CustomIslands Loader

Play custom, community-made islands in How to Fish.

An island comes with its own terrain and scenery, and the real game working on top of it: NPCs that talk and trade, working shops with price tags, the boat, creature spawns, even a casino. Built by players, played like the real thing.

Two kinds of island, one mod

Replacement islands stand in for one of the game's five. The map says which one it replaces, and it borrows that island's NPCs, shops and progression, so everything on it works exactly as the original did.

Added islands are brand new places out in open water. They do not replace anything. They appear on the radar in their own colour, you sail to them like anywhere else, and they carry their own NPCs, shops and wildlife rather than borrowing.

Added islands do not touch your progression. Reaching one needs nothing unlocked, and nothing here writes to your save's island unlocks.

Installing islands

An island is two files that share a name.

• Replacement: somemap.bundle and somemap.json in BepInEx/plugins/HTFMaps/
• Added: somemap.island and somemap.json in BepInEx/plugins/HTFExtraIslands/

From Thunderstore, install the island pack with your mod manager and it lands in the right place on its own. There is nothing to configure: the json carries the island's design, including which island it replaces or where in the world it sits.

Installing this mod

With a mod manager (easiest)

1. Install r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager.
2. Select How to Fish, search for CustomIslandsLoader, click Install. BepInEx comes automatically.
3. Install an island pack, then press Start modded.

Manual

1. Install BepInEx 5 x64 into the game folder, run the game once, quit.
2. Copy HTFMapLoader.dll into How to Fish/BepInEx/plugins/.
3. Drop island files into BepInEx/plugins/HTFMaps/ or BepInEx/plugins/HTFExtraIslands/.

Seeing where you are

This used to have a full screen chart on M. It has been dropped: the game already has a radar for direction, and a map that has to draw islands bigger than life to make them visible has to bend the sea around them to match, which is a lot of machinery to end up less accurate than a camera pointed at the ground.

Minimap is that camera. It is a separate download and it shows the world under you live, with your boat in it, on any island including custom ones.

Switching an island back to the original

No file deleting needed. The config has an on/off per island:

[Maps]
UseCustomIsland1 = true
...
UseCustomIsland5 = true

Set one to false and that island loads the ORIGINAL next launch, with the map files left installed for later. Mod manager users can edit this in the manager's built-in Config editor; manual installs edit BepInEx/config/yoxi.htf.maploader.cfg.

This applies to replacement islands. Added islands are separate and are not affected.

Co-op

Everyone in a lobby needs the same mod and the same islands. The game syncs which island is loaded as a number, so a player without them either stands in different scenery than the rest of the crew, or cannot follow you to an added island at all.

Make your own island

Get the CustomIslands Mapmaker Kit. It is a Unity project, so download it manually from its Thunderstore page rather than through a mod manager. Sculpt terrain, dress it with the game's own props, place working shops, NPCs and wildlife, and ship your island as those same two files. It builds both kinds.

The kit contains no game content. Everything it builds from is imported from your own installed copy of the game, once, during setup.

Skies: players running Living Skies get the full day-night cycle and storms over every island, custom ones included.

A note on testing

This build is tested, but not thoroughly, as I am only one person. There are a lot of combinations I cannot cover on my own. If you hit an issue, please DM me on Discord: yoxiui. Tell me what you were doing and send your BepInEx/LogOutput.log if you can, and I will get it fixed.

Notes

• Contains no game assets. Islands and tools are all generated content.
• An island's bundle must sit beside its json, both named the same.

More from Yoxi

• Minimap - a live minimap in the corner, and the companion to this mod
• BetterIslands - an island pack: hand-built replacements for the game's islands
• MoreIslands - an island pack of brand new places out in open water
• CustomIslands Mapmaker Kit - build your own islands (Unity project, download manually)
• Living Skies - day-night cycle plus storms, rain, lightning and thunder
• Better Oceans - a better sea to sail and fish in
• Torch - a torch you can carry and light the dark with

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Built by Yoxi.