thats all fine. it sounds like you played it, and it was hard but in a way you didnt like, or just didnt like the map itself, and gave it ahlf a star. which i have zero problem with. but then being like "well it said tricky but its not tricky" is just kinda annoying, esp to someone like me who is fond of the map
not too interested in getting into specifics of what is or isnt a "design flaw" here. but after a certain point, even a mediocre mappers placements and rhythms are all (or almost all) intentional, let alone a mapper like kiddly. these are choices you can like or dislike, agree or disagree with, but i couldnt call them "flaws." i honestly have not seen a "flaw" in ages, even from maps i really hate, and i think calling it a flaw is simply incorrect. tbh it sounds like you just hated the map and for some reason arent satsified with just saying "idk i just dont like it" and have to come with all this othe rstuff that to me makes no sense
re: your last comment; it was kind of hard to parse so i coulda misinterpeted some stuff idk
by that logic literally no map could ever be "tricky"
i also dont think the map is that hard to even read or understand?? even if the map doesnt immediately click with you, just listen to the song, play it literally 3 times, give it a glance in editor if you have to. it's not tsuki yue
i think circles and sliders should be the main factor in how you judge a map otherwise why are you even looking at a map? there are probably a few exceptions, this is not one of those exceptions
if you dont like the circles and sliders thats fine i literlaly do not care
judging a map based on how cheesable it is is silly imo. you can cheese anything. you can aim the sliderticks on notch hell. you can mash/doubletap streams. you can doubletap jumps. you can ignore sliderbodies on sliders. thats not on the map, thats on you.
plus isn't the fact that you had to "brute force" it at all a sign that the map was indeed to some extent tricky? and isn't the map itself sign enough that "trickiness" was not the SOLE goal, that he also wanted as usual to make a generally good beatmap that represented the song etc etc -- ie circles and sliders?
many things can be learned here. to me all the musical paydirt of mapping lies in the phrase: the rhythmic or melodic line. it's no use agonizing and digging deeper to try to express every detail (most of the time at least). it's much better to zoom out, so to speak, and make a pattern. noting where the music changes, and where it stays the same
i do think the first half is stronger than the second half. there's great stuff in the back half too but at that point it devolves mostly into spinners and long sliders. still i have no qualms calling this a masterpiece. loved this for a long time, it's just so catchy
he logged in, uploaded his first two maps in two days (both great), and never uploaded again. didn't even learn how to place circles in a straight line. he overlapped 2b sliders and probably didn't even realize. i guess zappa enjoyers are just built different. goofy
something that many mappers understand intuitively, but many mappers (and most players) apparently don't: there are two ways of playing a map. you can play a map with your hands--the usual way--or you can play it with your eyes. playing with your eyes is different from just watching a map. you can watch centipede or fanzhen bbkkbkk, but you can't play them; there's nothing to play. but with your eyes you can play pretty much anything else, including xeroa and the double streams on rustbell circus galop. but you can't play with your eyes unless you have experience playing with your hands, because although they both operate on the same principles, one is an abstraction of the other.
are maps for ONLY for playing with your hands, and nothing else?; an age-old question posed by players and misguided mappers that operates on the assumption that the only worthwhile experience in the game is as a player. the fact is that both ways of playing offer different things, and a map will yield different subtleties depending on which way you choose. rainshower is maybe a little ass to play with your hands depending on your skillset, but in the editor it's a treasure trove of wonders.
at any rate, most mappers do know how to map in a way that "plays well," because we were all players at one point. the former #1 global who created atomosphere and and new astronomas isn't clueless as to what satisfies players. but we've since lost interest in rejecting out-of-hand one-half of all mapping possibilities...mapping is deeper and richer than merely what feels good to hit with a cursor. it feels strange to verbalize what is so obvious, but i guess to others it's not obvious.
anyways, the funny thing about this map is the kiai approaches the upper limit of what you can play with your eyes. unless you slow it down, it's hard to even hear what each slider is corresponding to. it's such a silly map, it's difficult not to fall in love. throwing the high-pitched squeaks in the corner 00:17:415 (2) - 00:20:795 (2) - is delightful, and of course the 1/16 NC spam is incredibly gratifying. 01:09:277 (1,1,1,1) - is more casual fanzhen genius, and the 01:16:248 (1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,1) - counterclockwise 4s into the clockwise 5 is classic fanzhen rhythm structure.
