Spectral Music Player - Classic Edition

by Selene310187 aka darklady310187



Version: 1.2
Based on: Spectral Music Player SE - version 1.6 (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/75772)
Requirements: All DLCs (Dawnguard, Dragonborn, Hearthfire)


*************************************

Updating from previous versions to 1.2:
Start the game and load your current savegame. Stop the current playback of the playlists. Dismiss the drum by commanding it to
vanish. Save your game in a new savegame slot. Exit the game. Make a back-up of this savegame in case something goes wrong.

In the next step, we need to delete all traces of the plugin from your savegame with ReSaver (part of FallrimTools) - this process is
called savegame cleaning. It makes sure that the bug fixes for the Anniversary Edition (since version 1.4) take effect and the new
combat music setting "No Combat Music" (since version 1.5) is available in your savegame (see changelog).

Download and install FallrimTools: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76776
Start ReSaver. Open the savegame that you created before in ReSaver. Expand "Plugins (ESP & ESM)". Right-click on the entry
"Spectral Music Player.esp" and choose "Delete plugin changeforms". Right-click on this entry again and choose
"Delete plugin script instances" this time. Save the savegame under a new name so you can find the edited savegame faster when
you want to load your savegame in the game.

Replace the old .esp and .bsa files with the new ones.

Now we are adding the drum summoning spell back to your character because the game sees the plugin as a newly added mod
after the savegame cleaning. Start the game and load the edited savegame.
Open the console and type in this command: startquest BB03AddTomeDrum
Confirm with Return or Enter key. The console command starts a quest which adds the spell tome to your inventory without a
notification. Open your inventory and use the tome "Spell Tome: Bardic Knowledge - Advanced Music" which adds the summoning spell to
your character. Stop the quest using this console command: stopquest BB03AddTomeDrum
Save your game.

The last step is about initiating the friendly fire fix. Just talk to the drum and exit the menu of the Spectral Music Player afterwards.
The fix reduces the risk that other followers turn hostile towards the drum due to friendly fire in combat (see changelog for more information).


*************************************




Step 1: Add the music
======================

Put the Music folder, the Spectral Music Player.bsa and the Spectral Music Player.esp from the archive into your Data folder.

Download a music package of your choice from Skyrim NexusMods.

Alternatively, you can convert any .mp3 (or similar audio file) to .xwm (or .wav) with a converter tool like
Yakitori Audio Converter: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/17765

Put up to 50 songs into each CustomSongs... subfolder under Data\Music\BetterUntoldLegendsRewards

If you experience problems with .wav sound files convert them to .xwm

Please make sure that Windows doesn't hide the file extensions.

Rename the files accordingly:


Track001.xwm
...
Track050.xwm


or


Track001.wav
...
Track050.wav


You can use a tool to make the renaming process easier like Advanced Renamer: https://www.advancedrenamer.com
- click on "Add method" > New Name
- Type: Track0
- click on <Inc Nr>...
- drag the songs you want to rename into the window of the program
- click on "Start batch" and on "Start"


Step 2: Activate the Spectral Music Player.esp
==============================================
Activating the esp is possible e.g. in the main menu of the game (Start game -> Mods -> Load order -> check the box). Alternatively, you can
use Vortex (beginner-friendly) and Wrye Bash (has some nice gimmicks like creating savegame profiles). Both tools are available at Nexusmods.com.


Step 3: Access the Spectral Music Player menu
==============================================

You can access the music player by summoning the Spectral Drum via the "Bardic Knowledge - Advanced Music" summoning spell and talking
to the Drum afterwards. The spell can be crafted at the Tanning Rack if you have at least one of the rewards from the Untold Legends quest.


Step 4: Adjust the track limits
================================
Go to the ingame Music Player menu of the Spectral Drum and navigate to Settings > Track Limits. Set the track limit of each category
according to the number of tracks inside the corresponding subfolder.

Available custom song categories:
Town, Tavern, Home, Combat, Explore and Dungeon


Step 5: Choose a mode
=====================
Skip Mode:
This is the default mode. The next song is played after X seconds (the amount of seconds can be set in the Settings menu). You can
control which song is played next via the playlist controls like "Next", "Previous" or "Random".

Cycle Mode:
Songs are always played in random order and in full length. Due to the random nature of this mode, the playlist controls are
limited to "Play", "Pause" and "Stop".



Step 6: Choose the combat music type which is played during combat (Settings > Combat Music)
==================================================================
The default combat music type is Skyrim's default combat music ("Default"). The other combat music types are "Drumming"
(the default drumming sounds of the Spectral Drum) and "Custom" (if you want to play the tracks from the CustomSongsCombat folder
during combat).


Step 7: Select a playlist and enjoy!
====================================
When you have selected a playlist confirm your selection with Play. It will be assigned to the Current Playlist section in the main menu of
the Spectral Music Player. Click on Stop to remove a playlist from this section. Pause will pause the current playback (and play a
silence track instead) but will not remove the playlist from Current Playlist.





