Lowdiff Charting

Recommended Precursors:

Finished set up for a .xdrv chart (file organization, metadata, and timing)
Started patterning for a .xdrv chart
Informed of general charting principles and common patterns with and without gears

While creating higher difficulties (HY and EX) is the starting point for the majority of charters, making lower difficulties may also be of interest. It’s important to recognize that a portion of XDRV’s player base prefers to play the game’s easier difficulties (BG and NM). Therefore, if you want your charts to be more accessible to a larger portion of XDRV’s playerbase, making lower difficulties for each song you chart is the best way to do it. Of course, this statement comes with an obvious caveat–charting lowdiffs (shorthand for lower difficulties) takes time. It also takes a different suite of knowledge than charting for higher difficulties.

Charting Up vs Charting Down

When creating a full selection of difficulties (under the presumption that the charter plans to create a BG, NM, and HY), there are two ways that a charter can go through the charting process: charting up and charting down.

When charting down, the charter creates the chart with the highest difficulty first. Then, the charter works downward, creating content for each lower difficulty until the entire set of charts is done. Charting down is typically a much faster process than charting up, as content made for the previous difficulty can be simplified or removed without requiring sweeping redesigns or additions. This also results in a set of charts where similar skills are challenged across each difficulty.

When charting up, the charter creates the chart with the lowest difficulty first and then works upward until reaching and completing the hardest chart. Charting up allows for less reuse of code than charting down, as decisions made for a lower difficulty may not make sense in the higher one, requiring full redesigns on occasion. The result of this effort is that each chart in the set feels more unique from the previous.

When creating 4 or more difficulties, some charters like to split their approach in two different directions by charting up for the highdiffs (higher difficulties HY, EX, and OV) and then down for the lowdiffs. The order by which this is done does not matter. This results in the best of both worlds–continuity of skills for the lowdiffs and uniqueness for the highdiffs. With that said, the decision of charting up or down is based on the personal preference of the charter.

While we have not discussed modding yet, now is a good time to mention that modding down or up also results in a similar relationship. Modding down allows for more code reuse and cohesiveness, while modding up results in more unique mods for each difficulty.

Beginner-Difficulty Charting

When making beginner charts, the most important thing to consider is simplification. Beginner players have a harder time hitting atypical rhythms or following strange note arrangements. When creating charts for beginners, especially at the lower difficulties, your choices of rhythms should stick to 4ths and 8ths the majority of the time. In easier beginner charts, these groups are broken up into groups of 3 or 5. This leaves beat gaps where no notes exist, which is okay. The process of not representing every sound in a rhythm is known as syncopating, and many charts of all difficulties do this.

You also want to simplify what lanes you are placing your notes in to make them more readable. Notes that are placed in lanes distant from each other can be difficult for new players to read. In contrast, notes in adjacent lanes or the same lane can be easily followed by players. This is why many beginner charts use a lot of stairs and jacks (albeit at very low subdivisions). Beginner charts also use two-lane trills, mitigating the issue of readability by keeping distance consistent between notes. Gears are used very similarly to tap notes, although tap and gear patterns, when mixed, are less dense than tap or gear-exclusive patterns.

Though BEGINNER charts are mainly composed of single notes, these charts can still throw in one handed or two handed gears. However, when this is done, the chords are often surrounded by some empty beats. Sometimes, the lanes that a chord uses are notated by tap or hold notes prior. Hold notes are frequently used in beginner charts, though they are typically at least a beat long. Sometimes, the ends of hold notes are timed to a sound in the song, representing the song better without adding an additional input.

As previously stated, when drifts are used, the density of notes drops dramatically. In beginner charts, drifts are the primary element of expression when they are used. Also stated in [25] Adding Drifts, you need at least one note in the section for the drift to matter.

Normal-Difficulty Charting

While a lot of the rules of BEGINNER charting fall under the umbrella of “simplifying,” the rules of normal charting are a lot harder to pinpoint. Players that stick around NORMAL difficulties have developed the basic skills enforced in the BEGINNER chart. By and large, normal charting falls somewhere between the goals of simplification present in BEGINNER charting and accurate representation in highdiff charting. Lower numerical difficulties for NORMAL charts should use more simplification, while higher numerical difficulty charts should focus more on representation.

Author’s note: To the detriment of my own authority, I should say that I am still learning how to and improving how I create NORMAL difficulties, hence the vagueness of this section. This section may be expanded on in the future.

Experiencing the Difficulty Gradient

In XDRV, each type of difficulty corresponds to a different portion of the numerical scale. BEGINNER charts range from 1-6, NORMAL charts from 5-10, HYPER charts from 10-13, and EXTREME charts from 12-15. Charts of each numerical difficulty require a different approach to charting. The best way for charters to understand the nuances of XDRV’s difficulty gradient is to play through a selection of charts from the base game. Consider doing the following exercise:

Create a document or text file.
Choose a random chart of Difficulty 2, and play through it.
On the document / text file, take notes on stand-out decisions that the charter made for the chart. This could include where notes are placed, how note types are used, and how rhythms are used.
Either select a new chart of the same difficulty or a chart from one difficulty up. Then, progress forward.
Stop once you feel that you have seen enough charts and understand the difficulty gradient better.

Though it does take considerably more effort, adding lowdiffs to your custom charts is a great way to make your creation accessible to a larger portion of XDRV’s playerbase. By considering whether charting up or charting down is the right approach, applying general practices for beginner charts, and striking a good balance between simplicity and representation, you can create lowdiff charts that fit perfectly within the larger chart catalog and difficulty scale of XDRV.