Cities Skylines 2 : Line Tool Lite

• Place objects in lines - straight lines, curves, or circles.
• Fence mode - automatically align and place objects end-to-end.
• Accurate placement - no worrying about imprecision.
• Easily adjust spacing and rotation using the in-game tool UI (including random rotation for that natural look).
• Optional random position variation can provide some natural irregularity.
• Live previewing included, so you can provisionally place a line and adjust spacing and/or rotation to see how it looks in real-time before making the final placement (or cancelling).
• Displays distances and angles for fine-tuning.
• Works both in-game and in the editor.
• Integrates directly with in-game tools - no hotkey required.
• Includes integration with yenyang's excellent Tree Controller mod.

Works on all types of objects - trees, shrubs, props. You can even place simple buildings and even vehicles (for amusement value only - see limitations below).

Important information for the 1.3 update

Version 1.3 of this mod adds a direct User Interface integration with the game's tool system. This means that the Line Tool is no longer activated by hotkey.

Line modes are now activated directly from the new line modes selection at the bottom of the tool options panel.

Instructions

To activate the tool:

• Select the object that you'd like to place in a line (e.g. a tree) - either normally or with the Dev UI.
• Select the desired line mode from the line modes selection at the bottom of the tool options panel (in the normal tool options place, towards the bottom-left of the screen; see image above).

To place the line:

• Left-click where you want the line to begin, and left-click again at the desired endpoint to place the objects (curves require three clicks - start, guidepoint, and end).
• Right-click at any time to cancel placement.
• Shift-click at the end will start a new line placement at the exact same spot where the previous line ended.
• Control-click at the end will leave the line in preview mode; it's not fully placed yet so you can go and adjust the settings and see the results in real time. You can also drag the highlighted control points (blue circles) to adjust the line positioning (control-clicking to start dragging will ensure that you don't accidentally trigger placement if you miss the point circles, but regular clicking works as well). When finished, left-click to place or right-click to cancel.

Use the tool UI to:

• Toggle fence mode - objects will be automatically aligned with the line direction and placed continuously end-to-end.
• Toggle between straight line, curved, and circle modes.
• Adjust distances using the arrow buttons - plain click for 1m increments, shift-click for 10m, control-click for 0.1m. For circle mode, spacing will be rounded up to the nearest distance that will ensure an even placement around the circle.
• Select fixed-length even spacing mode - when this is enabled objects will be spaced out evenly over the entire length of the line, with spacing as close as possible to the spacing distance you have set. For circle mode, this will cause spacing to be rounded to the nearest number (up or down) that will ensure an even placement around the circle (default circle rounding is always up).
• Select random rotation to have each object in the line have a different randomly-chosen rotation, or otherwise manually adjust the rotation for all items using the arrow buttons - plain click for 10-degree increments, shift-click for 90 degrees, control-click for 1 degree.
• Set variable spacing to more than zero to have a random (length-ways) offset applied to each item's spacing, up to the maximum distance specified - plain click for 1m increments, shift-click for 10m, control-click for 0.1m.
• Set variable offset to more than zero to have a random sideways offset applied to each item, up to the maximum distance specified - plain click for 1m increments, shift-click for 10m, control-click for 0.1m.

To remove variable spacing and/or offset, simply set the field(s) back to zero. Shift-clicking (10m increments) can make this faster.

To exit the tool:

• Select 'single placement mode' to return to the normal placement mode for the selected object, or
• Press Escape.

Requirements

• BepInEx 5

Installation

1. Make sure that BepInEx 5 is installed.
2. Place the LineToolLite folder in the archive in your BepInEx Plugins folder.

Translations

This mod supports localization. Please help out with translating this mod into different languages at the CrowdIn project!

Support

It's usually easiest to contact me at the Cities: Skylines modding Discord, or I'm also contactable as u/algernon_A on the Cities: Skylines modding Subreddit (r/CitiesSkylinesModding). You could also raise an issue on the GitHub.

Limitations

Sub-objects aren't yet supported in this version, so if you use this to place buildings they won't have any of their sub-components (such as props, embedded networks, or sub-buildings). The full version of this mod rectifies this.

