CustomIslands Loader

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

A custom island stands in for one of the game's five islands - 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.

Replace, not add. The game's world is exactly five island slots - only one island exists at a time, and travelling swaps which one is loaded. A custom island always takes the place of one of the five; adding a sixth is not possible.

Installing a custom island

A map is two files: somemap.bundle and somemap.json.

From Thunderstore: install the map package with your mod manager like any mod - done.
By hand: drop both files into BepInEx/plugins/HTFMaps/.

The json says which island the map stands in for - that is part of the map's design (it borrows that island's NPCs and shops), so there is nothing to configure. Install, play.

Installation of this mod

With a mod manager (easiest)

Install r2modman or the Thunderstore Mod Manager.
Select How to Fish, search for CustomIslandsLoader, click Install (BepInEx comes automatically).
Install a map (see above), press Start modded.

Manual

Install BepInEx 5 x64 into the game folder, run the game once, quit.
Copy HTFMapLoader.dll into How to Fish/BepInEx/plugins/.
Drop map files into BepInEx/plugins/HTFMaps/.

Switching an island back to the original

No file deleting needed. The loader's config has a simple on/off per island:

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

Set one to false and that island loads the ORIGINAL next launch - the map files stay installed for later. Mod manager users: edit it in the manager's built-in Config editor (yoxi.htf.maploader.cfg); manual installs edit BepInEx/config/yoxi.htf.maploader.cfg.

In co-op, everyone in the lobby should match.

Co-op

Everyone in a lobby needs the same maps installed - a player without the map sees the original island and stands in different scenery than the rest of the crew.

Make your own island

Get the CustomIslands Mapmaker Kit (a Unity project - download it manually from its Thunderstore page, it is not a runtime mod). Sculpt terrain, dress it with the game's own props, place working shops, and ship your island as those same two files.

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

Notes

Contains no game assets - maps and tools are all generated content.
A map's .bundle must sit beside its .json, both named the same.

Details