How do I rate charts well?

I started making simfiles a week or two ago. I've finished two or three files, but the ratings I gave them ended up being way off. What are some tips to help me rate my charts better?

1. Use stepmania rating that you can see on chart info. It is more or less okayish (doesn't work for charts over ITG diff 10).
2. Compare your simfiles to official simfiles.
3. Compare your simfiles to other original simfiles.
4. Compare your simfiles to your other creations.

Play more simfiles (I recommend official ddr charts) and get the grasp of how difficult your sim ends up compared to them and rate accordingly.

Personally, the easiest way I find rating stepfiles is:

* Download CyberiaStyle: LAST APPROACH theme
* Go to Settings > Gameplay/Section Options > Gameplay Options > Meter. Change to "CSStyle"
* Go into the Select Music screen and find your song
* Change the rating to the corresponding rating given in Select Music.
* If you want the ratings to use the ITG scale, simply divide the rating given by 1.5

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Don't fret, because we all make rating errors. People who watch my edit charts suggest me a different rating, especially for those non-existent levels that are too ridiculous to actually play (OP, you know what I'm talking about ). Before you start rating stuff yourself, it's definitely worthwhile to go through as many official files as you can like Aegis wrote. You ultimately want to be able to analyze them and see what makes them warrant a certain difficulty rating.

The best way to get used to rating stuff is by playing them, because then you start to realize what patterns are hard and whatnot. If you know enough charts, you can start comparing your files to a chart that is similar (in BPM, length, patterns, etc.). This does take time. It's also a good idea to actually try playing through your own file or to have someone play on your behalf, because in that case, you can compare experiences in difficulty.

A friend of mine actually sent me a small pack of simfiles where he wasn't sure about what to rate them, and asked me for rating feedback. You could definitely ask around for rating suggestions and why they would rate your files a certain number. Granted, no one has perfectly accurate judgment, but this is definitely something you can try. If your files are meant to be X-scale rated, I for one am willing to help you!

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I feel like my main issue is that I can't "see" crossovers in my charts or in others. I notice them when I'm playing, but for some reason I just forget about them afterwards.

An alternative to playing the charts is to put a chart on AutoPlay and use your hands as if you're playing on a pad. Personally, that has been the most effective way to observe crossovers, spins, footswitches, etc. and in some cases, where flow is broken. Like anything else, it takes practice. Try that a few times with official stepcharts! Hopefully this helps.

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You could also just use 4, 2, 8, and 6 on your keyboard's numpad (for left, down, up, and right respectively) and use your index fingers to play. This is what I and a lot of other pad simfile artists do to test their files.

As far as rating files goes: Like everyone said you just need to play a lot of different files and get a feel for what defines each difficulty. Nobody's perfect at rating charts so don't feel too bad if your ratings are a bit off.

Don't use the SM editor's suggested rating. I've had so many ratings that were hilariously off and it's not reliable. Difficulty calculators like the ones in themes like CyberiaStyle: LAST APPROACH and waiei are better but they're still not perfect.

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Yeah I suppose you can do that, but from what I've noticed from my keyboard-playing friends is that such an approach to play is not really helpful in determining foot ratings, if you are not already familiar with how to rate charts for a pad file (like in the case of this poster here). While the use of index fingers is certainly a good suggestion (much better than use of four fingers), it's too easy to either trip up hitting another key if done properly, or to just have each finger assigned to two arrows for simplicity (because the distance between two keys is really too close). I would bet that many players just end up cheating on that one just because it's so easy to. Pluto Relinquish S- is easier than IX S- on a keyboard's number keys, for instance. One of my YouTube viewers have also asked me why I think hitting a jack-jump is often easier than hitting a jump that is on two totally different arrows from the last arrow. The most reliable way, of course, is to actually get up and play on a pad. Because of this, quite a few keyboard or controller players tend to underestimate the difficulty of crossover patterns and other step complexities.

I second this wholeheartedly. Suggested ratings built into any program cannot judge pattern difficulty as far as I know.

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