news post, the Spring 2020 round of Community Mentorship is coming soon! Hosted regularly throughout the year, the mentorship program helps to nurture newer mappers in the community by pairing them up with Mentors. The applications to become a Mentor are already closed, but the Mentee applications will be opening on April 19th, so give applying a try if you’re passionate and interested in learning more about mapping!
And that’s it for this month! We thought our news post might be a bit shorter this time but we were proven wrong thanks to all the new content! Make sure to tune in for the next NAT meeting in the #modding channel on the osu!dev Discord Server. Thank you for reading, stay safe and healthy!
See you next month!
—Feerum, Noffy, celerih, Smokeman, spoes and Zelq
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