WeatherExpansion [BETA]

[!NOTE] Beta Release: WeatherExpansion is currently in BETA. Atmospheric transitions, 24-hour celestial progression, starry skies with shooting meteors, physical wind & wave dynamics, boat radar enhancement, and tactical headlamp systems are fully implemented and optimized.

A next-generation atmospheric weather and 24-hour day/night simulation mod for How to Fish, bringing realistic weather transitions, deep immersive nights, procedural starry skies with shooting meteors, physical wind & wave interactions, glowing boat radar GPS illumination, and a high-power player headlamp flashlight.

Comes with a sleek In-Game AMOLED Dark GUI (F6) featuring drag-and-drop movement, window resizing, live weather switching, clock manipulation, and instant real-time configuration without restarting the game.

✨ Features

🎮 In-Game Overlay GUI (F6)

• AMOLED Dark Theme: Modern dark aesthetic with custom cyan accents, smooth responsive sliders, and styled scrollbars.
• Draggable & Resizable: Drag the top header to reposition anywhere on screen, or drag the bottom-right corner (///) to resize.
• Instant Hot-Reload: All slider adjustments, instant weather presets, and clock time changes take effect immediately in real-time.
• Smart Input Isolation: Unlocks the mouse cursor and isolates camera look and attack clicks while interacting with the menu, keeping player movement (WASD, running, jumping) fully functional.

🌐 Dual Language Support (EN / RU)

• English by default with a one-click toggle to Russian (EN / RU) directly in the header.
• Automatically translates all weather names, status cards, sliders, and descriptions across the entire interface.

🔦 High-Power Headlamp Flashlight (L)

• Tactical Directional Beam: 140-meter long-range spotlight with focused central illumination to explore dark islands and spot fish in deep waters.
• Wide Forward Flood Fill: 30-meter forward floodlight illuminating terrain, rocks, and water directly in front of you.
• Zero-Clipping Lens Mount: Anchored right at the camera viewport so looking straight down at rocks or ground never clips, flickers, or turns off.
• Live Brightness Slider: Smoothly adjust intensity from 2.0x up to 16.0x directly in the overlay menu.

📡 Boat Radar Neon Sonar Display

• Cockpit Sonar Glow: When unlocked, the boat's onboard radar screen radiates a soft emerald/cyan GPS display glow across the helm in the dark.
• High-Contrast Map Markers: Enhanced, crisp vibrant colors for player navigation arrows, island contours, teammate markers, and last death beacons.

🌌 Real 24-Hour Cycle & Starry Night Sky

• Authentic Dynamic Night Curve: Realistic daylight progression reaching deep dark night at midnight (00:00 – 02:30).
• Procedural Celestial Canopy: 1,200 twinkling diamond-white stars mapped across the night dome, rotating with the natural sky.
• Cinematic Falling Meteors (Shooting Stars): Smooth, graceful shooting stars streaking peacefully across clear night skies.
• Time Controls & Instant Presets:
  • 🌅 Dawn (06:00) • ☀️ Noon (12:00) • 🌇 Sunset (18:30) • 🌌 Midnight (01:00)
  • Continuous 24-hour hour slider and Time Freeze (Pause) toggle.
  • Configurable real-time day length (1 to 60 minutes).

🌦️ Atmospheric Weather System

• Dynamic Procedural Transitions: Smooth, seamless transitions between weather states with realistic sky dimming and lighting shifts.
• Unique Climate Profiles Per Island:
  • 🗼 Island 1 (Lighthouse): Temperate coastal sea, occasional calm rain and showers.
  • 🌲 Island 2 (Forest): Misty woodlands, rainy squalls, and swirling mountain snow.
  • 🌴 Island 3 (Tropical): Warm sunny days, tropical downpours, and intense hurricanes.
  • 🎰 Island 4 (Rocky / Casino): Rough sea winds, sudden thunderstorms, and stormy gale force.
  • 🌋 Island 5 (Volcano): Dark volcanic storm clouds, violent thunder, and torrential rain.
  • ❄️ Island 6 (Secret / Dev): Blizzard winds and dense snowstorms.
• Precipitation & Effects:
  • ☀️ Clear Sky: Bright sunlight, crisp visibility, starry nights.
  • 🌧️ Rain: Realistic falling raindrops, wet surfaces, and layered audio.
  • ⛈️ Thunderstorms: Distant rumbling thunder, sky flashes, and intense downpours.
  • ❄️ Snow: Swirling turbulent snowflakes and icy mist.
  • 🌪️ Hurricanes: Violent ocean spray, whipping winds, and flying organic debris.

