How to Place Assets Anywhere

Learn how to change the m_placementMode property of your assets to make them be placeable anywhere you want.

No more "Building must be placed by roadside".

No more making water tower type assets for this purpose.

Intro

Hello everyone,

In this guide I'll be teaching you how to make your assets be placeable anywhere you want.
I noticed a lot of people have been asking for parks that you can place away from roads, and there are many out there that already work like this.

However, some authors still haven't learned to do it, or just don't want to.

So if you want you can modify assets you download to use in any way you prefer.

Or if you are an asset creator and don't know this, well...

Read on to discover how.

Overview - Quick Explanation

The game has 5 different placement mode options:

RoadSide - is the normal placement mode for parks, and most other services
Shoreline - default placement mode for water and sewage pumps
OnWater - default for advanced wind turbine, asset must be placed on water
OnGround - asset must be placed on ground
OnSurface - default for intersections - can place on ground and/or water

You can change any asset to have any of these placement modes with a little bit of work.

There are several ways to do this, however I'll only show you the two easiest and safest ones for now.

• With ModTools, by BloodyPenguin
  http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=450877484
  Subscribe to this and enable in Content Manager if it's not already enabled.
  
  
• With a Hex editor, like HxD
  Get HxD here[mh-nexus.de].

With ModTools

1. Subscribe to Mod tools and enable it in Content Manager
   
   
2. Load the asset you wish to change in the Asset Editor
   
   
3. Click anywhere in the Asset Editor scene
   
   
4. Press CTRL+E to open the ModTools scene explorer.
   
   
5. Click and drag from the bottom-right corner of the explorer to maximize the window so you can see what you're doing.
   
   
   
   
6. Scroll down the list on the left and find ToolController, and click on + sign.
   
   
   
   
7. Just down the list is another instance of ToolController, click on > sign.
   
   
   
   
8. Find the line that says "PrefabInfo m_editPrefabInfo" and click on the + sign.
   
   
   
   
   
9. Scroll down until you find the line that says "BuildingInfo+PlacementMode m_placementMode" and click on the dropdown menu.
   
   
10. Select your desired placementMode
    
    Remember:
    
    RoadSide = asset must be placed along a pre-existing road
    Shoreline = asset must be placed along the shore, like a water pump
    OnWater = asset must be placed on water, like an advanced wind turbine
    OnGround = asset must be placed on the ground
    OnSurface = asset can be placed on ground and/or water
    
    
    
    
11. Close Scene Explorer, Save your asset, re-start C:SL and check the results.
    
    
    
    This is my Plop-anywhere train station after changing placementMode from RoadSide to OnGround, as you can see, it's not giving a "Building must be placed roadside!" message :D

In the next section, I'll show you how to do this outside the game with a Hex editor.

With HxD (or another Hex Editor)

NOTE: I am not claiming to be the inventor of this.... someone else already made a tutorial on imgur which you can see here[imgur.com], and this is actually common knowledge among modders.

I'm just putting this knowledge together here on Steam for easy of access.

If you dont have a hex editor you can get HxD here[mh-nexus.de].

Once you have HxD installed follow these steps:

1. Find the .crp file for the asset you wish to change.
   
   
2. Open it with HxD
   
   
3. Press CTRL+F to open the "Search for" dialogue.
   
   
4. Type m_placementMode in the search field and press enter(or click ok)
   
   
   
   
   
5. The highlighted hex codes correspond to the string you just searched for, and the first hex after them is the variable you want to change.
   
   
   Change the first hex code after the highlighted ones to be:
   
   00 for Roadside
   01 for Shoreline
   02 for OnWater
   03 for OnGround
   04 for OnSurface
   
   
6. Pres CTRL+S to save your changes, then close HxD.
   
   
   
   
7. Open the game and test your changes.
   
   

Warning about No Road access problem with After Dark

Please note if you change the placementMode in order to put an asset far away from roads, service vehicles and tourists will no longer be able to get to it.

For this reason it is advised you set the Tourists, Garbage production and Fire hazard values all to 0.

Otherwise you will get No Road Access and/or Garbage icons, and your buildings will burn down when no fire engines can get to them.

Conclusion

This is a very fun way to start learning how to do some basic modding of stuff : )

I hope you enjoyed this guide, if there are any questions feel free to comment below and I'll do my best to answer them for you.

If you liked the guide please take a moment to fav, +rate, comment, or share with your friends or other websites : )

You may also like some of my other guides, or maybe an asset or two.

Cya around : )

[Shane_UK10]

Thank you. This is an issue I have been trying to resolve for a while and you explanation is very clear too.

[Green Allien]

Gracias, el editor hexadecimal me ha servido mucho, ahora tan solo tengo que solucionarlo al crear un parque grande con otras partes mas pequeñas; un apunte es que tambien pueden estar los valores: "05 OnTerrain", "06 ShoreLine or Ground" y "07 PathSide or Ground" (por ahora) , un saludo.

Thanks, the hex editor has helped me a lot, now I just have to solve it by creating a large park with other smaller parts joined; A note is that there can also be the values: "05 OnTerrain", "06 ShoreLine or Ground" and "07 PathSide or Ground" (for now), a greeting.

[Fun Noober]

What if it is a helicopter depot that as no land vehicles?

[t1a2l]

@TPB - Hey, thanks for this. How does the monorial over road works when it snaps to a nearby road?

[OZ]

great guide solved my problem with statue's needing road side access

[KittyPaws]

***monguinassassin*** Ploppable RICO, Growable RICO, Plop the Growables, Fnd it mod, Not So Unique Buildings... These will help you find and use the assets, and buildings as many times as needed
all these are mods, and must be enable in the content manager
for the assets to work while in game... Enjoy

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=837734529
find it mod

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=586012417
Ploppable RICO

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=831952079
RICO+Growable Residential

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=924884948
Plop the Growables

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=466834228
Not So Unique Buildings

[monguinassassin]

I also need to know how to make the asset visible as I plop it in the main game.

[T​​​P​​​B]

You need to re-start the game after you enable mod tools in content manager

[monguinassassin]

ModTools doesn't work. I did exactly as you told me, but I can't access ModTools by Ctrl+E.

[GordonDry]

Thank you.