[RELz] Spectral Music Player

[Selene310187]

  

 

Version: 1.6

 

The mod turns the Spectral Drum from the Untold Legends quest into a "walking" music player which will accompany you on your journey. Just summon it via the “Bardic Knowledge – Advanced Music” summoning spell and talk 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, no matter which one you have chosen. BUT if you don’t want to do the Untold Legends quest, you can add the spell tome to your inventory with this console command: startquest BB03AddTomeDrum
Confirm with Return or Enter key. The console command starts a quest which adds the book to your inventory without a notification. After the book is added, you can stop the quest with this command: stopquest BB03AddTomeDrum

 

You can:

• add up to 300 songs which are assigned to 6 playlists*
• command the Spectral Drum to wait, follow or vanish
• choose from various buffs for you and your companions (the option “No Buffs” is also possible; Settings > Buffs)
• pause the music playback of the playlist (a silent track will be played instead)
• stop the playback of the default music temporarily using the “Remove Default Music” option

* These consist of the categories Town, Tavern, Home, Combat, Explore and Dungeon.

Additions since version 1.1:

• added optional playback continuation after you commanded the drum to vanish (disabled at default > Settings menu, page 2)
• a remote control that opens the music player menu even when the drum is not there; the menu opens when you equip the misc item. You can find the remote control option on page 2 in the Settings menu
• Since version 1.5 it's possible to play the custom music without getting interrupted by any combat music. This is done with the "No Combat Music" setting which you can find in the menu of the music player under Settings > Combat Music.
• Two optional special music tweak plugins (since version 1.6). 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".

 

 

The music player in action:

chapters: 0:00 ingame default music removal (temporary), 0:17 music playback, 1:34 commanding the drum, 2:24 setting the Track Timer, 2:37 combat action, 3:21 works for dragons, too (toggleable)

 

 

Buffs (each one is toggleable):

Fortify Stamina Rate: +50 (the spectral drum's original buff; is applied to you and your nearby allies in combat)
Fortify Speech: +25  (is applied to you outside of combat)
Advanced Combat: +5 Attack Damage, +25 damage resistence, +25 magic resistence (is applied to you and your nearby allies in combat)
 

 

 

Downloads:

Nexus Mods

Google Drive

 

Recommendations

Favorite Misc Items: hotkey misc items like the remote control of the music player
Immersive Music: A music package that makes you forget that it doesn't belong to the game. I used it to test the playback functions.

 

 

Updating

From version 1.5 to version 1.6

Replace the old .esp and .bsa files with the new ones. Once you have loaded your savegame, talk to the drum and exit the menu of the Spectral Music Player afterwards. This initiates a fix that reduces the risk that other followers turn hostile towards the drum due to friendly fire in combat (see changelog for more information).

 

From previous versions to version 1.5

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.

Download and install FallrimTools: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/5031
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 .bsa and .esp files with the new ones.

The final step is about 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.

 

 

How to:

If you just want to play the mod with its default settings: step 1 and step 4 are the important ones

 

Step 1: Add the music

Spoiler

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 SE 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

Spoiler

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

Step 3: Access the Spectral Music Player menu

Spoiler

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

Spoiler

Go to the ingame Music Player menu of the Spectral Drum and navigate to Settings > Track Limits. Set the track limit of each catergory according to the number of tracks inside the corresponding subfolder.

Step 5: Choose a mode

Spoiler

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)

Spoiler

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!

Spoiler

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

Edited Monday at 08:14 PM by Selene310187

[lmstearn]

Cool, thanks! Instead of the stamina regen for the drum, a happy combat loop able to turn low level undead would come in very handy!

[Selene310187]

A new version, Beta 1.1., is up!

Changes:

• If you summon the drum with its default summon spell and then use the advanced music version, the background drumming sounds will be removed so that they will not interfere the playback of your chosen playlist
• added an alternative way to get the spell tome via console command (see first post)

 

 

16 hours ago, lmstearn said:

Cool, thanks! Instead of the stamina regen for the drum, a happy combat loop able to turn low level undead would come in very handy!

I want to keep the stamina regen because it's the original buff of the drum.  If I add turn undead as an additional buff the drum would be too overpowered in my opinion because the optional "Advanced Combat Buffs" (Settings > Buffs) are already fairly strong.

[Selene310187]

Today, I uploaded a trailer on YouTube showing the music player in action.

[Selene310187]

Version 1.0 is available on Nexus Mods and Google Drive. I took the mod out of beta and made it open-source on top.

 

Edit:

 

I updated the mod to version 1.1.

 

Changes:

• added optional playback continuation after you commanded the drum to vanish (disabled at default; Page 2 in the Settings menu)
• you can access the music player menu via equipping the misc item "Spectral Drum - Remote Control" even when the drum is not there (disabled at default; Page 2 in the Settings menu)

 

the remote control

[Selene310187]

Major bugfix release - version 1.2 - is available for download 

changes: see changelog in the first post

If you used an older version before, please read the note about updating to version 1.2 which you can find in the first post as well.

 

Edit: 

There's now a version for Oldrim available: Spectral Music Player - Classic Edition

 

 

Edit 2:

I uploaded Version 1.2 of the SE version on Google Drive as well.

[Selene310187]

The new version 1.3 comes with a small fix related to the drum and fast-traveling:

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.

[Selene310187]

The bug fix for the Anniversary Edition Update/Upgrade is released!

Fixes in version 1.4:

• fixed the automatic song switching when the music player is in Skip Mode
• fixed mode switching: switching from Cycle Mode back to Skip Mode works now

If you have played a previous version of the mod before, the fixes will only take effect after you have cleaned your savegame with ReSaver, see section "Updating from previous versions to 1.4" in the main post.

 

 

How I fixed these bugs:
I only needed to add the word "Conditional" at the end of each property. So "bool Property SkipMode Auto" became "bool Property SkipMode Auto Conditional" for example. 

About the Conditional flag:

Quote

Conditional: (Auto properties only) Flags the hidden variable of an auto property to be visible to the condition system. The script must also have the conditional flag.

(source: Flag Reference at the Creation Kit Wiki)

Setting the conditional flag was enough to make the value of each variable persistent similar to a global.

Edited May 18 by Selene310187

[Selene310187]

What is new in version 1.5?

• 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. 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 1.5" in the main post.

[Selene310187]

Changes in version 1.6

• 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.
• 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.

• 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 Monday at 08:13 PM by Selene310187