Changelog

1.3.1

• Fixed seagulls this mod spawns appearing in the water or scraping along the ground. Spawn height was being read off whichever seagull happened to be handy and used as a raw world height. When the flock was empty, which is the case for a moment every time a level loads, there was no seagull to read and the height fell back to zero, which is sea level. The first bird to arrive then became the one the next spawn copied, so once it happened the whole flock stayed down there for the rest of the session.
• Spawn height is now measured from whatever is underneath each seagull, and never from below the water. Out at sea the ground under a seagull is the seabed, so measuring from the ground alone still put them at the surface or under it. The water line is now used wherever it sits higher than the ground, which is what actually keeps them flying over open water.
• Replacement seagulls no longer appear below the terrain when the player they spawn around is standing somewhere high. Their height was measured from a fixed world height rather than from the ground beneath them.
• Added SpawnCruiseHeight under Population, 20 metres by default. It is only used when there is no living seagull left to copy an altitude from, so it decides how high the first bird of an empty flock comes back and nothing else.
• Spawning now writes a line to the log saying how high the birds were placed, so this kind of problem can be spotted from a log rather than by watching the sky.
• Leech is now in the NeverSteal list by default, and existing configs still on the old default are updated automatically.
• Fixed the sound of a stolen gun firing only being heard by the host. The game plays no fire sound at all for a gun with no player holding it, so this mod supplied it, but only on the machine that ran the shot. The host now tells everyone when a seagull fires and the shot is heard from where the bird is. This needs the mod on each player's machine, the same as being carried off does.

1.3.0

• New event: a seagull can dive on a player and carry them off. It dives in at head height first, so it can be shot down before it ever takes hold, and the carried player keeps full control of looking, aiming and firing. Shooting the bird drops them. Gated to once every 30 minutes with a chance that scales per player, and a player needs clear sky above them to be picked at all.
• Every player needs the mod for the new event. The host confirms each client is running a matching version before it will let a seagull carry them, so anyone without it is simply never chosen.
• Fixed swarming seagulls diving through the floor. They had no ground check while attacking, so an overshot dive left them under the map, where the level blocked line of sight from below and they never came back up. A new GroundClearance setting keeps them above level geometry.
• Seagulls on the lava map no longer spend the whole time carrying snails. FootSnail is now in the NeverSteal list by default, and existing configs still on the old default are updated automatically.
• A seagull carrying a player is no longer picked up by the swarm, boat lift, population or stealing systems, and those events will not start while a carry is in progress.

1.2.0

The boat lift is now an event rather than something the seagulls opt into.

Since 1.1.0 gave the flock a steady supply of targets, the birds were nearly always busy carrying or chasing something, and the lift needed several idle seagulls at the same instant to even roll. In practice that almost never happened, so most players never saw it.

• A lift now rolls on its own, and the crew is assembled to order. The seagull nearest the boat starts it and two more are called in, so it no longer waits for the flock to be idle.
• The chance scales with the lobby: 5 percent per connected player on each check, so a full lobby sees it sooner rather than more often.
• The cooldown between lifts is now 30 minutes.
• The called in seagulls leave when the lift ends, so repeated events do not slowly grow the flock.
• Removed the MaxBirds setting, which no longer did anything now that the crew size is fixed.

A flock that replenishes itself

• Added a roaming seagull cap, 3 by default and up to 20, so you can decide how busy the island is. Killed seagulls are now replaced over time instead of thinning out for good.
• Added a spawn rate multiplier from 1 to 10 controlling how quickly the flock is topped back up.
• The swarm event ignores the cap completely, so its reinforcements still arrive in full.
• Both are in the new Population section, and setting ManagePopulation to false restores the old behaviour of leaving the seagull count entirely to the game.

1.1.0

Stealing actually happens now. The base game only considers one seagull for a dive roughly every half a minute, which meant the new behaviour almost never fired on its own. Target checks now run on their own timer, and tools and holdable items are weighted so a gun can win against a closer fish.

• Removed the option to honour the game's own seagull exclusion flag. That flag is set on nearly everything, so respecting it stopped the mod doing anything beyond vanilla.
• Seagulls no longer target items sitting in a player's pockets, which previously caused a long dive that was abandoned on arrival.
• If the item a seagull was diving for gets stowed before it arrives, it takes whatever is in the player's hands instead. If their hands are empty it gives up rather than reaching into their bag.
• Breaking line of sight, by stepping into a building for example, now cancels the dive. A short grace period stops a wave or a passing prop aborting it, and a gull that has been given the slip waits before trying again.
• Added a NeverSteal list so specific items can be protected. Clams are excluded by default.
• Added a targeting log that reports why each item was rejected, for anyone tuning the settings.

Guns

• Full automatic guns such as the SMG are now fired in bursts of three to five rather than single shots. This reads the game's own full auto flag, so it needs no weapon names and works in any language.

Swarm

• Swarm size now scales with the number of players connected, with a ceiling so a large lobby cannot spawn a flock big enough to hurt performance.
• A swarm can no longer start during one of the game's own boss fights, and an active swarm stands down if a boss appears.

Boat lift

• Now needs only two seagulls to start, and takes up to four when they are available. A crew can also lose a bird mid flight and keep going.
• Fixed the odds check running before the availability check, which silently threw away successful rolls whenever the flock was busy.
• The boat lift is also blocked during the game's own boss fights.

Appearance

• Seagulls now vary in size. Each bird's size is derived from its network id, so every player running the mod sees the same flock without any extra network traffic.

1.0.0

Initial release.

Stealing

• Seagulls can snatch items out of a player's hands, including tools, weapons, radios, and fish.
• Seagulls can pull a hooked fish off a fishing rod once it is clear of the water.
• Tools, weapons, and other holdable items on the ground are now valid targets alongside fish and downed players.
• Every category is chance based and individually configurable.

Stolen guns

• A seagull carrying a firearm fires it at random intervals in whatever direction the barrel is pointing.
• Bullets deal the weapon's normal damage and can hit players. The bird is not aiming.
• Muzzle flash and gunfire replicate to every player.

Swarm event

• Damaging a seagull has a configurable chance to enrage the flock, limited to once every thirty minutes by default.
• Reinforcements spawn far out and fly in rather than appearing on top of the players.
• Birds attack in staggered dives from randomised approach angles instead of moving as one mass.
• Swarming birds respect line of sight and will not attack through walls or roofs.
• The swarm appears on the boss health bar as the combined health of every participating bird.
• The event ends early if every player is down, so respawning is never blocked.

Boat lift

• Three or more free seagulls can gather at grip points around the hull and carry the boat away.
• The boat is held level while airborne and flown in a slow circuit around the island.
• Killing enough of the crew drops the boat and ends the event.

General

• Runs on the host only. Other players need nothing installed except to see the swarm boss bar.