🌊 Dynamic Physics & Gameplay Modifiers

• Physical Gameplay Toggle: Enables or disables environmental influences on gameplay.
• Terrain Traction & Slip: Wet or snowy ground slightly modifies player movement grip.
• Wind Gusts & Drift: Strong storm winds create gentle push forces on players and drifting boats.
• Ocean Waves & Boat Rocking: Rough waters during storms rock boats and alter casting conditions.
• Fishing Behavior: Rain and twilight naturally accelerate fish bite rates.

🔊 Layered Stereo Audio & Multiplayer Sync

• Procedural Stereo Audio: Synthesized binaural rain loops, wind gusts, and randomized reverberant thunder echoes routed to the game mixer.
• Multiplayer Synchronized: Deterministic FishNet network clock synchronization across all players in co-op sessions.

🕹️ Controls

⚙️ Configuration

All settings can be tweaked live in-game (F6) or by editing BepInEx/config/com.howToFish.weatherexpansion.cfg:

0. Interface

• Language (English / Russian): Interface language.
• MenuKey (Default: F6): Hotkey to open/close the overlay.
• FlashlightKey (Default: L): Hotkey to toggle the headlamp flashlight.
• EnablePlayerFlashlight (Default: false): Flashlight toggle state.
• FlashlightBrightness (Default: 8.5): Flashlight beam intensity (2.0 to 16.0).

1. General

• Enabled (Default: true): Master switch. Disabling immediately restores 100% vanilla game behavior.

2. Time & Atmosphere

• DayLengthMinutes (Default: 24.0): Full 24-hour cycle duration in real-world minutes.
• StartingHour (Default: 8.0): Starting hour of the day when loading into a session.
• WeatherDurationMinutes (Default: 5.0): Duration of each weather cycle.
• TransitionSeconds (Default: 9.0): Smoothness of weather transitions in seconds.
• NightExposure (Default: -3.20): Darkness level of the night sky (-5.0 to 0.0).
• EnableNightStars (Default: true): Procedural starry sky canopy and shooting stars.
• StarBrightness (Default: 1.0): Brightness multiplier for stars and meteors.

3. Visuals & Audio

• EffectIntensity (Default: 1.0): Visual atmosphere effect intensity multiplier.
• ParticleQuality (Default: 1.0): Particle density multiplier.
• WeatherVolume (0–100, Default: 75): Volume percentage for rain, wind, and thunder.

4. Gameplay & Physics

• WeatherAffectsGameplay (Default: true): Enables wind, waves, player traction, and fishing bite modifiers.
• WeatherStrength (0–100, Default: 100): Strength multiplier for physical gameplay modifiers.

📥 Installation

Using Mod Manager (Recommended)

Install via Thunderstore Mod Manager or Gale Mod Manager.

Manual Installation

1. Install BepInEx 5.4+ (Mono x64) for How to Fish.
2. Download and extract WeatherExpansion.zip.
3. Copy WeatherExpansion.dll (and icon.png) into How to Fish/BepInEx/plugins/WeatherExpansion/.
4. Launch the game and press F6!

🗺️ Roadmap

• ⛺ Sleep & Rest System: Interact with island tents & shelters to skip dark nights until dawn (06:00), complete with co-op multiplayer voting.
• 🚤 Modular Boat Lighting: Upgradable marine searchlights, underwater hull glow, and customizable boat clearance lights.
• 🏝️ Island Illumination: Rotating coastal lighthouse beams, campfire glows, and dock approach beacons for foggy voyages.
• 🌌 Celestial Expansion: Dynamic moon phases, Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), and real sky constellations.