Help with Morrowind Acoustic Overhaul Stand Alone Plugins

[junglebrad79]

I'm really enjoying the Morrowind Acoustic Overhaul mod.  I haven't played the game in years but started up again.  I'd like to install MAO with the stand alone options, everything but the music, so I can add my own music to the game.  There are quite a few esm's and esp's in the stand alone folder.

MAO_2D.esm
MAO_3d.esm
MAO_Config.esm
MAO_Containers.esp
MAO Creatures.esp
MAO Music.esm
MAO_PCSound.esp
MAO_PCVoice.esp
MAO_Regions.esp
MAO_ScriptExtender.esp
MAO_Vanilla.esp
MAO_Weather.esm

Which of these files needs to be in my Data Files folder to have the full effect minus the music?  I couldn't find anything on it in the Readme.  There's also a folder titled "alternative without StopSound".  I'm not sure what this is.

[Leonardo]

I'd like to install MAO with the stand alone options, everything but the music, so I can add my own music to the game.

Doing that requires two things.

1. You must either be the author of the music or have permission from the original author for the music you wish to add.
2. Adding other music than the original into the mod also requires permission from the original author.


I also think that you would have better luck to contact Zaldir on Nexus than here as he is the original author of the MAO mod IIRC.

[Drakkmore]

Leo they only need these permissions, if he is intending to distribute the mod. If they are only adding the music for their own personal use, then they don't need the permissions of neither the mod maker, or Bethesda. They even the artist that made the music, because there is no redistribution involved. I would hop ehowever that neither the game, or the music have been pirated, and have both been paid for (if not we don't want to know).

As to the question asked, I couldn't answer with any certainty, due to never having used the mod, but I would assume that all except the music.esm would be required for the full experience minus the music. What perchance does the readme say about it?

[junglebrad79]

Leo they only need these permissions, if he is intending to distribute the mod. If they are only adding the music for their own personal use, then they don't need the permissions of neither the mod maker, or Bethesda. They even the artist that made the music, because there is no redistribution involved. I would hop ehowever that neither the game, or the music have been pirated, and have both been paid for (if not we don't want to know).

As to the question asked, I couldn't answer with any certainty, due to never having used the mod, but I would assume that all except the music.esm would be required for the full experience minus the music. What perchance does the readme say about it?

Thanks guys for trying to help me.  There's nothing in the readme that describes what the stand alone files are for.  I've PM'd PeterBitt (the auther) and maybe he can enlighten me.  The reason I posted this here is because this site is the source of the Morrowind Acoustic Overhaul mod.  FWIW, here is the readme:

Show Spoiler

MORROWIND ACOUSTIC OVERHAUL
version 1.0


Description
MAO is a comprehensive overhaul of the sound and music system in Morrowind.
The original game has very few environmental sounds, the player and NPC sounds are very repetitive, many sounds are of poor quality and the same soundtrack is playing all the time and everywhere. MAO attempts to improve this with a huge amount of carefully selected sound and music files, implemented via hundreds of reliable scripts.
This is a complete package, covering everything in the whole game plus its expansions.


Installation
1. download and install the music and sound package:
•        download:
https://docs.google.com/uc?id=0BwFTwfOoqvTeci1lczd6cVNmVmc&export=download
•        make sure you follow the readme included in the package!
2. paste the "Data Files" folder from this archieve into your Morrowind root folder
3. edit your Morrowind.ini as described below
4. install the latest MCP version and select everything listed in requirements section below
5. select the MAO.esm in Morrowind Launcher
6. play the game

The plugins in the "Addon" folder are patches for other mods to improve their sound. Make sure you have both the mod and the MAO patch loaded!
There is the modular version of the mod in the "standalone plugins" folder, for those who dont want certain parts of the mod.


Updating from old version
1. remove all old "MAO_" esp/esm files from your Data Files folder
2. remove everything in "Data Files/Music" and "Data Files/Sounds/AO"
3. remove the "xbase_" nif files from "Data Files/Meshes" if you have the MAO ones there
4. paste the "Data Files" folder from this archive into your Morrowind root folder
5. play the game
(6.) remove old MAO plugin entries from your savegame using WyreMash. This should be enough so you can keep playing your old save. We cant guarantee that everything works nicely on heavily modded installs, consider starting a new game if you encounter problems.


