This mod expands the build area, improves performance, and cleans up the Hangman's Alley player settlement located near Diamond City in downtown Boston.  It does so by removing all kinds of clutter, debris, and decorations that the default game has present in a greatly expanded build area in the 4 cells centered around the workbench.  For the non-technically minded this can be thought of as the large city block that Hangman's Alley is located in the middle of, from the Charles River to the street with the Diamond City Security vs Super Mutants battle when you first reach that location for the North and South borders with the main roads to the East and West for those borders.  See the screenshots for better information and overhead and ground level views of the new borders for the settlement.

Normally, removing objects and debris can have a negative influence on performance and FPS as this will disable the Previsualization and Precombination systems that Bethesda implemented into Fallout 4 specifically to improve performance.  This mod solves that issue as all objects were removed and then the necessary previs/precombine files were regenerated so that performance is returned to what it was before.  Considering that many objects I deemed unnecessary were removed for cleanliness and performance reasons, these regenerated files should in theory lead to even better than default performance in this area of the game, but naturally YMMV on that point.

For an in depth look at these systems and how they can affect your game, see here:  Fallout 4 Optimization and Performance Systems Explained


Features

• greatly expanded build area for the Hangman's Alley settlement, both in terms of width and height (see screenshots)
• the expanded borders makes placing water purifiers possible as there is now access within the borders to the Charles River
• removes nearly all debris and clutter that was previously located within and around the settlement
• performance is NOT reduced by this removal of debris, in fact performance should be the same or even better than the default game
• attack markers have been moved outside the new settlement borders to greatly reduce "insider" attacks for all workshop attacks
  

Notes

• For the cleanup part of this mod to work, some of the previously locked or closed off entrances that the raiders had placed needed to be removed.  This involved the doors and makeshift barriers on both the far east and west of the old limits.  The resulting appearance of those specific spots can look a bit odd before you start building, especially on the western side near the streets to Vault 81 but this mod is meant for people who know the pitfalls and annoyances of the default Hangman's Alley and want to build there without them.  Perhaps those walls were knocked down in an attack and haven't been rebuilt yet - the occupants are raiders after all, building isn't their strong suit.
  

• Space is still at a premium in this settlement in the "main section" as all of the large buildings that made up the previous borders are still present.  This was done for practical as well as gameplay reasons.  The practical is that removing them all would have made this mod far more complex and involved than it already is, and the other reason is that I still wanted this location to have the cramped feel of an alley and leaving the main buildings kept that feel.  My suggestion is to build up or out - all of the rooftops are cleared now and the build limit when it comes to height and settler sandboxing is quite high - at least 10 or more levels above the existing rooftops now.  There's also plenty of space outside the original alley for you to place structures.
  

• The green settlement build border is close to but not perfectly correct for the actual build limits for the settlement.  Creating a graphic that was a perfect match was not something I thought was needed so I borrowed an existing one that mostly fit - or more accurately - could be made to fit the build limits.  Use the screenshots as a guide for what the new limits are but don't expect them to match up precisely.
  

• I was fairly careful and thorough with my deletions when it came to debris and clutter that needed to be removed but some things you might think should be gone or a scrapping mod might have let you remove still remain.  Usually this comes down to one of three possible reasons for being left:  it isn't actual debris but ground textures that look like debris, some debris needed to be left to cover up holes in the terrain that would exist without them or were part of larger statics that couldn't be removed without massive gaps, or they supported or were part of the original settlement I felt should remain.
  
  

• Although the build limit is quite high both area wide on the ground as well as vertically as mentioned in a previous point, I still suggest that you exercise some restraint when you do your building.  This settlement is still located in the heart of downtown and all the issues that can lead to poor performance and FPS still apply.  This mod isn't a magic fix for those issues - if you build some massive edifice with 50 settlers, 100 turrets, all the shops, lots of food and more - you're going to have slowdowns still even with this mod.
  

• The expanded build area has one consequence you might not immediately realize the full implications of.  Despite what some might think, Bethesda didn't just arbitrarily decide to limit building in this location as those limits served multiple purposes.  One of the less obvious ones is that the small default build and sandbox area kept fights somewhat limited by hemming in your settlers so they didn't come into conflict with NPCs along the main roads that surround the settlement which can be quite busy even in the unmodded base game.  Expanding the build area has the side effect of increasing the range and limits of where such battles around this settlement can happen.  Wandering settlers doing scavenging, guards making their rounds, and turrets sensing hostiles can all lead to this location being quite the warzone with passing NPCs, especially if you use NPC adding mods.  This is not necessarily a negative as I'm sure some of you will quite like this side effect - I know I do myself.  Just be cautious if you use a "mortal settlers" type of mod and build for and expect extensive battles with a strong defense is my suggestion.
  

For those of you who prefer a visual way to understand or think about using mods, a walkthru and overview video of the changes made to Hangman's Alley with this mod active was made by user raybo01:




Thanks to raybo01 for the video.


Compatibility and Load Order

This should hopefully be fairly obvious but I'll be clear by saying it so there is no mistaking it anyways - any other mod that makes changes to the Hangman's Alley settlement has a high chance to conflict, either in part or in whole.  This most obviously will include other settlement modifying mods that touch on Hangman's Alley features such as borders and building limits, but be aware that other mods that are located very near to it in game terms may have issues as well.  Let me know if there is a conflict and I will look into the issue and possibly patch it if I am able to do so.

When it comes to load order, place this mod BELOW any scrapping mods such as Scrap Everything.  Those types of mods are both unneeded when it comes to this location and harmful as they generally work by disabling the precombine and previsualization systems mentioned earlier.  You can still use those mods in your load order, just be sure they load before this one so that the changes and settings made by this mod take precedence for Hangman's Alley in your game.  If you fail to do this you're basically going to break this mod from working at all as the scrapping mod will disable any performance gains you might have seen by using this and will most probably cause numerous objects that were removed to reappear.


Known Mod Conflicts and Patches

This section will list any known conflicting mods as well as mods with patches available that allow them to work in the same load order.  If you know of a mod that needs to be added to this section, let me know in the comments and I'll update this listing as needed.

Compatible

Convenient Bridges - a compatibility patch that regenerates the necessary precombination and previsualization files to allow both mods to work is available in the optional files section.

Hangman's Alley Interior Apartments - 2 compatibility patches are now available in the optional files section.  These patches require the Version 2 with Crafting option from that mods page.  The patches are for different possible load orders depending on what mods you choose to use in your game.  Only use one patch and make sure you download the proper patch for the mods you are using.  As a happy side affect of getting all the mods working together properly, please note that each patch should also solve or at least greatly reduce FPS problems players have noted when using the HAIA mod.

South of the Sea - based on a user report, the mods can work together as long as you place this one below SotS.

Tales from the Commonwealth - this mod places some NPCs and a load door in the Hangmans Alley area of the game, several users report both mods work together without issue.

Wasteland Illumination - this mod places lights on streetlights that HAO removes from the game leading to floating lights with no apparent source, a patch is available that removes these new lights so your building projects remain free of obstructions and physics defying lights


Not Compatible

Clean and Simple - Hangman's Alley Startup - changes the default look of Hangman's Alley quite a bit from the default, a patch is probably technically possible with some effort but isn't planned at this time as the goals for each mod seem too divergent.

Hangman's Plaza - basically the same answer as for CS - HAS above, a patch is probably technically possible with some reworking of items but that mod is more of a reimagined Hangmans Alley rather than a strait up settlement to build in to my mind and not really suited to being run alongside this one.