35
28
21
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7
Steel Master Spark :: FFR Batch Submission
Hateandhatred -
Steel Master Spark -
Aquaelie [5.75 / 10]
17th Official Tournament
PublicEvents
Rejected
AQUAELIE blanket perm
Big cleanup from the latest submission (https://www.flashflashrevolution.com/batch_submission/batch/?id=2135).
Cute high energy stamina file with some serious curveballs. Hopefully worth a bounty considering there are a few left in the 90-100 range, where this chart likely lands. The estimator says 92, I think that's too low.
As for what the judges said back then:
Around 1:01, there are some minijacks that are questionable. I do think they are meant to be there, but like OP mentionned, they are only audible once. I still think they make sense in this chart, and it doesn't seem like the judges had a particular issue with them, but they had to point that out.
Deamerai asked about the JS motif: Most of the js has jumps representing the melody, but given that the js in this chart covers constant 16th guitar chugging, we took a different approach with it, trying to make it as stamina draining (alternating hands) as possible without making it too generic. It's a little bit abstract, but I think it fits the energy.
Other than that, all recommended fixes (except one thing I think? Can't recall what it was) have been applied.
This file is a collab between the follow step-artists:
Hateandhatred, Kommisar
Cute high energy stamina file with some serious curveballs. Hopefully worth a bounty considering there are a few left in the 90-100 range, where this chart likely lands. The estimator says 92, I think that's too low.
As for what the judges said back then:
Around 1:01, there are some minijacks that are questionable. I do think they are meant to be there, but like OP mentionned, they are only audible once. I still think they make sense in this chart, and it doesn't seem like the judges had a particular issue with them, but they had to point that out.
Deamerai asked about the JS motif: Most of the js has jumps representing the melody, but given that the js in this chart covers constant 16th guitar chugging, we took a different approach with it, trying to make it as stamina draining (alternating hands) as possible without making it too generic. It's a little bit abstract, but I think it fits the energy.
Other than that, all recommended fixes (except one thing I think? Can't recall what it was) have been applied.
This file is a collab between the follow step-artists:
Hateandhatred, Kommisar
- The sim folder name isn't as expected: "Steel Master Spark (Hateandhatred & Kommisar)" vs "Steel Master Spark (Hateandhatred)"
- This file is a collaboration between multiple authors / stepauthors.
Simfile Folder Name
Steel Master Spark (Hateandhatred & Kommisar)Note Count
3154Chart Length
3:37Average NPS
14.7177Estimated Difficulty
92.63
First Note
0:03Ending Note Delay
0:01Hand Bias
x -6
Framers
0 - 0 1 - 0 2 - 46 3 - 64 4 - 163Jumps
x 614
Hands
x 147
Quads
x 0
Color Jumps
x 2
Color Hands
x 10
Color Quads
x 0
Most notes in:
1/3 of a Second10 - 30.00 nps 0.5 Seconds
13 - 26.00 nps 1 Second
23 - 23.00 nps 2 Seconds
41 - 20.50 nps 5 Seconds
95 - 19.00 nps 10 Seconds
188 - 18.80 nps 30 Seconds
538 - 17.93 nps 1 Minute
1005 - 16.75 nps
Color Count
x 1166 (36.97%)
x 911 (28.88%)
x 68 (2.16%)
x 891 (28.25%)
x 67 (2.12%)
x 17 (0.54%)
x 10 (0.32%)
x 9 (0.29%)
x 15 (0.48%)
Posted at 7:54pm on August 10th, 2025
Steel Master Spark
~~
** Anchoring in this file does not make sense. Heavy anchoring isn't always bad, but it *does* require care: it should be done intentionally & with explicit relevance to the music. In this case, it is not. For instance, the following long anchors don't make any musical sense:
--> 42.766: 11-note anchor on column 2, no repeating sound
--> 47.955-52.819: Extremely anchored on left hand, culminating in a 10-note column 1 anchor
--> 86.306-87.198, 88.900, etc: Column 2, exacerbated by the 16th minijack leading into this anchor
--> 86.873-87.441, 89.468, etc: Column 4 (8th jack into 16th jack is hard!!)
