Deleting storybaords, backgrounds and skins is possible due to the currently open nature of beatmaps. Without getting into a debate over what is right or wrong, I would like to know the general ratio of people who do this -- mainly to reinforce my beliefs that the number isn't as high as some people think.

If you make a post starting any kind of debate it will be removed.

If you choose the last option, providing examples of maps is highly encouraged!

I've removed nearly-invisible objects and wrongly-coloured hitbursts because these interfere with my playing.

I delete everything on every map (SB/Background/Skin).

I only like to play with my skin. Rarely any other, unless they're bland and solid like a few maps out there. THough I didn't notice the BG, I only delete this when its a bad BG and blends with stuff.

Only when it interferes with gameplay - usually spinner/cursor combos that just go practically invisible during spinning and sometimes hitbursts, but that's pretty rare when the combination of mapping style (lots of overlapping) and hitbursts covering too much becomes a gameplay issue. In general, this has only happened with very old maps for me.

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.

I hardly never delete elements, but if they are distracting I remove them or just play another map.

Only when it interferes with playing, namely colors that don't distinguish visibly between 300's and 100's, and BG's that make the circles hard to see.

When causes me lag or they severely interfere with playing.

My eyes are really bad,so i delete most of stuffs in mapsets
it`s just me, most people will vote 3 or 4 i guess

Not delete, just moves them into a new folder. If the SB is very nice, I will move it back.

Yeah almost in everymap.Includes SB,SKIN and BG.

I always delete the following:

hitcircleoverlay.png
approachcircle.png

I usually delete the following:

hit 300, 100, 50 (if it's difficult to tell the difference between 300 and 100 while playing; this is usually the case in map specific skins)

I rarely delete spinners. If I'm deleting spinners, it's because they blend in way too well with the hit-circle overlays and approach circles.

I sometimes delete SB flashes if they are incredibly flashy, like http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/14243 and http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/11788

Side note: Due to the nature of Hard Rock and Flashlight (and probably Doubletime), these mods are quite a bit easier without a background due to the higher contrast between the (lack of) background and the followpoints and/or hitcircles.

I play the map as they were made

But that probably because I play to enjoy everything on the map even if it interfering with playing

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.
And I restore them after playing.

Apparently I'm really tolerant with map elements because I don't a case where I have deleted any. Anything that I think would interfere with me playing to the point of me having to delete the elements would probably never be ranked in the first place or be an intentional novelty that I wouldn't remove.

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing~

1. sb that causes lag
2. sb that makes me feel sick (eg. with the whole image flashing/rotating/moving)
3. hit 300 100 50 if the colors look alike
4. spinner without center
5. approachcircle and hitcircleoverlay sometimes
6. ...

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.
After playing, I restore them.

I delete almost every skin, as I can only play with my skin (the default one without 300). But I keep the storyboards, especially if they are well-made.

I rarely delete things (ok I'm rarely playing), but generally, I delete skins that are kinda "lol" and completely different from mine.

I generally leave the SBs unless it is REALLY, but REALLY problematic.

Some maps where the SB makes the map live won't be deleted (like StrangeProgram for example :p )

I only take stuff out of the song folder when I am playing in a tournament. And even then I am moving everything back aftersaid tournament.
So yeah never removing anything.

Firo Prochainezo wrote: 4r3g6v

I hardly never delete elements, but if they are distracting I remove them or just play another map.

^

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.

if the BG or SB is too annoying or white flash askljdalsbdjkadbajd ill delete it

but ill always delete the skin elements in the map

since i cant play well with other skins except the one i used to play

No deleting, but I move elements into a new folder when I experience lag.
There were only 2 or 3 times I did that solely because of eye sore.

yes, whenever they worsen the gameplay of a map and I feel like getting a decent score on it

edit: skins apart, of course. Playing with a different skin is almost like using a different mouse which I'm not used to, so I delete about every custom skin I get from maps...