something in mapping that continually fascinates me is the ability to take a dogshit ugly slider and make it look good just by placing the right objects around it. yusomi is one of those few mappers who have the midas touch; he can take literally any awful material and make something great out of it
whole map is good (both diffs are good actually) but the section at 00:25:653 (1) - is perfect in every way. and it's not overdone--anything else would be underdone. i cant see it being mapped any other way. anyway this got last place in pdc
love this map. 20 minutes of utterly charming patterns and delightful ideas. the style pairs with the song perfectly. this probably wasn't easy to map, but the appearance of effortlessness is integral to its charm. there is such a self-assured sense of musicality here, which manifests itself in bizarre unintuitive choices that work against all odds. it's easy to map inside the lines, but how many people would choose to start this pattern on the SMALL white tick? 09:20:565 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) - but this is a million times better than the obvious choice.
i love the usage of stacks, symmetry, the evolving patterns...i don't know. as usual, the best things about good mapping are hard to describe in words. it's the way they interpret the music, organize it, present it to you. you hear the music through their ears. you just like their voice, it's hard to point out anything specific because it's everything.
i'll stop there. it's hard to point stuff out because many great patterns are hardly even patterns, and they dont make sense unless you see them flash before your eyes while listening to the song
truly a joyful map. the description says "my love letter to this game after 8 years" and it feels exactly like that
cookiezi once referred to rrtyui as a "hard worker"; maybe a backhanded compliment, the sting of which is made worse by the fact that rrtyui's best scores, though great, have not stood the test of time, whereas cookiezi's best scores can be considered pretty much immortal at this point. curiously enough the "hard worker" epithet seems to apply to rrtyui as a mapper also, but there's no backhandedness here. i think his maps are truly timeless. for many years it seemed like he was practically reinventing himself for every new map he made; new style, new ideas, new gameplay. in a certain sense he was the hardest working concept mapper. a number of years back (after atomosphere and chirality and so on) he became interested in the more visually iconoclastic styles; you can see the influence in his Favorites tab on his userpage. zev, hailie/cheri, monstrata alien, stuff like that, eventually culminating in experimental outings like giselle, hella deep, and white cube. what separated him from the other mappers was his discipline, his absolute faith in the strength of ideas. nowhere is this more evident than in rainshower--the thing is stuffed so full of ideas on a second-to-second basis that it threatens to overwhelm the viewer. it's actually insane. silentroom is NOT an easy artist to map, especially this track, but rrtyui somehow manages to make what is for me the quintessential silentroom map. all of shuu no hazama's emotion is perfectly conveyed, the map is every bit as chaotic and ambitious and grandiose as the song.
first, as with pretty much any good map, its different sections are so well differentiated, while still working together as a whole. rrtyui doesnt use bookmarks so a while back i made this graphic, kind of scuffed but does the job https://mel-oe.s-ul.eu/a8WZa3H4
00:34:802 (1) - till 00:39:802 (1) - is one long transformation pattern, he uses a lot of them throughout. theyre a great n easy way of creating a sense of progression, especially when the music is a bunch of atonal droning noise
00:45:491 (1,1,2,3,1) - throughout the map he deliberately plays with angles that most people including me avoid like the plague: 90 and 45 degrees. during this section (and some other sections too) he crams in a ridiculous number of patterns, even tiny two-object patterns. what do i mean by pattern? some examples from this section:
00:45:836 (1,2) - this "long-short" sound packet is the building block of the section
00:47:474 (2,3,1) - same visual shape, but also same movement: counterclockwise. connects the "short" sound of the last packet with the "long" of the next.
00:54:112 (1,2) - same thing
00:55:491 (1,2,3,4,5) - new higher pitched sound calls for new pattern: till now the patterns and NCing have been short but this is a 5-object pattern of vertical objects
00:56:871 (1,2,3,1,2) - similarity in movement and visual
00:58:250 (1,2,3,1,2,1) - same thing.
01:02:388 (1,2,3,1,2) - horizontal-vertical into vertical-horizontal
01:03:078 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2) - one object can be part of two different patterns
01:05:147 (3,4) - transformation; counterclockwise into counterclockwise-ish
01:08:164 (1) - new section, new genius transformation pattern. easy to tell what's going on here. the vocals here are also beautiful, like a choir from beyond the mountains. very lovely
01:30:319 (1) - this section has three object-chains. the first two end by decreasing in sv. the third has a higher pitched sound, so the chain ends by increasing sv.
