mania_RC.md

osu!mania

Glossary

Diffuclty names

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Insane
• Expert

Refer to this thread for alternative difficulty naming methods.

Common terms

• Column: Columns are the lines in the editor where the notes get placed. The editor uses 0|1|2|3..., but many modders prefer to use 1|2|3|4..., which is important for modding in osu!mania. These numbers may vary depending on the beatmap’s key mode.
• Key Mode: A key mode is the number of keys present in a difficulty. Like game modes, they are treated as separate from each other, e.g. a 4-Key map would require its own spread from a 7-Key map in the same mapset.
• Slider Velocity: For osu!mania, slider velocity adjusts the speed in which the notes approach the player.
• Teleports: A note whose motion is quick enough to skip any given location of the playfield almost instantaneously.
• Stutters: Repeated alternations between two SV values with a noticeable difference in the strength of their values.
• Long Term Slider Velocity: This is defined to be at least 4 measures long.
• Hitsound: An unpitched sample not meant to exactly copy sounds heard in the music.
• Keysound: Generally pitched samples that are meant to blend and match almost perfectly with sounds present in the music.
• Jack: A small number of consecutive notes in the same column, usually performed at a faster pace compared to surrounding notes.
• Stream: A constant supply of notes with the same intervals that do not repeat to create a mini-jack.
• Chords: Generic term for two or more notes performed at the same time.
• Graces: Two or more notes performed in a quick succession, generally snaps at or above 1/6.
• Long note: A note that must be held and released within a precise timing window.
• Release: The end of a long note which must be released within a certain timing 1.1window to score the entirety of the note properly.
• Inverse: A type of pattern that replaces all regular notes with long notes in a given section. Typically enough long notes to cover a majority of the playfield with holds.
• Trill: More than two notes that alternate between two columns without interruption.
• Bracket: A pattern that uses alternating fingers to perform it correctly.
• Shield: A note which appears in the same column immediately after the release of an long note.
• Jumps: Two notes performed at the same time.
• Jumpstream: A stream interlaced with jumps.
• Jumptrill: A trill consisting of two alternating jumps.
• Split jumptrill: A jumptrill which uses both hands at the same time to perform correctly - i.e two one-handed trills.
• Roll: A variation of a stream consisting of notes that go from the first to the last column or last to the first column, usually done in quick succession.

General

Rules

All rules are exactly that: rules. They are not guidelines and may not be broken under any circumstances.

• No column can be kept empty. If you want to have less keys, then change the amount of keys in the Song Setup.
• There must not be more than 6 notes pressed at any given moment. Most USB-connected keyboards cannot handle 7 simultaneous inputs at a time. Note that this rule does not apply to ends of long notes, as they are released, not pressed.
• Beatmaps can only use 4 to 9 keys. Anything else is not properly supported.
• Each key mode present within a map requires its own spread. For example, a 4-Key map would require its own Normal/Hard/Insane in order to create a proper spread, independent of any other key modes present in the mapset.

Guidelines

Guidelines may be broken under exceptional circumstances. These must be warranted by a reasonable explanation as of why the guideline has been broken and why not breaking it will interfere with the overall quality of the creation.

• Every note should correlate to a sound present in the music. This should be a distinct sound, but can also coherently represent a continuous sound with an indistinguishable start or end. Exceptions should be made when following the music completely accurately would impact chart quality such as flow and readability or cause an inappropriate difficulty spike. In these cases, a snap simplification should be used instead.
• Avoid using storyboard sampled hitsounds with similar volume to hitsounds on notes. As storyboarded hitsounds can overwhelm and distort audio feedback from objects in the map, placing the hitsounds on a note in the chart should be prioritized over putting it in the storyboard.
• Keysounds which take samples directly from the song do not need to be paired with normal unpitched hitsounds to be rankable. As the feedback comes in the form of playing the song itself, additional feedback is not necessary.
• Keysounds which follow and add to existing sounds already present in the music must also use hitsounds. This is to ensure that the player still receives audible feedback for every successful hit despite blending keysounds.
• Timing changes should have a unified scroll speed by adjusting slider velocity. This is done by normalizing the scroll speed of all timing sections to the most used one in the beatmap. That number is shown in brackets after the BPM range in the song selection, e.g. BPM: 60-160 (130). Note that this guideline does not affect the ability to add slider velocity changes which are used to create slider velocity effects.
• Only inherited timing points are allowed to create slider velocity changes. Take caution as chart readability gets heavily affected when using higher slider velocity values. These should also be snapped to a rhythm divisible by the snapping of the present notes. For example, 1/2 notes would ideally utilize 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16 snappings, as opposed to 1/3.

Difficulty specific

Difficulty-specific rules and guidelines do only apply to the difficulty level they are listed for and therefore do not apply to every osu!mania difficulty. Rhythm related guidelines apply to approximately 180 BPM maps. If your song is drastically faster or slower, some variables might be different. Apply reasonable judgement in these cases.

Easy

Easy difficulties are meant for players to build a solid foundation of familiarity with simple patterns and techniques essential to all concepts of mapping.

Rules

• Slider velocity changes that alter the scrolling speed of the map are disallowed. An exception to this rule would be creating slider velocity changes to unify the scroll speed in BPM-variable maps. Scroll normalization is mandatory and must be done in maps with variable BPM.