I've often thought about deleting elements when hitobjects start blending into the background- especially when both are very bright- but never actually done it. Not so much out of consideration for the feelings of people who created the map as out of laziness. If there was an option to override the forced skin I'd use it, sometimes.

Yes, if i don't like the skin or storyboard is quite annoying.

No other reasons :/

I play the maps as they were made..

I deal with annoying songs, especially K-on skins where it will lag/distract too much..
Minor Lag/Distractions are parts of a game.. its a challenge for me I guess?

I play the maps as they were made.

if i can't play well with them i'll choose to play another map.

I have never deleted any element of any map even if they annoyed me, because I respect mapper's work.
I play the maps as they were made.

Personally I have deleted every hitx from my songs folder. When playing maps for the first time unless the BG/SB is highly interfering with my gameplay I won't delete it (mostly because I play the map once just to get the S). When playing maps where getting an S becomes harder, I usually delete the BG and the whole skin (sometimes I even let the SB there, like some slowly moving lyrics, in fact on most of S i R i R u maps I deleted everything but the SB, since they aren't really distracting).

Of course, when getting ranked scores or trying to achiieve something really difficult, deleting everything from the map is a must for me, specially while doing HR or Hidden since I need to have a clear vision of the map itself.

P.S.: By deleting I mean moving then into a New Folder I create on the song's folder, I usually do that if I like the stuff I'm removing for playing reasons, unless the elements I'm removing make the map awfully unplayable (like most NatsumeRin map's BG) I just move them.

i almost always delete de skins (i play with a custom one), and hit 300.
I delete de BG and SB (rename them inside the same folder) when i want to play DT, HD or HR. And also delete the SB with a lot of flashes cuz i'm hipersensitive to light u.u

ps: I have to say that any skin that is not my own (default skin a bit modified) severely interferes with my playing :/.

skin elements is an always (except in some cases where the skins are actually simple and clean enough for me)

SB depends; if it lags, delete. If it's like flashing all the freaking time (*looks at a particular recently ranked map*), delete. If it's just simple lyrics or something simple that doesn't really detract from playing, I don't see any value in deleting it.

I don't mind BG, so they stay.

If map have SB folder I only change name this map for play time, and when i complete work with map i change all to normal. I respect mappers work, but sometimes this SB lookig so weird and can't play with it... I always think the best alternative to SB is make it like a movie in some video editing program, but this is easy way form my because i work in this programs.

I sometimes delete skin elements when they make playing the map impossible for me, some examples would be http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/21218 or http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/14208. I'm getting used to play with them though xD too lazy to get on the folder =w=

I rarely delete storyboards even if they lag me, but there can be exceptions, pretty much like the maps Lybydose already mentioned.

Generally disable video and combo fire. Former is a distraction for me and heaps pressure on me. Skins....well they don't affect me too much at all really, and background is something I hardly take notice of while playing.

I think I've replaced one or two skins that came with the map but that was because they were utterly horrible in my opinion. In most cases I don't bother deleting things.

I used to remove only hitbursts in some extreme cases (when they're all the same colour, for example) a lot of time ago, but it's been a while since i decided not to remove anything from any map.

I can concur that some maps have disturbing elements (mostly epilepsy inducing SBs), but if i can't play with them i just flat-out delete the whole mapset and forget about it.

On the other hand, some maps should NEVER have SB/skins removed, such as Don't stop me Now, I Can Be Your Friend, and most of the fully storyboarded maps you can find here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=28932&start=0

I think I deleted an SB only once (I just can't look at this strobe)
Or a couple of times because of the same strobe..
Or this:

I can concur that some maps have disturbing elements (mostly epilepsy inducing SBs), but if i can't play with them i just flat-out delete the whole mapset and forget about it.

Skin elements are usually fine for me

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.