--> 132.766-133.902: Column 3
Numerous smaller examples are present throughout the file.
The thing is, there *are* opportunities for long anchors that are completely musically justified, but these are not followed. The guitar chugging from 44.387-53.468 could absolutely have 8th anchors that change columns with the PR of the guitar. 102.766-104.064 is a great example of a musically justified long anchor. More of that, please!!
** The difficulty curve also has issues. Some comments on that front:
--> 1.889, 211.254: Jacks that end in a 1-handed jump (or contain them in the middle) are much harder than those that don't. Please fix the transitions out of these, these are the only two such jacks in the file.
--> 101.426-102.543 is really intensely difficult. These are effectively the speed of 24ths; anchory patterns here are fine, but they need to be a little nicer than this.
--> 111.253-112.010, 113.577-114.118, 114.550-115.253: The rest of this 24th stream is pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in the difficulty curve of this file, but these patterns are clearly across the line. Right hand is ridiculously difficult at the first timestamp; column 1 is brutal in the second and third.
--> 116.712: This jack is way too hard, especially with the notes on column 3 immediately before and after it. I notice *both* judges indicated that this jack was very spiky the first time you sent this file and you still did not change it. Bold move.
--> 199.659: ^
I find that this file frequently passes up opportunities for difficult and interesting patterns that make musical sense in favour of opportunities for difficult and interesting patterns that do not make musical sense (or are just totally out of line with the rest of the chart). I've given one example of how to add anchor/split-handed difficulty responsibly--I understand this was one of your goals with the chart--but if you want more, just shoot me a DM. I will say as well, though--this is not 2012. FFR cares a lot more about spikiness now than it did before. You would be well served to pay more attention to judge notes on difficulty spikes. Those things will not just sneak through now, and especially they would immediately disqualify files from being used in tournaments. [5.5/10]
Judge Score: 5.50 - Rejected
Posted at 10:32am on August 11th, 2025
Permission good (blanket)
Sync can be improved: see below
Metadata good
- 23.630: sync is off, 4ths should be aligned at 23.637
- 23.873, 25.171, etc.: there are clear melodies here that could be jumps; as it is, jumps are only placed at 8ths making it pretty bland compared to the actual music
* 42.765-44.386: remove the anchor at column 2
** 47.954-52.819: super heavy left hand bias
- 50.305, 51.603, etc.: there are clear drums here that could be jumps; same issue as above
- 1:10.819: not jump, doesn't vibrate
- 1:17.630: move to a different column to distinguish with 1:17.468
* 1:26.224-1:27.197, 1:28.819-1:29.792, etc.: heavy anchor at column 2, move those 8ths to somewhere else
- 1:36.278-1:38.873: layering is inconsistent with the subsequent section; no drum is being stepped there
** 1:51.252-1:52.009: this right hand is too much. Use a more balanced stream; something like 421323 could work
- 1:54.820: not a huge spike like above but would like to see this at column 2
** 1:56.631-1:57.036: this is a 16th transitioning into a 4-jack on the same hand, followed by another 16th and a minijack on the same column transitioning out of it. If you want to keep the 4-jack, move it to the left hand, and remove 1:56.631 as it's not audible enough.
- The rest of the music loops, so refer to the notes above. In general, watch out for those anchors that are not musically justified (not only in the timestamps I pointed out, but throughout the chart), as they can often end up awkward to play if not careful.
- 3:33.199-3:34.172: a lot is going on in the music but the pattern is just 2 rolls followed by 3 rolls
I see that some of the notes from the first submission were indeed applied, but there are dubious anchors and spiky streams that I think should have been marked with at least a *, plus a jack spike that was not sufficiently fixed. As these issues persist throughout the chart, the amount of change needed feels too much for an FR unfortunately.
Judge Score: 6.00 - Rejected