Requirements
•        Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon
•        Morrowind Script Extender (MWSE) standalone or internal MGE version
(if you can't use it use the not-merged MAO version and skip the MWSE plugin)
•        Morrowind Code Patch (MCP) version 2.1 or higher
•        enable "Scripted music uninterruptible"
•        enable "Inventory sounds for axes"
•        enable "Water environment sound fix"
•        enable "Voiceover script functions fix"
•        enable "PlaysoundVP volume fix"
•        enable "Incorrect inventory sounds fix"


Editing Morrowind.ini
In order to have the subtle background weather sounds, you need to change the following in the Morrowind.ini you can find in you Morrowind root folder:
•        under [Weather Clear] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Clear
•        under [Weather Cloudy] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Clear
•        under [Weather Foggy] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Foggy
•        under [Weather Overcast] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Overcast
•        under [Weather Rain] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Rain
•        under [Weather Thunderstorm] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Thunder
•        under [Weather Snow] section change:
Ambient Loop Sound ID=AO_Weather_Clear


Known Issues
•        Rarely you may encounter a known problem with many of the sounds going completely silent. If this happens to you will have to save and restart the game. This might be caused by some of the sounds but we are not sure. Converting all sounds to very low quality seems to help, but it isnt worth it as the goal of this mod is to have high quality sounds. The error doesnt do any harm to your savegame or anything, just requires a restart to fix.
Alternatively you can download a low quality sound package at the link below and overwrite existing files. Those are not optimized tho and have real low quality, but it seems they get rid of the issue which, again, happens very rarely.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cekz9txarjdljct/Sound_16bit44100Hz.7z?dl=0
•        The videos are now a bit to loud as all ingame sounds are a bit quiter.


OpenMW
A OpenMW specific version of the mod is planned once OpenMW reaches version 1.0.
Until then you can use the following seperate plugins without issues, as with OpenMW version 0.35:

MAO_2d.esm
MAO_3d.esm
MAO_Containers
MAO_Regions
MAO_Vanilla
MAO_Weather


Changelog
•        MAO is now fully compatible with MGSO, no more crashes
•        merged the mod into one esm, individual plugins are still available
•        no edited player animations are needed anymore, now compatible with replacers
•        implemented different workaround that makes dummy lights not equippable
(thanks to qqqbbb for suggestion)
•        optimized  NPC scripts with MenuMode check
•        proper music will trigger after using recall
•        battle music will stop when using water walking while attacked by slaugterfish
•        removed all non-original Morrowind long explore music tracks
•        changed fatigue breathing feature
•        added missing nightmare, Hall of Vivec and Cavern of Incarnate music
•        ashlander camps used wrong music
•        adjusted some sound volumes
•        waterfalls improved and more diversity added
•        renamed some plugins
•        cleaned and fixed some minor issues
•        optimized a few soundfiles
•        MAO is now fully compatible with abot's mods, like Birds, Silt Striders and Water Life
•        restored and improved some iconic vanilla sounds like the level up sound