01:32:388 (1,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6) - three ncs, each one goes right to left
in section 1a rrtyui is mostly riffing on the same ideas as the music is repeating its rhythms, but in section b he goes absolutely buck wild. there is literally all sorts of shit in here. new patterns stop and start seemingly at random but none of it feels overdone. everything makes sense.
01:56:526 (1,2,3,4,5) - sudden stream cutting across the playfield, very beautiful
01:57:560 (1,2,3,4) - literally materializes out of nowhere disappears and you never see it again
02:00:664 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - down, left-right, left-right, up. one of my favorite patterns in the map
02:04:112 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) - a simple c-curve of circles somehow evolves into an s-curve of sliders
02:05:750 (1,2,3,4,5) - this is just here for some reason. but again, it works somehow
02:06:526 (1,1,2,3,1,2,3) - left-right-left into up-down-up
02:11:009 (1,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4) - beautiful pattern across the top that then peters out downward
02:17:474 (3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) -
02:23:767 (1) - until 02:35:836 (1) - genuinely demented. he sustains tension during the entire climax of the song with vertical sliders, while the entire map is thrashing itself left and right
02:58:250 (1) - brings back slider section (and the same transformation pattern afterwards) to tie the whole map together and prepare for the ending. the first time i saw the last section i was a little disappointed because it didn't go quite as crazy as the middle section, but it has since grown on me in a big way. i like how chill it is, and i like that it gives the spotlight to the climax at 2:25. it also expresses the melody and harmony in a way the other sections don't. when watching the map i never skip the ending anymore. perfect last pattern also
the quality of a map isnt defined by how long of an essay you can write on it. ive seen plenty of complicated idea-heavy maps that i feel didn't work. but to me this one is perfect
whole map is fantastic but everything after the break is some of the most magical mapping in the game to me. particularly after this point 04:03:212 (1) - . somehow he makes a melody out of the drums. the choices he makes here are pure alchemy. there's no simple formula, you can't be taught how to do this.
03:52:192 (1,2,1,2,3,4) - such a beautiful pattern. not only in a vacuum but in that context also
watch this map 10 times, 20 times, 100 times, it's still not enough. you can sense what rustbell wanted from every object. everything makes sense. mapping at its best is like a form of speaking, i don't know how else to put it. without effort you assemble letters to create words to create sentences, to spin from thin air new meaning which wasnt there before.
this is a bit before fanzhen finds his first signature visual style, but it's still a great map, and lots of fun to play.
big fan of the way he chooses to map this melody here 02:04:598 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2) - with the cute low ds doubles.
03:23:132 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3) - two sets of triangle patterns here; love how he insists on the same structure for both, even though the second one now has a note on the last sliderend.
my favorite pattern in this map has always been this little transition pattern here 01:39:781 (1,2,3,1,2,3) - . using visuals to draw a rhythmic parallel between two ostensibly unrelated sounds, creating a new musical structure.
"umm it says TRICK but its not TRICKY enough??"
who gives a fuck about the diffname man just look at the map. this is like looking at notch hell and saying "umm but where are the NOTCHES?" if u dont like the map in general thats fine but i feel like that criticism in particular is dumb
incredible song, and i dont think ive had so much fun playing a map in years. it knows when to stay and go according to the ebb and flow of the harmony. the chords refuse to resolve themselves, and to reflect this the map keeps itself in a state of perpetual rhythmic tension. it's not just the awkwardly bunched up notes, but the spaces between them: the airiness of the 1/2 sliders, the pre-kiai 1/2 gaps that then progress into the relentless kiai. it's a constant push and pull that never really finds release until the final note.
also working spectacularly with the tension of the song is kiddly's customary tidy linear cs5 style; it's like a molecular structure that is never broken and thus preserves its anxious energy. the contrast between structure and release is made especially stark in the modern-day mapping era, where mappers have liberated themselves from structure—rendering kiddly's style that much more effective here. this particular dynamic really only works with a song like nightwear; thus kiddly brings something new out of the song, and the song brings something new out of kiddly.
