Neighborhood decorations can be placed anywhere.

What It Is

It's a hack that allows all neighborhood deco to go inside lots, go on top of roads, go on land, and go on water.

For example, the palm tree groves that came with BV refuse to go on the edge of water, screaming at you that they can only be placed on land... even though you are placing them on land. Damn game. And the lighthouse that's on a rock used to ony be allowed in water, but now can be placed on land, too.

Pretty much all the deco objects are included. All the trees, rocks, buildings, BV objects, signs, etc. The ones that aren't included are things like flowers and fields, which can't be seen from inside of lots anyway, and so are useless anyway.

This REPLACES my "bonus rock hack" that's on MTS2. It does not replace the smaller rocks, so don't remove those. The hack you'll want to delete had the name of smk_Boulders_place_in_lots.package

What To Install

There are several files inside the zip. Basically, each EP added some nhood deco. So get the files for all the EPs you've got, as well as the base game. For example, if you have NL and BV only, you would get the base game hack, the NL hack, and the BV hack, but not the OFB or Seasons hacks.

Technical Info

Provided for reference... can be used to edit custom objects.

There are four things that can be changed about the way nhood objects are placed.

All of them are changed in the Neighborhood Object XML (XNGB), which is located inside a file called catcanhobjects.bundle.package in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\XXX\TSData\Res\Catalog\CANHObjects (where XXX refers to the base game or specific EP). For custom objects, this would be inside the .package file you downloaded, of course.

placementsurface refers to whether an object is allowed on water or land.
Acceptable codes are 0x00000000 (land), 0x00000001 (water), 0x00000002 (water and land).

allowedinlot refers to whether you can place an object inside of a lot.
Acceptable codes are 0x00000000 (no), 0x00000001 (yes).

allowedonroad refers to whether you can place an object on top of a road.
Acceptable codes are 0x00000000 (no), 0x00000001 (yes).

removeonlotplop VERY IMPORTANT!!! If you do not disallow this, the object will NOT be placeable inside of lots or on roads, even if you allowed it in allowedinlot and allowedonroad.
THE CODE YOU SHOULD USE IS 0x00000000. Do not use 0x00000001.

Practical Applications

You might be wondering how all this stuff can be used in the actual game.

Here are some pictures of a beach lot, where the yucky edges/seams have been disguised by rocks, and a community "pond" that is actually a disguised swimming pool. If you have ever tried to disguise a swimming pool using just plants, you know how dumb it looks to have a jungle growing around all four edges of the pool. Using the rocks gives a more natural appearance. Take note of the way the rocks extend INSIDE the swimming pool, giving the underwater sides a natural, rough look. I put this example together too hastily, so not every edge of the pool was concealled; ideally you would make the rocks extend slightly more inside the pool. Invisible fences (available on MTS2) are used to keep sims from walking through any nhood object inside the lot.