Features
•        The mod covers the whole game plus its expansions. Every single exterior, interior, NPC and so on is covered, providing a consistently immersive experience throughout the whole game.
•        Original sounds replacement. First off almost all the vanilla sounds are replaced with high quality sounds. Many characteristic sounds are kept intact like the iconic Silt Strider screams, Dwemer metal creaking or the level-up sound.
•        Exterior environmental sounds. Where there was complete silence apart from some wind gusts, you will now have a detailed but subtle and believable soundscape. Depending on region and day/night you will hear different birds, crickets, flies, rustling, wind gusts, rocks crumbling, ice cracking and a lot more.
•        Interior environmental sounds. All the different dungeon type interiors like caves, grottos, differnent ruins, sewers, etc have their very own sound atmsphere now. With tons of randomly playing sounds like creaking metal, crumbling rocks, wind gusts or hunting whispers in 6th House bases, it adds some more tension to dungeon crawling, especially when combined with our music system.
•        New music system. The music plugin again is a complete and comprehensive package, covering everything. It is stable and reliable while not going over the top with the music choice. It always felt real awkward to me to crawl through dungeons with happy explore music playing. Visuals and music just didnt fit together. With MAO you will finally have fitting music in those places. Of course each type of cave, dungeon, and so on has its own music. Boss fights, boss areas, unique areas, special events like nightmares and others also have fitting music.
The explore music works with different sets of short, atmospheric tracks for each region and with day/night variations. Those short tracks are randomly playing with random silence inbetween. This works nicely with the detailed sound environments, making both blend together well instead of having constant music ontop of all the sounds. Occasionally after some time a long track from the original Morrowind soundtrack will play. In towns and cities the original Morrowind soundtrack will play just like in the base game.
Battle music comes in four tiers depending on player level and opponent base health: No music when fighting against a really weak opponent, medium music, hard music and unique music per boss. Also via the ingame option scroll you can change the battle music to only trigger when you are hit, this feels great because it allows enemies to sneak up on you and avoids the constant aborting of explore music for each cliffracer or slaughterfish.
•        New player voice. In the original game the player character's occasional hit and attack screams shared the same voice files used by the NPCs, with MAO the player will have a unique voice. Each race/gender has a different voice and will scream in pain when hit (depending on health), shout when attacking (depending on how long attack is charged) and even occasionally taunt the enemy when getting hit or hitting the opponent (depending on health).  When infected with a disease the character will sneeze and cough randomly. Each voice set has a fitting vampire version.
The player characer will breathe hard when out of fatigue. This is balanced to be not to intrusive and it helps a lot to keep fatigue in mind. Getting the first constant restore fatigue enchantment is a greater achievement with this feature.
All those features can be disabled individually via the config-scroll (see "Ingame Settings" section).
•        Interior weather sounds. You now can hear the weather within exteriors. When it rains you can hear the rainsplatter hitting the roof as well as hear the rain through the entrance door. The sounds will get quiter as you move away, so in cellars you will barely hear the weather, except for the occasional thunder. Ashstorms howl through the entrance door, which gives the interior a nice connection to the gameworld when seeking shelter during a ashstorm.
•        Improved movement sounds for Player/NPC. Instead of the annoying two repetitive footstep sounds in vanilla game, there are now 8 different sounds playing at random with different sounds for walking/running/sneaking. On top of the basic footstep sound we added the same amount of random armor sounds, each different per armor class and walking/running/sneaking. Swimming and walking on water received the same treatment. Landing on the ground sounds are also covered, plus an all new "jump up" sound when pressing jump button, different per armor class of course.
Khajiit and Argonians each have a unique set of footsteps too, as they cant wear boots.
•        Improved combat sounds for Player/NPC. Eeach weapon class has its own set of randomized swinging sounds. The same goes for armor impact sounds for each class as well as unarmored hits,  plus all new shild blocking sounds. Bows and crossbows have improved and randomized shooting sounds. The elemental destruction spells have random impact sounds.
•        Container sounds. This part is based on the plugin from the Container Sounds mod by Neoptolemus plus our addition of closing sounds and different soundfiles. While there is the great Animated Containers mod around, we still added this feature which simply gives opening/closing sounds to all the containers in the game, without the animations. If you prefer the animations simply make sure the Animated Containers mod is loaded after MAO.
•        Creature sounds. This part is still unfinished and will stay like that for a while. For the most part creature sounds arent changed but most of them now have fitting footsteps and falling sounds. The cliffracer has fitting wing flapping sounds instead of footsteps. The Atronachs are the most complete with custom impact sounds, varying attack and hit sounds and fitting constant sound loops. Hunger and Ascended Sleeper now have unique sounds, they did not in the original game. Dwemer enemies also received some love.
•        Sound addons for other mods. For some mods we made MAO patches to change or add sounds in those mods or simply make them compatible.
•        Customizable via ingame config-scroll. Many features can be enabled/disabled or customized within an ingame option menu.
•        Tons of other scripted sounds and other stuff:
•        Damage over time spells play a constant sound now as long as they last, each element has a different sound. Other magic effects emit sounds as long as they last, like the sound spell, levitate or the different shield spells.
•        The Corprus disease will trigger haunting whispers in your head, which occur increasingly often the longer you have the disease and are based on the same whispering you can hear in 6th House bases.
•        When you have very low health you can hear your heartbeat in two levels of intensity depending on health left.
•        Becoming a vampire triggers a special sound, entering an exterior during day triggers a sundammage sound.
•        Making use of new Morrowind Code Patch (MCP) features, like a new interior water loop, different eating/drinking sounds, proper axe and bow sounds.
•        "putting item down" sound added to each item sound, in the base game this was the same as the pick up sound.
•        Randomized lockpicking and probing sounds.
•        More different wind sounds per region.
•        Subtle constant weather sound loops for each weather type.
•        Lava damage causes firedamage sound instead of unarmored hit sound.
•        more