like you hated it so much and arent satisfied with it being a subjective hatred, it has to be objectively bad somehow
thats all fine. it sounds like you played it, and it was hard but in a way you didnt like, or just didnt like the map itself, and gave it ahlf a star. which i have zero problem with. but then being like "well it said tricky but its not tricky" is just kinda annoying, esp to someone like me who is fond of the map
not too interested in getting into specifics of what is or isnt a "design flaw" here. but after a certain point, even a mediocre mappers placements and rhythms are all (or almost all) intentional, let alone a mapper like kiddly. these are choices you can like or dislike, agree or disagree with, but i couldnt call them "flaws." i honestly have not seen a "flaw" in ages, even from maps i really hate, and i think calling it a flaw is simply incorrect. tbh it sounds like you just hated the map and for some reason arent satsified with just saying "idk i just dont like it" and have to come with all this othe rstuff that to me makes no sense
re: your last comment; it was kind of hard to parse so i coulda misinterpeted some stuff idk
by that logic literally no map could ever be "tricky"
i also dont think the map is that hard to even read or understand?? even if the map doesnt immediately click with you, just listen to the song, play it literally 3 times, give it a glance in editor if you have to. it's not tsuki yue
not you specifically but yes partially
i think circles and sliders should be the main factor in how you judge a map otherwise why are you even looking at a map? there are probably a few exceptions, this is not one of those exceptions
if you dont like the circles and sliders thats fine i literlaly do not care
judging a map based on how cheesable it is is silly imo. you can cheese anything. you can aim the sliderticks on notch hell. you can mash/doubletap streams. you can doubletap jumps. you can ignore sliderbodies on sliders. thats not on the map, thats on you.
plus isn't the fact that you had to "brute force" it at all a sign that the map was indeed to some extent tricky? and isn't the map itself sign enough that "trickiness" was not the SOLE goal, that he also wanted as usual to make a generally good beatmap that represented the song etc etc -- ie circles and sliders?
09:10:752 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) -
4 measures
first measure: 2 squares, then 4 sliders (last slider replaced by double)
second measure: 2 squares, then 4 sliders (last slider replaced by double)
third and fourth measures: 4 squares, 8 sliders (last slider replaced by double)
be sure to check out the expert diff, its slightly better imo. he made it after topdiff
me watching this map in editor: this is awful maps are meant to be played
me playing this map: pretty good
many things can be learned here. to me all the musical paydirt of mapping lies in the phrase: the rhythmic or melodic line. it's no use agonizing and digging deeper to try to express every detail (most of the time at least). it's much better to zoom out, so to speak, and make a pattern. noting where the music changes, and where it stays the same
i do think the first half is stronger than the second half. there's great stuff in the back half too but at that point it devolves mostly into spinners and long sliders. still i have no qualms calling this a masterpiece. loved this for a long time, it's just so catchy
00:57:607 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20) - sometimes all you gotta do is stack your shit. prob my favorite pattern
01:23:207 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4) - another great one
01:16:807 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,1,1,1,1) -
it was five years ago i dont remember exactly
i think i was looking up frank zappa maps
he logged in, uploaded his first two maps in two days (both great), and never uploaded again. didn't even learn how to place circles in a straight line. he overlapped 2b sliders and probably didn't even realize. i guess zappa enjoyers are just built different. goofy
something that many mappers understand intuitively, but many mappers (and most players) apparently don't: there are two ways of playing a map. you can play a map with your hands--the usual way--or you can play it with your eyes. playing with your eyes is different from just watching a map. you can watch centipede or fanzhen bbkkbkk, but you can't play them; there's nothing to play. but with your eyes you can play pretty much anything else, including xeroa and the double streams on rustbell circus galop. but you can't play with your eyes unless you have experience playing with your hands, because although they both operate on the same principles, one is an abstraction of the other.
are maps for ONLY for playing with your hands, and nothing else?; an age-old question posed by players and misguided mappers that operates on the assumption that the only worthwhile experience in the game is as a player. the fact is that both ways of playing offer different things, and a map will yield different subtleties depending on which way you choose. rainshower is maybe a little ass to play with your hands depending on your skillset, but in the editor it's a treasure trove of wonders.