If they don't, I'll keep them.

euhm...+1

since i'm using a PC that barely can run osu! ;_;, i'm deleting most of the SB elements (unless they're really simple, like speed-up warning, lyrics and stuff). about skin elements, i delete them only when i find them distracting and they're making the map harder to read (like same color hitbursts, ugly approachcircle.png and hitcircleoverlay.png). and finally, the background. i usually leave it as it is, but sometimes it blends with circles' colors and makes them harder to read (also, like Lybydose said, deleting BG can make playing with hr/fl quite easier), or it's ugly in general :p

"I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing."
I mainly delete Aproach Circles and lkeave the skin as it is though, because when the combocolor choice isn't nice I just like to replace the aproach circle for something that's more readeable (visible) than the default one. Aside from that, I mostly play with all the skin elements and SB

I delete stuff if it bothers me while playing.
Examples:

Massively flashing SBs like http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/17670 or 90% of Nightcore maps
Skins where I can't read elements correctly (for example if the combo number blends in with the hitcircle overlay or the score sprites are too similar/not intuitive to me) - prime example for the second case: http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/18191
Also, Spinners where you can't see the center since I have the awful habit of spinning in way too small circles and I fail spinners if I don't see the center
Backgrounds only if I can't see the hitcircles properly - mostly Jumpmaps with weird patterns (http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/21877) or sometimes maps with AR9/10 but there are some maps where the combo colours just blend in. Ephemeral's Bad Apple, I'm looking at you :<

ummm, the only time I delete things is if the elements make the combo colors blend or if the score sprites look similar.
especially those flashy SB and semi-transparent SBs. which its , 1) escape to song selection and delete.
I sometimes deletethe bgs for maps that I am DTing or have high AR rates

I delete Skins in every map that has a skin (yes , i hate the ones that forces the default one lol) , and keep the SB's .. i got used too much with my skin and can't really play with another one without playing really bad , the SB's doesn't really bother me , in fact they make the maps more fun to play

i never delete anything, unless someone wants me to test play something and my pc is in a bad mood and lags up (happened once with me and ouran :/)

but yea i kno how much work go into SB's and stuff so i always try to leave everything as it was made, dang im that bad i rarely even play no vid xD

Only storyboard i deleted was this http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/11947 and that was because I was at school
As for skins, I usually delete the fruits for catch the beat since it screws me up

I always delete the custom skin because I prefer to play with my own skin, I don't dump the SB unless it's full of annoying flashing shit (aka every nightcore BGs ever).

I stuck between second and third option. But i finally chose third.
Soo:
SB: I delete it when map is hard, and SB flashes and blabla makes it even more harder and makes me blind. Examples: DJ Sharpnel - StrangeProgram, System of a Down - Vicinity of Obscenity. Also when SB contains colorful fast moving object, or when I just don't like the SB.
BG: I put it to trash when Combo colors are the same or very similar to BG which makes approach circles barely visible (i'm still wondering why BAT's are ranking maps like this). Also when it's very colorful. Ex: Hatsune Miku & Megpoid Gumi - MATRYOSHKA [Insane].
Skin: I delete EVERY hit300, hit100 and blabla objects, and usually hitcircles, appcircles too. I usually don't mind of the rest. I say "usually" cause i delete it too when it looks ridiculous for me and annoys me. ^_^ I'm not giving examples here, cause there is very many custom skins and it's not hard to find it. And because i'm lazy to continue this post.

I hate to say it, but I'm also guilty of occasionally removing skin elements. SB/Background? Maybe once or twice, but only in extreme/old cases.

However, when I remove skin elements, it's usually only the hitbursts. I can think of a few skins where the hitbursts are all one color (e.g. red or yellow) and it makes it too difficult to tell how I'm playing. I think I'm doing fine, but then get to a break and find out that my acc is below 90% due to high OD and indistinguishable 300/100s.

I would never delete anything at all.

Centereless spinners really piss me off though

I don't think i have ever deleted a SB because usually SB's won't cover hitcircles so they don't really make it harder to see (unless it has retarded strobes).

The only reason i delete elements is usually because they hide the hitcircles somehow, or make them more difficult to see (hitcircle overlays being weird, hitbursts blending in with hitcircles and BG, spinners with no center point). But i also get distracted easily, so i can really only play osu! properly with my own skin (or osu! default skin) so i usually end up deleting most skin elements.