Some specialized buildings can cause issues/and crashes, such as carparks.

Vehicles can be placed, but will get confused and likely do strange things, which does have its amusement value at least. The full version will allow you to place vehicles as 'props' (so they just sit there and look pretty, and not e.g. rise up nose-first into the sky in various geometric patterns).

Meta

Why 'Lite'?

There is a more feature-complete version of this mod in the works, but that requires official modding support to be publicly released (because it uses functionality that isn't present in the current public release of the game). Since we're all getting sick and tired of waiting for that, this is a version for use with BepInEx (and that has all functionality stripped out that isn't available in the current public release of the game).

When official modding support (finally!) releases, this mod will be replaced by the full (non-lite) version on Paradox Mods.

Credits

Special thanks to Captain of Coit for troubleshooting, guidance, and general advice with the UI coding!

Source code

Available on GitHub (algernon-A/LineToolLite).

As always, never trust a mod without publicly available source code!

And still be cautious about mods that do make their source available, but at least those mods are off to a better start by already treating you - the user - with at least a modicum of respect.

Modders

Modders (and aspiring modders!), as always I'm available and happy to chat about what I've done and answer any questions, and also about how you can implement anything that I've done for your own mods. Come grab me on the Cities: Skylines Modding Discord!

Disclaimers and legal

The only authorized distribution platforms for this mod, or mods based substantially on the code of this mod, are the GitHub repo linked above, this Thunderstore.io upload, and Paradox Mods (that's the actual Paradox Mods at mods.paradoxplaza.com, not the scam and malware site paradoxmods net which is explicitly NOT licensed to distribute any of my work, or works derived from my work). Any version or copy of this mod that you encounter elsewhere is most likely being used as a vector for malware and should be ignored.

Downloading, installation, and use of this mod is at your own risk.

This mod is Copyright 2023 algernon (github.com/algernon-A). All rights reserved. To eliminate any doubt, explicit permission is hereby granted to download this mod for personal use and for Thunderstore.io to distribute it (<- I hope all this isn't actually necessary, but you never know these days). Permission is explicitly NOT granted for further distribution or licensing (<- this bit so I can at least try to DMCA the malware-spreaders). If you think you've got a good use-case for an exception to any of this, contact me, let's talk!

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Have a virtual jellybean if you actually read this far!

1.3.4

• Add mouse scroll wheel adjustments to numerical fields.
• Fix missing localization for modes panel title.
• Add Traditional Chinese localization from CrowdIn translation volunteers.
• Adjust starting position for curves when using fence mode.

1.3.3

• Ensure new trees have default growth state.

1.3.2

• Fix XP being gained when previewing some buildings and roundabouts.

1.3.1

• Update README with tool mode location image.

1.3

• Add integration with existing tool panels (no more hotkey).
• Add initial localizations for Simplified Chinese, German, and Spanish from CrowdIn translation volunteers.

1.2.1

• Add explicit frame sync to tooltips.

1.2

• Add tooltips to tool panel.
• Add localization.
• Add proper licensing.

1.1.2

• Additional updates for Tree Controller integration.

1.1.1

• Update Tree Controller integration.

1.1

• Add dragging of line control points in fixed preview mode.

1.0.10

• Add fixed-length even spacing mode (will evenly space out objects along the full length of the line with spacing as close as possible to the specified distance).

1.0.9

• Continuing a curve with shift-click now also locks the starting tangent of the new curve (continuous curves).

1.0.8

• Add UI in editor.

1.0.7

• Improve previewing and cursor handling (again).

1.0.6

• Add optional random spacing and lateral offset functions.

1.0.5

• Enforce minimum spacing distance to prevent overlapping of multiple invisible items.

1.0.4

• Improve previewing and cursor handling.
• Fix spacing setting not being reset after re-activating tool when fence mode is set.

1.0.3

• Add initial fence mode.

1.0.2

• Rework UI JavaScript to survive UI regeneration and enable compatibility with HookUI (thanks to Captain of Coit).
• Remove JavaScript globals.

1.0.1

• Embed icons in mod instead of using Unified Icon Library due to Thunderstore mod manager breaking things.
• Add warning about HookUI incompatibility.