GreedySeagulls

The seagulls in How to Fish will take a fish off the ground and call it a day. This mod makes them a genuine menace.

They will now snatch what you are holding, pull a fish off your line before you can reel it in, make off with your tools, and fire your own gun while they fly. Shoot one and the whole flock may come for you. Leave the boat unattended long enough and it might not be there when you get back.

The host drives everything, but install it on everyone. All the behaviour runs server side and replicates through the game's own networking, so a player without the mod still sees seagulls stealing, swarming and lifting the boat. Three things do need it on their machine: being carried off by a seagull, which the host will not attempt on a player it has not confirmed is running the mod, hearing a stolen gun fire, and seeing the swarm boss bar.

They take the boat

Every so often the flock decides the boat is worth taking. The seagull nearest it starts, two more are called in, and together they space themselves along the hull, lift, and haul it into a slow circuit of the island. Shoot enough of them down and it drops. The more players in the lobby, the sooner it tends to happen.

They take what you are holding

Nothing in your hands is safe. Weapons, tools, radios, fish, whatever you happen to be carrying.

They hold a grudge

Attack a seagull and there is a small chance the flock decides it has had enough. Reinforcements fly in from the horizon and they take turns diving at whoever is closest. It shows up on the boss bar as the combined health of every bird involved, so the way out is to shoot them down.

What changed

Stealing. Seagulls now consider items held by a player, fish hooked on a rod once they clear the water, tools and weapons, and anything else you can pick up such as radios. All of it is chance based so it stays an occasional disaster rather than a constant one.

Stolen guns. A seagull carrying a firearm will fire it at random intervals in whatever direction the barrel happens to be pointing. It is not aiming at anyone. The bullets are real, they do the weapon's normal damage, and they will hit whoever is unlucky enough to be in front of the bird. Full automatic guns such as the SMG are fired in short bursts.

The swarm. Damaging a seagull has a small chance of enraging the flock, at most once every thirty minutes. Extra birds spawn far out and fly in, then attack in staggered dives from different angles rather than all at once. The flock grows with the number of players connected. They will not hit you through walls or a roof, so cover works, and a swarm will not start during one of the game's own boss fights.

The boat lift. Rare, and needs at least two free seagulls, with up to four joining in when they are available. They gather at grip points around the hull, lift together, and carry the boat in a circle around the island before dropping it. Killing enough of the crew ends it early.

Fair play. A seagull only takes what is actually in your hands, never something stowed in your pockets. If you put the item away before it arrives it takes whatever you are holding instead, or gives up. Duck into a building and it loses sight of you and abandons the dive.

Appearance. Seagulls vary in size, so the flock is not made of identical birds. Sizes are derived from each bird's network id, so everyone running the mod sees the same flock.

Getting your things back

Anything a seagull is carrying comes back when you kill the bird. It drops whatever it was holding on the spot. There is no timer, so a determined gull will keep your shotgun until you deal with it.

Configuration

Everything is adjustable in BepInEx/config/dazed.howtofish.greedyseagulls.cfg, grouped into Population, Appearance, Stealing, Stolen Guns, Swarm Event, and Boat Lift. Chances, cooldowns, damage, speeds, flock sizes, and the boat circuit radius are all exposed.

A few worth knowing about:

Setting	Default	What it does
HandStealChance	0.35	How likely a held item is considered when a seagull picks a target
RequireOpenSkyForHandSteal	true	Stops them diving for items under a roof. Turn off if they refuse to take something
NeverSteal	Clam	Things seagulls will never take. Matches a prefab name, display name, or item id
CheckInterval	12	Seconds between target checks
BurstFullAuto	true	Full automatic guns are fired in bursts rather than single shots
MinScale / MaxScale	1 / 1.5	Size range for individual seagulls
LogTargeting	false	Log why each item was rejected, for tuning
SwarmChance	0.1	Chance that damaging a seagull enrages the flock
SwarmCooldownMinutes	30	Minimum gap between swarms
RequireLineOfSight	true	Swarming birds cannot hit you through level geometry
RoamingCap	3	How many ordinary seagulls may be in the air at once, up to 20. The swarm ignores it
SpawnRate	1	How quickly the flock is topped back up, from 1 to 10
ChancePerPlayer	0.05	Chance added per player, per check, that they go for the boat
SpawnedBirds	2	How many extra seagulls are called in for a boat lift
BossBar	true	Show the swarm on the boss health bar

To turn any of the four features off entirely, set Enabled to false in its section.

How busy the island gets

By default three seagulls roam at a time, close to what the game gives you, and losses are replaced over time rather than thinning the flock out for good. Raise RoamingCap for a busier island and SpawnRate if you want them back faster than you can shoot them. Every extra bird is another one that can steal from you.

Compatibility

Requires BepInEx 5. Built against How to Fish on Unity 6000.4 with FishNet networking.

The mod resolves the game's internals by name at startup and reports what it found in the log. If a game update moves something, the BepInEx log will name the hook that failed instead of failing quietly.

While a swarm is running the boss bar is borrowed to display it, which suppresses boss fish spawns and boss music for the duration. Set BossBar to false if you would rather keep the bar free.