Guidelines

• Note snappings of consecutive 1/4 and higher should not be present in this difficulty level. This essentially means that there must be at least more than ¼ of a beat of distance between every note. This is to make sure beginner players start off with an easy experience in the game.
• Long notes across all columns should have a minimum spacing of 1/1 beats from the time it is first pressed.
• Long notes at the same column should have a minimum spacing of 2/1 beats from the time it is first pressed. Lower spacing would make the patterns hard for a player to keep up with the release timings.
• HP and OD values should not be higher than 7 to ensure that new players have a good experience of clearing songs they like.
• Chords should either be symmetrical or placed on the same hand to ensure an easy experience.
• Note density should mostly consist of 1/1 snapping or slower rhythms. Using up to five notes on 1/2 snapping patterns is acceptable.
• Long notes should have a minimum length of 1/1 beats with no objects in between. Long notes are generally difficult for beginners, and as such should only be used sparingly.

Normal

A Normal utilizes simple patterns which build the foundation for more advanced concepts and techniques, while introducing a slightly more difficult usage of these key ideas.

Guidelines

• Note snappings of 1/6 and above should not be used. This is to make sure beginner players start off with an easy experience in the game.
• Long notes across all columns must have a minimum spacing of 1/2 beats from the first press. Lower spacing would make the patterns hard for a normal player to keep up with the release timings.** Spacing of 1/4 is an exception as it’s allowed only for shield patterns for this level of difficulty.
• Slider velocity changes should be used cautiously. Changes should only happen for sections of different pacings and slider velocity should not be drastically variable.
• HP and OD values should not be higher than 7.5 to give players get a good experience of clearing songs they like.
• Note density should mostly consist of 1/1 and 1/2 snapping or slower rhythms. Using up to five notes on 1/4 snapping patterns is acceptable.
• Long streams of 1/2 notes should only be limited to 16 notes as these can become too physically demanding for players at this level. A way to alleviate that would be adding 1/1 breaks so players can have an easier gameplay experience.
• Long notes that are held simultaneously should be released at the same time. Long notes with multiple release timings require a lot of coordination for the player to keep up with, so multiple releases should be avoided in order to get the player to get used to long notes.
• Manipulating slider velocity is discouraged. Slider velocity should only be changed for sections of music with different intensities and should not be drastically variable throughout the map.
• Long term slider velocity changes should be in between 0.90x and 1.05x. These should only be used to provide a unique gameplay experience and not to make it generally difficult to play through.

Hard

Rules

• Inverse patterns must not be used. They are a very advanced type of pattern and that they require a lot of coordination to properly execute it.

Guidelines

• Note snappings of 1/8 and above should not be present in this difficulty level. These can be too physically demanding for players of this level. An exception to this guideline would be the usage of grace notes that are at higher-end snaps (1/8, 1/12 and 1/16) as they are only used to accentuate gracing sounds.
• HP and OD values should not be higher than 8 to give players get a good experience of clearing songs they like.
• Avoid 1/4 streams made of more than 16 notes. These can be too physically demanding for players of this level.
• Chords within streams should be used sparingly. It is difficult for a player to keep track of many notes at once with little time in between each to process, and chords simply add to the complexity here, making the learning curve much harsher than other difficulties.
• Jack usage is discouraged, especially on higher BPM. These can be too physically demanding for players of this level. Minijacks with ample rest time in between may be acceptable.
• Long notes should not be shorter than 1/4 in length. This is to give players enough time to hold and release a note as most will be confused by very short long notes which are normally treated as short notes and played as such.
• Long notes should not have release timings that have different timing snaps. To elaborate, long note releases should not have a 1/3 snap on the end of it and a 1/4 snap at the end of another. However, long note releases that are used with common multiples can be used.
• Short term slider velocity changes should create the same visual distance that appears the same as a normal scroll speed. If slider velocity changes are used, they should only be used in empty spaces between notes and should equalize to a distance of 1.0x. Slider velocity changes are only short term if used on 1/2 snapping or below.
• Long term slider velocity changes should be in between 0.75x and 1.10x. These should only be used to provide a unique gameplay experience.

Insane

Guidelines

• Avoid 1/8 streams made of more than 8 notes. Streams of this type of snap are harder to pull off than snaps at the lower end, and as such should only be used if the song warrants it.
• Avoid using split rolls or any kind of complicated 1/8 streams. These types of patterns are much harder to execute properly and shouldn't be used unless the song is abrasive enough to warrant that type of pattern. Use simple rolls as an alternative so it matches the intensity of that portion of the song without making it difficult to play through.
• Using jumptrills of any kind that lead to a hand is discouraged. This is if the genre of the map is not intended to be technical, as this pattern is difficult to hit at a moderate to high speed. For 4K, this creates a mini jack that drastically increases the pattern difficulty. If a hand is really necessary, delete the note before it that would create the mini jack.
• Using split jump trills and brackets is discouraged. These are much more physically exhausting, awkward and take more control to properly execute compared to the standard jumptrills that alternate hands. Do not use both of these as if they are the same unless they are shorter than 5 notes long. Rare cases that allow these to be used are if the music here is abrasive enough to warrant the physical exhaustion.
• Avoid using 1/6 long note streams. These are very hard to hit and release because of their very short length. Use regular notes in place of streams instead so it’s not as arbitrarily difficult to get a good score on.
• Long term slider velocity changes should be between 0.5x and 1.10x. Players at this skill level are much more comfortable with their scroll speed setting, and it will be much harder for them to play the map with long term slider velocity changes at higher values.

Expert

Guidelines

• Keep hand balance concepts clear for higher difficulties. For example, a regular jumptrill plays way easier than a split handed jumptrill and may be more appropriate for use in high BPM songs as a moment of rest for the player.
• Long note release timings should use similar snaps than their press timings. Long notes that are into more jazz rhythm should usually have 1/3 or 1/6 releases while more rigid songs might use 1/4 or 1/8 snaps. Combining long note snaps for releases is fine but do it with caution.
• Long term slider velocity changes should be between 0.50x and 1.10x. Players at this skill level are much more comfortable with their scroll speed setting, and it will be much harder for them to play the map with long term slider velocity changes at higher values.