Example

A skin like this won't really distract me cause it's pretty simple


However, a skin like this with transparent circles and different hitburst is really hard to see.


So what i'm hoping to see when osz2 comes out is being able to disable skin, allthough i guess we shouldn't get into that topic here.

I've done it a few times to playtest while modding, but never while actually playing. If it's a finished map and the skin/SB/whatever sucks, I just stop playing and move on to something else.

i delete everything, its distracting and silly imo

I won't delete any sb&skins unless they r EXTREMELY annoying.

Voted 3 - I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.

Bad

MINAMOTRANCE - Love Colors

Spinners like this really irritate the crap out of me, since I spin in small circles, I can't see where the hell I'm spinning and I normally delete them asap.

Indifferent

Hatsune Miku - Star Story

Skins like this isn't annoying and I normally don't delete them.

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.

I used to delete the heavy sb cause my pc can't handle them, but since i have changed it, i don't have that need anymore.

And as for the skin elements, i will always delete those hitburst that are all the same colour or almost the same, and nearly invisible hit circles.

It's very stupid to play a stream and not really knowing if youre doing 300's, 100's or 50's so you could adjust yourself to go faster or slower.

I delete everything, almost always. I keep only custom hitsounds

3rd option, see Poker face map for more details: http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/24782

Lunah wrote: 5w3v3y

I delete everything, almost always. I keep only custom hitsounds

alot of custom hitsounds dont start on time properly so leave me going slightly late as i play most fully by ear (shit eyes y0y0) so i delete EVERYTHING, ALWAYS. the only time i didnt was http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/16789 because mostly black bg anyways

I'm to lazy to delete elements every time, but if sbskin is terrible or i play hidden, i'll most likely delete everything.

I delete everything on every map usually
sometimes keep bg

I don't delete anything, in case I don't like whatever the map has, I just go and play another map.

i never delete anything
song feels so plain to me without a bg/sb elements effects etc
it's one of the factors which give each map its uniqueness imo

I am torn between
I delete elements on a regular basis.
and
I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing

I don't mind BG/Skin when i'm playing with no mod but I rename them for mod play.

I always delete skin though, no exception.

Side note: Due to the nature of Hard Rock and Flashlight (and probably Doubletime), these mods are quite a bit easier without a background due to the higher contrast between the (lack of) background and the followpoints and/or hitcircles.

I thought FL players wouldn't care about BG as it's always black anyway..

I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing.


i enjoy playing with the video ON and appreciate having SB activated, in most cases it helps me focusing and being in the mood of the song.
I ire heavy skins (astom?) but they get in the way too much and RUIN Gameplay which should be the most important aspect of the game in my opinion.

I always delete BG, Skin and Video because I play only with hard rock mode and when the approach rate is 10 the BG become really annoying.
Also because osu folder become heavy when you have more than 5000 maps and don't delete the elements (but I guess this one isn't a good reason ) .

I always delete skin/sb/bg.
I've his for 2 months now, and game experience have been so much better. As it is a game I want to become better at I remove
annoying elements (this is more because of a colourful bg than a fancy skin), that prevent me from concentrating on the actual gameplay that I enjoy so much.

3.

I delete hitx if I can't distinguish them (which means I play with them atleast once :p). This doesn't really mean every hitx that have the same color, just those I can't distinguish xD. Spinner-spins with pictures that, when rotating, makes 38904845 x colors everywhere, which makes it impossible to see my cursor (I force my cursor btw). Overlays only when they make the circles harder to see, and approachcircles that doesn't fit.

As for SB, I aaalmost never delete them unless they're REALLY annoying. I play nightcore flashy maps just fine.

