Right in the first few sentences of Tatertot's blog post we can find the following:

If you have any cloud cover at night in Aurora Skies – you’ll see the northern lights.

So this is not an Aurora Borealis but just glowing clouds!
Just in case you don't know that northern lights are something different, go read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora_(astronomy)

Way to go EA, let alone the overall appearance of this world that looks like the work of an amateur who did his very first world.
There are custom worlds on the exchange which outrun this world with ease and they are for free.
No money from me this time.

I'm sorry you feel that way.

I'm very excited about the sky effects, I think they'll be beautiful! And the next world on my CAW list of worlds I'd like to make (for myself) is an arctic tundra world so I'm hoping to steal the effects to use in my own world too!

I've been looking at some of the sky effects of existing worlds in CAW and OH MY GURUS!!! They are amazebobs! Honestly, I sit there for ages just playing around with the time of day and cloud cover! I tend to actually play Sunset Valley in the game and tend to lift buildings from other worlds to place in SV, rather than playing other worlds for any length of time, so I haven't noticed all the effects in all the worlds until now. I'm going to play each world and spend half my time looking at the sky now! Especially with the seasons weather.

So... the lights might not be 100% accurate but I'm sure they will be beautiful and amazing! I'm going to buy this world for the lights if nothing else!

(edit: the 'else' looks good too though!!! )

Cyron43 wrote:Right in the first few sentences of Tatertot's blog post we can find the following:

If you have any cloud cover at night in Aurora Skies – you’ll see the northern lights.

So this is not an Aurora Borealis but just glowing clouds!

Way to jump to conclusions. That's not what it says at all.

The actual aurora is not visible every night, and even when it is, some nights it is brighter than others.

What the designers have done is hinged the math for determining the presence and intensity of the aurora to the mechanism already coded into the game determining cloud cover.

All they are trying to tell you is that the aurora is not a static, painted skybox but a dynamic and varying weather phenomenon that will exhibit change during play – just like the actual aurora does.

I hardly see that as a point about which to complain.

Sindocat wrote:

Cyron43 wrote:Right in the first few sentences of Tatertot's blog post we can find the following:

If you have any cloud cover at night in Aurora Skies – you’ll see the northern lights.

So this is not an Aurora Borealis but just glowing clouds!

Way to jump to conclusions. That's not what it says at all.

The actual aurora is not visible every night, and even when it is, some nights it is brighter than others.

What the designers have done is hinged the math for determining the presence and intensity of the aurora to the mechanism already coded into the game determining cloud cover.

All they are trying to tell you is that the aurora is not a static, painted skybox but a dynamic and varying weather phenomenon that will exhibit change during play – just like the actual aurora does.

I hardly see that as a point about which to complain.

And your knowledge is based on what?
Any official sources for that?

Common sense? Looking at what they did for the LL moon?

Common sense?
My common sense tells me EA always did it half baked for this game and it's the same this time.
Tatertot says Aurora Borealis appears with any cloud set except for overcast. Well where are the clouds in this picture???
We can clearly see that the aurora Borealis is nothing but glowing clouds.
They have the same shapes and transparency textures.

Cyron43 wrote:Common sense?
My common sense tells me EA always did it half baked for this game and it's the same this time.
Tatertot says Aurora Borealis appears with any cloud set except for overcast. Well where are the clouds in this picture???
We can clearly see that the aurora Borealis is nothing but glowing clouds.
They have the same shapes and transparency textures.

If that was the case, it would be the same regardless of weather but it also says you won't see it with heavy storms.

Instead of seeing a new, cool effect, you've chosen to look at only the negative. Don't buy it if you don't like it, but don't bring everyone else down with your negativity.

LadyLaFleur wrote:
Instead of seeing a new, cool effect, you've chosen to look at only the negative. Don't buy it if you don't like it, but don't bring everyone else down with your negativity.

Is it so wrong to point out that EA wants our money for some amateur world with a half-baked effect?
Oh I don't want to bring you down.
Just move on to your all shiny yay-sayer threads and have a nice time.
Bye

EA doesn't care if you buy it or not, hundreds of us are going to. I don't understand the mechanics of the Northern Lights and I'm not going to embarrass myself pretending I do, but however EA has implemented them into the game I am happy with them. It's a feature that's not in other worlds, and there's only so many things you can do with a Store World as it's not fully patched and coded into the game like an EP feature. Also, they have less time to add features into a Store World than an EP feature. The Store team are doing wonderful things with their Sets and Worlds, adding in things we have been requesting and never seen before, while working to a stricter budget and schedule.

And the layout of the world is gorgeous, I would take ANY EA world over a user-created world any day.

We know next to nothing about this world and yet you are already saying you won't buy it! Wait until the live chat, we'll see it in detail then.

I'm not clear on what your complaint is, though I've read through your post twice. Your discontent lies in the fact that the aurora seems to be cloud-based, rather than exactly mirror an aurora as found in nature? Is that right?

If that's so, you must also be deeply disappointed by sim grass, as not every single blade of grass is distinct from its neighboring grass leaves, as found in nature. Another point of distress must be the sim birds that fly overhead but never land on anything, which is completely unlike real birds...

I'm sorry; I'm just not clear on why that's such a big deal....if they couldn't contrive a way to make an aurora other than by having the clouds glow, and the choice was to give us glowing clouds or NO aurora at all, then, hey, I'm glad they chose to give us an aurora. Half an aurora is better than no aurora at all, to me...

Will they look like these?
http://spaceweather.com/gallery/index.php?title=aurora&title2=l
ights

Great post, Halle_M.

Halle this thread wouldn't exist if they told us the truth. If they said, "hey look we made the clouds glow so they resemble an Aurora Borealis", I would be fine with it.
But the way they did it looks like they try to fool us. And when I realize someone tries to make a fool out of me I see red.
That's why.
Dorothy gave many great examples of how Aurora Borealis really looks like. Thank you Dorothy.

Bottom line; If you don't like it, don't buy it. Nobody said you HAVE to purchase every store item (Unless someone is doing a collection or something XD)