[Tru]

A lot to respond to. I'll try to sum up some thoughts.

This batch was created in part as a response to some recent trends in FFR submissions. Some folks have been pushing the boundaries of "tech" charts by including more factors that we would normally expect in dump charts. Judges have increasingly been fine with the minor use of such things.

Rainshower is among the most distinctly dump-focused file that has been released in FFR. When it was discussed in judge chat, the sentiment was very much "this is just an extension of the current submission trends" as well as being a well made file overall. It appears the playerbase is enjoying it as well, from the discussion in the SOTW and Discord.

In fact, Rainshower represents just one type of file that I'd expect to see actually submitted to this batch. FFR is very much just scratching the surface of what can be done with more "expressiveness" that dumps allow. This batch just "rips the band-aid off" by more openly allowing a dump approach to be considered valid.

That does not mean FFR is in danger of sacrificing it's traditional quality file roots. Dumps are no longer "just throw arrows anywhere," some of them have just as much, if not more explicit structure and such as "tech" files, and can be really fun. We're still expecting musical relevance for pattern/quantization/etc. choices and I wouldn't anticipate that going away for this batch or any other dump file sent in the future. Frankly this argument saddens me, it shows a lack of faith in the judge team to maintain file quality standards.



Side note that I agree with lofty that dumps have an unfortunate name, and indeed have outgrown that name. It's just what we're going with for now until the community comes up with a new colloquialism.

I also agree that dumps should be included in the main song list and don't need any particular designation/disclaimer. This one might become a staff discussion and decision so I won't elaborate much further.