Credits
Authors: PeterBitt & Logitech

special thanks: (in alphabetical order)
•        abot for his modding articles, feedback, low quality sound pack and help
•        Bethesda for creating Morrowind
•        Claviticus for „Morrowind Script Checker“ tool
•        Dave Humphrey for MWEdit
•        Era Scarecrow  for Smart Merger http://forums.bethso...-smartmerger-3/
•        Fliggerty for his MWSE advices and example scripts
•        Folks at the official Bethesda‘s forum for their support and feedback
•        GhanBuriGhan, Yacoby, melian, and Morrowind community for „Morrowind Scripting for Dummies“
•        hollaajith for testing
•        Hrnchamd for MCP features that reduced amount of crazy workarounds for engine limitations that were previously implementd in MAO
•        john.moonsugar for tes3cmd tool and help
•        Kiriel for interior weather inspiration
•        Melchior Dahrk for testing, proofreading and helping with the tutorial
•        Neoptolemus for Container Sounds mod
•        Overunity
•        Taddeus for scripting workarounds introduced in NOM
•        Toccata for „beacon“ activators idea
•        Wolvman for his MWSE scripts that helped me understand how script extender works
•        Xiran for Music System mod that inspired many MAO features



MAO is a non-comercial mod made by dedicated fans, for the fans. Sound files have been created mostly on the basis of media files from other games. We do not claim to own any of the media files or any of the content in the videos shared on Youtube. All media files that are not from open sources or have not been fully created by mod authors belong to their rightful owners and no harm to them is intended. All requests for content to be removed from the mod received by the rightful owner and/or his/her representatives will be granted.

[junglebrad79]

I'd like to install MAO with the stand alone options, everything but the music, so I can add my own music to the game.

Doing that requires two things.

1. You must either be the author of the music or have permission from the original author for the music you wish to add.
2. Adding other music than the original into the mod also requires permission from the original author.


I also think that you would have better luck to contact Zaldir on Nexus than here as he is the original author of the MAO mod IIRC.

I should clarify.  I'm not creating a mod for release, I'm just trying to customize the mod for my own personal experience.  Without any mod, you can simply place your music files (which I own) into your Data Files\Music folder and they will play in the game.  What I'm essentially trying to accomplish is using Morrowind Acoustic Overhaul for all it does except for music, which is why there is a modular install option.  I want to use MUSE 2 for Music, which allows you to customize your music experience.  If you're not familiar with it here is the link:  https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46200.  They are compatible as long as the music option isn't installed by MAO.  I am in no way distributing anything.  Just trying to get these mods to work together, and I'm unclear on which files in the stand alone folder of MAO are to be used for what I'm trying to accomplish.

[Leonardo]

You should mention that in the OP plus including the readme, otherwise I wouldn't assume you wanted to alter the mod for personal use.

[SriRacha]

So does anyone know what the "MAO_ScriptExtender_alternative.esp" found in the "alternative without StopSound" folder does?

I mean it seems like it would fix the audio Stop bug, which i experience often in caves.
further insight into this would be much appreciated!