Here are all of my mentorship discussions, starting from 2019. Note that these discussions are informal in nature. If you are interested in becoming a mentee, read my mentoring page. If you want a more streamlined learning process, check out my guides.
currently a heated debate in the mentorship discord about how to score creativity
the idea is that if you follow all mapping concepts then your map demonstrates mapping expertise but does that mean it lacks creativity?
the issue I have with some maps is that they play so perfectly that u know what 2 expect
but with older maps the contrast was more and there were defining moments in the map
halfslashed agrees with this idea btw, older maps generally contrast phrases of the song more than newer ones (which focus more on a uniform playing experience)
recall that this uniformness is ideal for tournament maps and a lot of mappers are also tournament mappers, so this could explain their natural tendency to avoid e.g. drastic changes in difficulty for song emphasis
some people believe that if you're making maps specifically for tournaments then they aren't real maps since they're not expressive enough / lack full creative freedom / etc
the quirkiness of some older maps is part of the reason why people play them (freedom dive, kirby mix, etc)
if they were remapped in 2021 following all the concepts we use today, would players still consider those maps special in terms of the map itself? or just unique in terms of song/difficulty?
some mappers think creativity shouldn't exist in mapping contests
others think it's necessary to differentiate the safe maps from the ones that deviate from traditional norms
maybe mappers get offended when other mappers call their map generic in the creativity section
you could like mapping a certain way that just became so popular that it's now a generic style, for example
currently listening to the full version of an anime song and it's pretty generic in terms of creativity but I guess it shows expertise? lol
guess this song could make for a good tournament map since it's so consistent
don't think I'll map it though since nothing stands out enough to have defining parts in a beatmap
2021-07-06
generally think there's a difference between mappers that copy the patterns they see in order to make something rankable and mappers that create their own patterns based on theoretical knowledge of mapping
let's call the former type a mappers and the latter type b mappers
pretty sure I shared this before but I think it's important
some mentors make their mentees map just like them (since that's how they wanna map I guess lol)
mainly referring to the mentors that specialize in a certain category of maps commonly associated with rewarding the so-called "performance points"
anyway the point is halfslashed didn't teach me how to map just taught me some theories of mapping (how you actually map is up to you)
Creative problem solving requires (1) vast expert knowledge of high stability, and (2) rich new knowledge of high retrievability. Vast stable knowledge makes it easy to solve algorithmic problems. Those problems can be solved at low energy expenditure with the help of fast thinking. Problems that require "thinking out of the box" rely on creativity, i.e. association of remote ideas.
so the stable knowledge would be stuff u know u need to do while mapping
and since u know u need to do those things u can think fast about them since u're not questioning whether or not u can or should do something
I believe that restricting yourself in some way (e.g. symmetry only, tourney map) limits the amount of creativity you can achieve if you didn't have that restriction
of course such a restriction can also force you to make more creative decisions, I suppose it depends on the song and feel of the map itself
Problems that require "thinking out of the box" rely on creativity, i.e. association of remote ideas.
if u only know how to map a certain way then it will be more difficult to associate remote ideas since u don't have them
but if u understand how maps work then u can use that while mapping to make basically anything u want
the less time u need to think about whether something is good or not the more time u can actually be creative with what u're making
for these contests you have to choose a mapping style that enables you to show the most mapping expertise
zev's entry is simplistic in nature compared to DeviousPanda's
side note: this could be why some mappers like andrea that are capable of producing rankable maps don't participate in contests
just using andrea as an example, although the general idea is mappers that are capable of producing rankable content but know that their mapping style won't score high in contests
2021-06-27
have I mentioned fanzhen's map today btw? gonna mention it again anyway since I think it's one of the best maps to reference when it comes to mapping concepts
although I like flux3on's mapping style, the symmetry restriction prevents certain parts of the song from being expressed as well as they could (see https://osu.ppy.sh/beatmapsets/1401708#osu/2891558, fanzhen's map doesn't have this restriction)
both are rankable and demonstrate a high knowledge of mapping, the way fanzhen mapped it just demonstrates more mapping expertise
2021-06-28
disappointed that generic high diffs placed higher than me in MSS but they do demonstrate more mapping expertise than I did (I believe I followed the song more closely however)
I assume the judges and the mappers making the generic maps don't know japanese so that could be part of the reason why cool lyrics go unexpressed
my diff was also on the lower side in terms of sr since I wanted to map something I could play (and since higher sr leaves less room for error, it tends to demonstrate more mapping expertise)
some of these maps are pretty good so I don't mind losing to them
for my map I could've remapped the beginning and I also had a snapping error (didn't hitsound either rip)
thought I was improving my mapping speed but these mappers can map way faster than me
fanzhen0019's real to me map is absolutely amazing when it comes to song expression btw
part of the reason most high diffs uninterest me is because the mapper prioritizes using certain structures over choosing structures that follow the song
sure it's rankable but you could give your map more personality for the song you're mapping
btw I am also uninterested in low diffs that do the same thing not just high diffs
once you become skilled enough at mapping, you may think of several different ways to map something and consider the pros/cons of each, i.e. "I could map it like this, but can I do something better instead?" where what you "could" map would be a perfectly valid and rankable map, although you may want to push boundaries instead
in contrast the sets I linked earlier of the new mappers looked like they were following a youtube formula or something
once you become skilled enough at mapping you may also become a bit lazy and map perfectly rankable low diffs even though you know you ignored other mapping ideas so you could map it faster
