Portable Orchestion Tombstone Device

After watching the live letter done at the fanfest. I believe the crowd went wild with gear getting 2 dye slots. Which sounds like a huge change in a decade of FFXIV. I see no reason after rummaging through code to make this possible, Square could do anything!
I’d like to see a device that would either be added to the collections or key Items in the inventory pull up tracks that you obtained during your journey across all of the Source/The First.
Obviously doing this would have to be locked behind a quest like usual. Even the “Aether Current Compass” started as a key Item. Anyways Yoshida, if you’re reading this FFXV fans would love this feature! If implemented, I’d only allow certain tracks for battles from previous expansions then go from there or just add the whole load all at once with the orchestrion.
One last note, mounts, and (the device) shouldn’t be used at the same time, only purpose is to keep the player base wanting to get that awesome new mount and the music to go with it! What would blow my mind is if we also got chocobo themes that work with your companion when mounted. All the way from 1-16 in the series.

This has been actually asked repeatedly ever since the Orchestrion was first added back in 2015 and Soken responded it actually is not possible due to how music is coded in the game (it appears there is two seperate sound channels used by music, one is used by background and zone music, the other by battle themes and 'special' tracks that need to be cued to play at a moment's notice, whereby the first track is muted while the second one functions.

The Orchestrion appears to use this second channel to function, due to it not needing to be used for battle music inside an Inn Room/FC House/Personal House/Apartment or Personal Chambers (because there is no battle in there), but of course that channel is required for battle themes and other special music outside housing, meaning Orchestrion cannot be used.

So as much as I agree with you and would love to see some kind of personal Orchestrion playing out in the field, sadly SE have ruled out it categorically as not possible I'm afraid. :(

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

This has been actually asked repeatedly ever since the Orchestrion was first added back in 2015 and Soken responded it actually is not possible due to how music is coded in the game (it appears there is two seperate sound channels used by music, one is used by background and zone music, the other by battle themes and 'special' tracks that need to be cued to play at a moment's notice, whereby the first track is muted while the second one functions.

The Orchestrion appears to use this second channel to function, due to it not needing to be used for battle music inside an Inn Room/FC House/Personal House/Apartment or Personal Chambers (because there is no battle in there), but of course that channel is required for battle themes and other special music outside housing, meaning Orchestrion cannot be used.

So as much as I agree with you and would love to see some kind of personal Orchestrion playing out in the field, sadly SE have ruled out it categorically as not possible I'm afraid. :(

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Has something changed though?

I mean, mounts have their own music which activates/plays when we summon them and overrides the 'area' music - couldn't the same process be applied to a portable orchestrion, even if in a limited sense?

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Originally Posted by Carin-Eri

Has something changed though?

I mean, mounts have their own music which activates/plays when we summon them and overrides the 'area' music - couldn't the same process be applied to a portable orchestrion, even if in a limited sense?

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Mounts use up another set of channels that are also limited.

In theory it MIGHT be possible if you gave up battle music, mount music, and area music, and it would just completely override everything. Raw, pure, brute force MIGHT work. Or it might cause issues and crashes with cutscenes.

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Originally Posted by Enkidoh

sadly SE have ruled out it categorically as not possible I'm afraid. :(

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They're lying. Again. Like usual with this. There's been a plugin for this for 3 years. It allows for overwriting the current music completely until turned off, or substituting certain themes for other themes. (E.g. the EX mount's theme for the EX Boss' other theme.)

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Originally Posted by Astrahime

They're lying. Again. Like usual with this. There's been a plugin for this for 3 years. It allows for overwriting the current music completely until turned off, or substituting certain themes for other themes. (E.g. the EX mount's theme for the EX Boss' other theme.)

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No, they are not lying.
The plug-in *cough* *mod* *cough* you are referring to is client side and since the music exists in the files of the game on your computer that's what allows the plug in to function.

The music is controlled SERVER side. Hence the reasons the devs have listed for the limitations.

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Originally Posted by Astrahime

There's been a plugin for this for 3 years.

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"There's an illegal 3rd party tool for this" is not a direct or reliable indication of what the game devs are capable of. Third party developers don't need to play by the rules of making everything work on all platforms in all situations, reconciling the limits and expectations of different platforms, nor do third party developers need to work within the poor framework left behind by early XIV development and memory management decisions.

Just because an addon can do it doesn't mean SE can do it. Addons can have deeper access to local files on your PC, and aren't subject to the same quality and stability checks. If an addon doesn't work on some platforms, breaks with a new patch, causes other problems, etc, the addon developers can waive it away with a "run this at your own risk" disclaimer. An official game feature can't do that.

Now that doesn't mean it will always be impossible for SE. As the technology improved we've seen them add other things they'd once claimed impossible ("do I already own this" check marks on minions, bigger glamour dressers, etc.), but for now it's probably not a lie when they say they can't do portable orchestrions.

Does sorta raise the question, tho, whether or not devs could add a client-side channel without breaking anything... or perhaps the better initial question of "why does the music need to be server-side?" Maybe that's just how it is for all the sounds in game? Consistency is a valid-enough reason, I suppose. Easier to change/add/modify on the back-end..

That said, this comes up often enough, also feels like one of those "surely they've come up with every conceivable idea to make it happen and it just hasn't worked out."

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Does sorta raise the question, tho, whether or not devs could add a client-side channel without breaking anything... or perhaps the better initial question of "why does the music need to be server-side?" Maybe that's just how it is for all the sounds in game? Consistency is a valid-enough reason, I suppose. Easier to change/add/modify on the back-end.."

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I've been told, but cannot confirm, it's to make sure that it's synced for everybody, perfectly, making sure they get exactly the same experience.

Hmm.. Lacks validity given the disparate experiences generated by ShB story weather.

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Originally Posted by Hasrat

Hmm.. Lacks validity given the disparate experiences generated by ShB story weather.

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and EW story weather.

It's weird because the story-based weather does in fact change fishing rates, but isn't a separate instance of the overworld zone.