Aurora Skies snow problem

@Rsandaa  I take it you've found explanations of how lowering the world's water level fixes the issue?  You'd need to do that in CAW, which means you'd need to decrap the world yourself, which, while not strictly against the rules if you're doing it for your own use, is something a lot of people would rather avoid.  And even if you're willing to go through the process, it sounds like the deleted items is a common outcome too, which means even more work to put them back.

The underlying problem is that the gray snow is inevitable when lots are at or below the level of a body of saltwater.  As far as I know, there isn't even a mod to fix it, although you could certainly ask on the NRaas site in case there's something I've missed.  However, I found this thread:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/650201/buyer-beware-aurora-skiess-ugly-snow-problem-simgurusmitty-response

which mentions that the "geothermal" inland lake is designated as saltwater.  So it sounds like you could simply remove the saltwater designation and the problem might go away.  I haven't tested this though, and if the lake is on a world lot, you wouldn't be able to access it in buy mode.  (Normally, you can remove a saltwater marker with the TCE and buydebug cheats on.)  I think it might be possible to remove the marker with NRaas MasterController, as in, click on the ground and try to do a radius purge, if you can figure out where the marker is in the first place.

It's at least something to try.  If you do test, do it in a different season when snow isn't on the ground so you can let it fall fresh.

I don't think salt water stuff is the problem. There is this comment here: https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/comment/10372169/#Comment_10372169

"There are no 'water designators' in the world (that I can find, and I went through all the layers). So the lake does not have a 'salt water designator' as some simmers have theorised."

So I don't think that will help at all.

The best way I can think of a way to fix this, is to load that fixed version based on the "unofficial" version of this world and basically replace every lot with the actual lots themselves from Aurora Skies, but the thing is, this could maybe restore objects in lots, but what about objects in the world lot? Like trees and rocks and stuff that comes with Aurora Skies. What about relationships between premade Sims? Because houses and families need to be replaced too, that will delete the relationships between different premade families.

In any case, thanks for the help, I don't think there is any solution that will work without making my world *and* its items "unofficial" which I will not go for. (I am really trying to avoid using "that" term just in case).

Also, just wanted to say, the thing that makes thing really bad, is that this problem was acknowledged by gurus way back in the day but never got fixed. (see: https://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/comment/10373419/#Comment_10373419 and http://www.twitlonger.com/show/lquf2c) At least with IP they never really said anything about it, but this, this is just sad ☹️

Anyway, hopefully someone will alter how the snow works in this game to fix this problem. Modding for TS3 has been on fire lately with Smooth Patch and custom launchers and stuff, who knows what will happen?

@Rsandaa  I definitely did not read all the way to page 7 of that thread.  It's disappointing that there's no saltwater marker to remove, nor does adding a freshwater marker help; I guess a fixed version is the only real workaround.

You can always Porter the sims from the original version of AS to a fixed one.  If they don't all pack well in one group, doing multiple rounds would mean repairing a few relationships, but maybe not too many if you chose wisely.  As for the world objects, it's possible one of the fixed versions has them restored in full or in part.  I haven't downloaded any of them to check, but if the creators were working with CAW, you'd hope they'd have put back what they could.

So, I have some updates. I have seen the CAW method mentioned before, but never tried it because the person said with that method rabbitholes go missing. So later on I tried it anyway because I was running out of ideas, and for some reason, rabbitholes and other objects did not get deleted for me. I am guessing everyone else used the tool that changes the way the game identifies the Store content while I went for the one that doesn't do that (recompressor). So if anyone comes here for answers in the future, make sure to use the correct tool from the two. I also didn't delete the way the town is identified as from the world file, which was suggested in the MTS article that was linked, idk if that also helped or not. I just renamed it in CAW instead.

After all that, I have edited the world a lot, changed the sea level, leveled the spawners, tides, etc all to the new water level, deepened the new ground that appeared after I lowered the sea level etc. It took me like 6-7 hours to do all this because this is the first time I am using CAW, and I got a lot of errors before I learned how to avoid them. Tested the snow with TCE, and it looks pretty good. Not ideal, but better than before for sure.

Everything is nice up to this point, but there are some problems that I have encountered:

- Families are there, but their descriptions, family relationships (between other families, inner ones remain), and already established careers got yeeted for whatever reason. I have used porter before, but it would be kinda pain to set it up and put everyone in their previous houses and such. So I am honestly willing to ignore this because I am tired.

- Aurora Skies lighting got yeeted as well, and idk why. I will try to fix it in CAW in a few days, but if not I will try to get a global lightning mod that is similar to the default AS one, the ones that affect every world. Which is a shame because I also play in other worlds, but whatever. Like I said I am tired 🙂

So this is probably it for me. If you or anyone else have any suggestions that you know of for lighting feel free to post! (Maybe you people are better at CAW, I still have no idea what I am doing). I kinda gave up on families, so I will let them start fresh and stuff.

Thank you for your contributions! <3

Hello, it is me again, like an hour later. I have figured out the lighting issue. Turns out, stuff related to lighting and whatever are stored in *.ini files. After I learned this, I compared my world file with the OG one, and it turns out my version was indeed missing them. Probably they were eaten by CAW while I was editing the world. Anyway, I put the *.ini files back in with s3pe, and boom, it worked! Just wanted to post this as well in case anyone comes across.

Also I will upload some pics for both summer and winter because why not?

Idk why but this made me super happy for whatever reason. Thanks everyone! <3

@Rsandaa  The world does look great, and I'm glad you figured out the lighting part.  The lighting is one of the best parts of Aurora Skies, so it would be a shame to lose it.

I've never even installed CAW, much less learned how to use it, so you're way ahead of me here.  IT's helpful to know that most of the issues can be worked around though.