at any rate, most mappers do know how to map in a way that "plays well," because we were all players at one point. the former #1 global who created atomosphere and and new astronomas isn't clueless as to what satisfies players. but we've since lost interest in rejecting out-of-hand one-half of all mapping possibilities...mapping is deeper and richer than merely what feels good to hit with a cursor. it feels strange to verbalize what is so obvious, but i guess to others it's not obvious.
anyways, the funny thing about this map is the kiai approaches the upper limit of what you can play with your eyes. unless you slow it down, it's hard to even hear what each slider is corresponding to. it's such a silly map, it's difficult not to fall in love. throwing the high-pitched squeaks in the corner 00:17:415 (2) - 00:20:795 (2) - is delightful, and of course the 1/16 NC spam is incredibly gratifying. 01:09:277 (1,1,1,1) - is more casual fanzhen genius, and the 01:16:248 (1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,1) - counterclockwise 4s into the clockwise 5 is classic fanzhen rhythm structure.
something in mapping that continually fascinates me is the ability to take a dogshit ugly slider and make it look good just by placing the right objects around it. yusomi is one of those few mappers who have the midas touch; he can take literally any awful material and make something great out of it
whole map is good (both diffs are good actually) but the section at 00:25:653 (1) - is perfect in every way. and it's not overdone--anything else would be underdone. i cant see it being mapped any other way. anyway this got last place in pdc
love this map. 20 minutes of utterly charming patterns and delightful ideas. the style pairs with the song perfectly. this probably wasn't easy to map, but the appearance of effortlessness is integral to its charm. there is such a self-assured sense of musicality here, which manifests itself in bizarre unintuitive choices that work against all odds. it's easy to map inside the lines, but how many people would choose to start this pattern on the SMALL white tick? 09:20:565 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) - but this is a million times better than the obvious choice.
i love the usage of stacks, symmetry, the evolving patterns...i don't know. as usual, the best things about good mapping are hard to describe in words. it's the way they interpret the music, organize it, present it to you. you hear the music through their ears. you just like their voice, it's hard to point out anything specific because it's everything.
anyway heres some cool patterns
00:23:649 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2,3,4) -
00:32:060 (4,5,6,7,8,1,2) - stacks
00:35:985 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10) - this is what im talking about. this isnt even a pattern theres nothing to point out. but its good, feels natural
00:55:051 (1,1,2,1,2,3,4) - fun repeat slider
01:05:985 (4,5,1,2,3,4,1,2,1,2) -
01:08:369 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3) -
01:14:116 (3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5) -
01:30:939 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9) -
01:55:612 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,1,1,1,1) -
02:38:088 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) -
03:05:705 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) - what a choice to do this here
03:09:630 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6) - splitting this into 6s, very fun
03:17:481 (4,5,6) - ecstasyYyyY
04:42:714 (1) - until the break. note where they use a 1/1 pause and where they don't, and then listen to that section again with that in mind. very important. similar concept in the last kiai of fanzhen's n.o.
06:01:079 (13,14,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12) - fun
06:08:509 (3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,1) - repetition of that top area
09:09:630 (1,2,3,4,5) -
09:15:238 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) -
10:29:256 (1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3) - grouping into 3s for no reason. so fun
10:48:322 (9,10,1,2,3,4) -
11:41:172 (1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3) - visuals. slowly rotating straights, then curving off into another place
12:03:462 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1) - ok
12:59:537 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11) -
13:09:770 (1) - love the tension building choice here. all triples
17:55:612 (4,5,6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6) -
i'll stop there. it's hard to point stuff out because many great patterns are hardly even patterns, and they dont make sense unless you see them flash before your eyes while listening to the song
truly a joyful map. the description says "my love letter to this game after 8 years" and it feels exactly like that
cookiezi once referred to rrtyui as a "hard worker"; maybe a backhanded compliment, the sting of which is made worse by the fact that rrtyui's best scores, though great, have not stood the test of time, whereas cookiezi's best scores can be considered pretty much immortal at this point. curiously enough the "hard worker" epithet seems to apply to rrtyui as a mapper also, but there's no backhandedness here. i think his maps are truly timeless. for many years it seemed like he was practically reinventing himself for every new map he made; new style, new ideas, new gameplay. in a certain sense he was the hardest working concept mapper. a number of years back (after atomosphere and chirality and so on) he became interested in the more visually iconoclastic styles; you can see the influence in his Favorites tab on his userpage. zev, hailie/cheri, monstrata alien, stuff like that, eventually culminating in experimental outings like giselle, hella deep, and white cube. what separated him from the other mappers was his discipline, his absolute faith in the strength of ideas. nowhere is this more evident than in rainshower--the thing is stuffed so full of ideas on a second-to-second basis that it threatens to overwhelm the viewer. it's actually insane. silentroom is NOT an easy artist to map, especially this track, but rrtyui somehow manages to make what is for me the quintessential silentroom map. all of shuu no hazama's emotion is perfectly conveyed, the map is every bit as chaotic and ambitious and grandiose as the song.