When playing Hardrock or Flashlight (and I guess Doubletime? I don't really play that much, and atleast yet I haven't played anything hard enough for me to delete anything), I delete the background (not if the background is pretty dark already tho :p), tho I never touch the BG otherwise. Playing with these mods are the only time I delete SB even if it's just a little distracting or something. Which, btw, means most of the SB/BG/Skin elements are still there (well maybe not skin :p)

Then again, every file is still in their respective folders, where I always copy-paste the files before deleting them, leaving that nice "copy" tag to them ^^

I picked 4 even though there was one time I removed an SB, and that was just because on my old computer it couldn't handle it and I wanted to play the map. But now that I have a much better computer, I don't remove anything really, partly because I find my sight to be rather sharp (with my glasses on) and I don't need much contrast to distinguish things or get that distracted to SBs (unless I'm paying attention to it, but when I'm trying I just tune it out)

"I delete elements on a regular basis"

As in, I usually -move to a new folder- storyboards, skins, custom hitsounds for multiple reasons (More concentration, more fps, less lag...)
and let the background stay where it is.

When the map is speedy, colors beat pathetically blend with the bg or I'm trying to do a record I move it too for maximize focus on beats.
Sometimes the beats are very dark like brown, black, blue and hardly seeable on black, in those cases I set a minimalist bg with a plain color (Most of the times a yellow one with a Pikachu xD),eg: Matryoshka
Poker face by Gumi...I wasn't able to play it at all with the background, but after taking it off I FC'd it in short time.

I used to delete anything with non transparent bursts (300, 100 etc). But now days I just play everything straight, no point not being able to get over it especially if I won't be able to delete them in the future.

ShaggoN wrote: 2c5r6e

I stuck between second and third option. But i finally chose third.
Soo:
SB: I delete it when map is hard, and SB flashes and blabla makes it even more harder and makes me blind. Examples: DJ Sharpnel - StrangeProgram, System of a Down - Vicinity of Obscenity. Also when SB contains colorful fast moving object, or when I just don't like the SB.
BG: I put it to trash when Combo colors are the same or very similar to BG which makes approach circles barely visible (i'm still wondering why BAT's are ranking maps like this). Also when it's very colorful. Ex: Hatsune Miku & Megpoid Gumi - MATRYOSHKA [Insane].
Skin: I delete EVERY hit300, hit100 and blabla objects, and usually hitcircles, appcircles too. I usually don't mind of the rest. I say "usually" cause i delete it too when it looks ridiculous for me and annoys me. ^_^ I'm not giving examples here, cause there is very many custom skins and it's not hard to find it. And because i'm lazy to continue this post.

Well , yes .. exactly this , i do the same but i choose 2.



Oh , and spinners , totally forgot that , i allways delete spinners.

"I delete elements only when they severely interfere with playing."
I've seen a variety of maps with SB's with pulses and flashes. I can handle playing with the occasional flash, but sometimes when it flashes at a high rate, I can't even bare to watch without my eyes hurting. Sad to say some mappers just shrug it off by adding the epilepsy warning.

Maps that have a storyboard meant to "confuse" like Disturbia are fine, but maps like StrangeProgram...

NoHItter wrote: 5s6r71

Maps that have a storyboard meant to "confuse" like Disturbia are fine, but maps like StrangeProgram...

The recently ranked Opera SB springs to mind.

Storyboard flashing and poor skin design are the biggest reasons I feel compelled to remove map elements. I might enjoy playing a particular song, but can't get through it because the mapper decided to use an experimental cursor design, or thought it would be clever if the 300/100 bursts looked like approach circles, and the hide some real hitcircles under these bogus approach circles. Essentially when mappers use poor aesthetic design choices to artificially inflate the difficulty.

http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/8126 In this gem we see a lighting.png effect causing bogus approach circles to grow from each circle you hit, and circles that sit stationary around each circle, exacerbated during kiai time. Seems purposely confusing. I had to remove lighting.png to get through the harder difficulties.

http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/9533 Pink and pale blue translucent hitcircles on a pale pink/white background. Was this on purpose? I FC'd it without having to remove the background in a couple tries, but that's because I'm just good at this.