Disclaimer:
============
The mod is open-source in a non-commercial use*. Feel free to do what you want with it as long as you mention my name (Selene310187)
in your credits.
* only exception: I allow Donation Points on Nexus Mods

Here are some ideas for possible projects: You could use the mod as a framework for a music package. Or build music boxes for your home mod
(the relevant scripts which you can use as base have the word "music" in their name).



Changelog:
==========

Version 1.0:
initial release

Version 1.1:
When you told the drum to vanish and do fast-traveling, the drum will not appear again. Now it will only appear
again when you summon it.

Version 1.2:

Bug fixes:
**********

I added the "No Combat Music" as additional combat music setting (disabled at default). If this setting is enabled, the custom music
won't get interrupted by any combat music. The setting can be found in the menu of the Spectral Music Player under Settings >
Combat Music.

If you swim in the water, the drum will swim, too.


If you have played a previous version of the mod before, the "No Combat Music" combat music setting is only available after you have
cleaned your savegame with ReSaver, see section "Updating from previous versions to 1.2".


After reloading the savegame and the playback of the playlists is active, you will be able to stop the playback of the
current playlist now.

When the "No Combat Music" combat music setting is active and you finish combat, you will be able to stop the playback of the current
playlist as well.

Hitting the stop button of the dungeon playlist, truly stops its playback.

The risk that other followers turn hostile towards the drum due to friendly fire in combat is reduced. Please talk to the drum and exit the
menu of the Spectral Music Player to initiate this bug fix. If you experience that your other followers are attacking the drum nevertheless,
you can stop the fight by commanding the drum to vanish. After that you can summon the drum again if you wish. Regarding friendly fire
due to magic attacks, Amazing Follower Tweaks (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/6656) has an optional add-on that
"completely prevents magic based friendly fire between teammates". The file is called "AFT_NoFriendlySpellDamage" and can be found in the
Optional Files section of AFT. You don't need to install AFT to use the add-on; it's stand-alone.

Bonus tip: If your other followers are fighting each other (and not the drum), fighting can be stopped with the resetai console command.
Open the console, click on one follower, type resetai and confirm with return or enter keys, leave the console open, click on the
other follower and repeat the resetai console command, close the console.



Additions:
**********
Two optional special music tweak plugins.

Variant A gives the default special music of the game (e.g. level-up or discovery of a new location music) a higher priority than the custom music
of Spectral Music Player. So the special music will always play when the situation requires it.

The B variant gets rid of the special music entirely so that you don't hear the special music tracks after the playback of the music player is
stopped.

Please activate either the A or the B variant of the Special Music Tweak and load your chosen tweak after "Spectral Music Player.esp".

Edited default music types (only the optional plugins edit these music types):
MUSDiscoveryCity
MUSDiscoveryDungeon
MUSDiscoveryGeneric
MUSDiscoveryHighHrothgar
MUSDiscoveryTown
MUSDread
MUSDungeonCleared
MUSReveal
MUSReward
MUSSpecialDeath
MUSSpecialSuccess
MUSStinger





Credits:
========

Thanks to Dylbill for the "Message Menu Tutorial SSE", especially the video version:
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/46410
https://youtu.be/BbIvY-Jer0g
https://youtu.be/RIej0my5q3w

Thanks to dawns-beauty aka allonsywisegirl for the backporting guide:
https://dawns-beauty.tumblr.com/post/652629529895043072/a-dirty-guide-to-backporting-some-mods-so-as





Bugs/limitations:
=================


Special music like level-up music or discover of new location music only plays when the playback of the music player is stopped:
In the previous version, all custom music types had a priority of 1. This conflicted with the special music type which also has a priority
of 1. In one situation you heard the special music and in the other, when you should hear the special music, you heard the custom music
instead. For the sake of consistency, I decided that the custom music wins the battle (i.e. it got a higher priority which is surprisingly 0).

If you prefer that the special music should have a higher priority, activate "Spectral Music Player - Special Music Tweak - A.esp".

If you don't want to hear any special music after the playback of the music player is stopped, activate
"Spectral Music Player - Special Music Tweak - B.esp" instead.


The drum stops following although it was commanded to follow:
If this issue happens, command the drum to vanish and summon it again.


No playback in some cells:
If a cell has no music assigned, you won't hear the music from the playlists in this cell

Hearing default music and the custom music simultaneously:
During the development, I noticed that the engine had sometimes problems with pausing the default music when the music from the playlist is playing so that you
hear both simultaneously. That's why I built the "Auto-Remove Vanilla Music" feature in to mitigate the issue. As long as this feature is active, clicking on the
Play button of a playlist and closing the menu of the music player afterwards will remove the default music temporarily. The feature can be deactivated anytime
in the Settings menu. Alternatively, you can remove the default music manually using the "Remove Default Music" option in the main menu of the music
player (this removal is temporary as well).

Playback delay:
When you enter/finish combat with the default combat music type being active or reload a savegame, it takes a few seconds until the custom music kicks in. The reason
for the delay at the beginning of the combat is probably the target searching function which determines what type of combat music should play for the current opponent.
Or it has something to do with the priority of the custom/drumming combat music which is equal to the default combat music (I can't set it higher because it may conflict
with the special combat music of the game). The delayed playback of the music from the playlists are reloading a savegame is due to the music cleanup script