first, as with pretty much any good map, its different sections are so well differentiated, while still working together as a whole. rrtyui doesnt use bookmarks so a while back i made this graphic, kind of scuffed but does the job https://mel-oe.s-ul.eu/a8WZa3H4
00:23:767 (1) - slider section. to create a little extra structure he groups the sliders into twos 00:23:767 (1,1) - 00:26:526 (1,1) - 00:29:285 (1,1) - 00:32:043 (1,1) - . the ability to actually shape the music beyond just putting objects where sounds are--very important. he also alternates between slider-circle 00:24:802 (1,2) - and slider 00:24:802 (1,2,1) - to further separate the pairs.
00:34:802 (1) - till 00:39:802 (1) - is one long transformation pattern, he uses a lot of them throughout. theyre a great n easy way of creating a sense of progression, especially when the music is a bunch of atonal droning noise
00:45:491 (1,1,2,3,1) - throughout the map he deliberately plays with angles that most people including me avoid like the plague: 90 and 45 degrees. during this section (and some other sections too) he crams in a ridiculous number of patterns, even tiny two-object patterns. what do i mean by pattern? some examples from this section:
00:45:836 (1,2) - this "long-short" sound packet is the building block of the section
00:47:474 (2,3,1) - same visual shape, but also same movement: counterclockwise. connects the "short" sound of the last packet with the "long" of the next.
00:54:112 (1,2) - same thing
00:55:491 (1,2,3,4,5) - new higher pitched sound calls for new pattern: till now the patterns and NCing have been short but this is a 5-object pattern of vertical objects
00:56:871 (1,2,3,1,2) - similarity in movement and visual
00:58:250 (1,2,3,1,2,1) - same thing.
01:02:388 (1,2,3,1,2) - horizontal-vertical into vertical-horizontal
01:03:078 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2) - one object can be part of two different patterns
01:05:147 (3,4) - transformation; counterclockwise into counterclockwise-ish
01:08:164 (1) - new section, new genius transformation pattern. easy to tell what's going on here. the vocals here are also beautiful, like a choir from beyond the mountains. very lovely
01:30:319 (1) - this section has three object-chains. the first two end by decreasing in sv. the third has a higher pitched sound, so the chain ends by increasing sv.
01:32:388 (1,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6) - three ncs, each one goes right to left
01:48:940 (1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,2,3,4,5,6) - very cool stop and start stream. the end of one section and the start of another section are both part of the Same Pattern
in section 1a rrtyui is mostly riffing on the same ideas as the music is repeating its rhythms, but in section b he goes absolutely buck wild. there is literally all sorts of shit in here. new patterns stop and start seemingly at random but none of it feels overdone. everything makes sense.