Only when they really prevent me from playing.
This is the case mostly with storyboards (although I just rename the elements and don't delete them). I can't really handle pulses and flashes (examples: David Guetta ft Akon - Sexy Bitch or Baracuda - Where Is The Love) or when they really make me lag (example: HTT - No, Thank You!).

As for skins, I have the same behaviour (with higher standards - that is I delete them more often than storyboards). And I automatically delete spinners that are drawn or that don't show the center, which makes spinning impossible for me.

And I very rarely delete backgrounds - only when the combo colours seriously blend with it (I don't have examples that I of...).

I delete 95% of the custom made skins and about 25% of the storyboards.

I mean, most skins are just retarded to say the least, they are unreadable, 300/100/50 which look the same and diffrent colors for geki etc. beats. All just silly imo, has to be deleted.

Even back when I played seriously I always considered adjusting to different storyboards/skins as a skill to be mastered, just like any other playing techniques. I enjoyed the challenge of the heart approach circles in ztrot's Love Shine and I eventually got used to it. Though in cases where the skins/SB/color selections made it too annoying to play, I simply deleted the map and moved on (can't think of any specific examples since I don't the maps that I delete )

I've always thought deleting those elements was a cheap way of getting a high score, and I'm actually pretty surprised that I'm the minority here.

As a disclaimer though I WILL say that I don't play 95% of the japanese/anime stuff out there, so I may be oblivious to exactly how bad some of these skins/storyboards actually are.

I like to play maps with my skin only. Also most storyboards cause lags so I delete them as well. So yeah, mp3, background and .osu files are all I leave in the map.

I tend to delete skins most of the time because they're often ridiculous to play with. Certain skin elements (such as the lifebar or hitcircles+overlay) I leave intact because they work well, but stuff like the spinners and sliderballs I don't like so much.

I often move storyboards/.osbs to a different folder due to the fact that they make maps unplayable (or unable I should say) for me, and I often end up failing. I occasionally delete them if they're just random flashes and excessively laggy.

I used to only rarely move backgrounds to a different folder; but as I begin to get better and play harder maps, the input lag becomes more significant so I've been removing backgrounds more often lately.

As soon as a I get a better machine (if I do), I doubt I will even remove backgrounds, and I'll only move sbs when trying to do hardcore maps.

I delete anything that gives me seizures or headaches, so usually any sb that makes flashes and such.

Everything else I leave intact, even if it's ugly or annoying.

Have yet to delete anything, even when it's interfere with playing.
I just play as it was made and consider it some type of added difficulty.

No I do not. No I never have.

only if i find it hard to play with it. so i normally delete pulsing sb's and annoying hitcircles

I delete the following:

Backgrounds that are so very close to being NSFW
Storyboarding that makes the game lag
Storyboarding that makes me feel like it should have had an epilepsy warning

I delete SBs if they cause lag. I rarely delete custom skins or backgrounds.
Examples which SBs I've deleted:
http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/17912
http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/12191
http://osu-ppy-sh.cinevost.com/s/17670

Skins pretty much always have to go, same goes for parts of the storyboard that puts me out of rhytm. However, while a lot of people seem to frown upon storyboards with flashes/pulses i find that they do, if timed correctly, both makes the map more enjoyable and makes me play better.

What I find interesting however is that you ask not only about backgrounds, skins and storyboard elements, but also storyboards themselves. I always assumed there'd be some kind of serversidedcheck to assure you were using the correct one, but since you have to ask, does that mean that you do actually not make sure that the correct storyboard is used, and that the only thing stopping anyone from completely combating the hidden, and partially combating the flashlight mod with a custom SB, is the amount of time they would have to invest?

I never want to change anything of mappers' masterpieces.

As far as I can I haven't removed anything on any map, ever.
And I only one map I've ever played on novideo.

By the way, it says "Poll runs till -319448 seconds ago" at the top

I replace/delete skins, backgrounds, and all that stuff if i'm unable to FC it on the 5th try or so.

Then i'll place them back after I FC it.

Never delete stuff, I just rage about them on irc and play a different map