01:56:526 (1,2,3,4,5) - sudden stream cutting across the playfield, very beautiful
01:57:560 (1,2,3,4) - literally materializes out of nowhere disappears and you never see it again
02:00:664 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - down, left-right, left-right, up. one of my favorite patterns in the map
02:04:112 (1,2,3,4,5,6,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) - a simple c-curve of circles somehow evolves into an s-curve of sliders
02:05:750 (1,2,3,4,5) - this is just here for some reason. but again, it works somehow
02:06:526 (1,1,2,3,1,2,3) - left-right-left into up-down-up
02:11:009 (1,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4) - beautiful pattern across the top that then peters out downward
02:17:474 (3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) -
02:23:767 (1) - until 02:35:836 (1) - genuinely demented. he sustains tension during the entire climax of the song with vertical sliders, while the entire map is thrashing itself left and right
02:47:043 (1,2,3,1,2,3) - you can consider the third slider in each of these the "payoff." notice how he delays payoff here 02:52:216 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3) -
map has a lot of these "folding/unfolding sliders" transformations
02:25:405 (1,2,3) - 02:26:095 (1,2,3) - 02:30:664 (1,2,3,4,5) - 03:24:457 (1,2,3) - 03:35:147 (1,2,3,1,2,3) -
02:58:250 (1) - brings back slider section (and the same transformation pattern afterwards) to tie the whole map together and prepare for the ending. the first time i saw the last section i was a little disappointed because it didn't go quite as crazy as the middle section, but it has since grown on me in a big way. i like how chill it is, and i like that it gives the spotlight to the climax at 2:25. it also expresses the melody and harmony in a way the other sections don't. when watching the map i never skip the ending anymore. perfect last pattern also
the quality of a map isnt defined by how long of an essay you can write on it. ive seen plenty of complicated idea-heavy maps that i feel didn't work. but to me this one is perfect
whole map is fantastic but everything after the break is some of the most magical mapping in the game to me. particularly after this point 04:03:212 (1) - . somehow he makes a melody out of the drums. the choices he makes here are pure alchemy. there's no simple formula, you can't be taught how to do this.
04:03:212 (1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4) - little movements here
it's incredible how much mileage he gets out of these simple lines of 1/2 circles. 04:14:998 (2,3,4,1,2,3,4,1) - 04:05:202 (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) - 04:08:110 (1,2,3,4,5,6) - 03:53:416 (1,2,3,4,5) - 03:57:549 (2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2) - nothing fancy is needed, simplicity is complicated enough already.
04:04:437 (1,2,3) - big movement to highlight the drums, BUT the exact same sound is later represented by a simple line of circles 04:09:335 (1,2,3,4) -
then the same sound, now represented by a simple slider 04:14:233 (1) - 04:16:682 (1) -
and finally he switches it up again with three sets of 4 04:18:518 (2,3,4,5,1,2,3,4,1,2,3,1) -
03:52:192 (1,2,1,2,3,4) - such a beautiful pattern. not only in a vacuum but in that context also
watch this map 10 times, 20 times, 100 times, it's still not enough. you can sense what rustbell wanted from every object. everything makes sense. mapping at its best is like a form of speaking, i don't know how else to put it. without effort you assemble letters to create words to create sentences, to spin from thin air new meaning which wasnt there before.
this is a bit before fanzhen finds his first signature visual style, but it's still a great map, and lots of fun to play.
big fan of the way he chooses to map this melody here 02:04:598 (1,2,1,2,1,2,1,2) - with the cute low ds doubles.
03:23:132 (1,2,3,4,5,1,2,3) - two sets of triangle patterns here; love how he insists on the same structure for both, even though the second one now has a note on the last sliderend.
my favorite pattern in this map has always been this little transition pattern here 01:39:781 (1,2,3,1,2,3) - . using visuals to draw a rhythmic parallel between two ostensibly unrelated sounds, creating a new musical structure.
"umm it says TRICK but its not TRICKY enough??"
who gives a fuck about the diffname man just look at the map. this is like looking at notch hell and saying "umm but where are the NOTCHES?" if u dont like the map in general thats fine but i feel like that criticism in particular is dumb
@dada this one is just two adjectives man its not that hard. the other ones idk
incredible song, and i dont think ive had so much fun playing a map in years. it knows when to stay and go according to the ebb and flow of the harmony. the chords refuse to resolve themselves, and to reflect this the map keeps itself in a state of perpetual rhythmic tension. it's not just the awkwardly bunched up notes, but the spaces between them: the airiness of the 1/2 sliders, the pre-kiai 1/2 gaps that then progress into the relentless kiai. it's a constant push and pull that never really finds release until the final note.
also working spectacularly with the tension of the song is kiddly's customary tidy linear cs5 style; it's like a molecular structure that is never broken and thus preserves its anxious energy. the contrast between structure and release is made especially stark in the modern-day mapping era, where mappers have liberated themselves from structure—rendering kiddly's style that much more effective here. this particular dynamic really only works with a song like nightwear; thus kiddly brings something new out of the song, and the song brings something new out of kiddly.
mafiamaster is him
transportive + hypnotic
an all timer, everything about it works like a dream. the visual structure here has a looser feel, akin to towards the tower. perfect bg
what he doin
a lost art. who can put the genie back in the bottle?