Journey to Batuu thoughts

Yes, I'm late to the party, but I really needed a new Aspiration for my Super Sim, and there was a bug report that Super Sims (or, indeed, anyone who had any bonus that affected compensation) couldn't do this pack, as they just plain couldn't get paid.

So, thoughts so far:

I brought my Super Sim and her whole family, but she's the only one doing missions. They're running interference, tying up stormtroopers in friendly conversations, and doing literal song and dance numbers (which are less effective than just walking up to Kylo Ren or Lt. Agnon and starting a conversation). So I have a control group and one Sim actually doing the missions, and...

The first thing I did, after watching early letsplays with our heroes doing the peepee walk everywhere and the articles about how to use the toilet on Batuu, was install a public bathroom under the cantina with Discover University stalls and Eco Lifestyle sinks. I saw a single NPC use it, but my Sims never have. I also cheated in plasma fruit trees in the resistance encampment because there used to be a bug report that vampires have no way to feed themselves on Batuu, and my party consisted of two witches, a vampire, and a merman. Spoiler: We haven't needed it.

(Yes, Resistance, she has the good trait.)

There's kind of a time warp effect here, as the Sim doing the missions doesn't seem to get tired or hungry, so after three or four hours I was a little missioned out and went looking for other things to do for a break... um, she can do lightsaber duels? That said, her mom and husband got hungry and tired (so I could really see that Super was just not needing to attend to her needs at all while doing missions) so we did have to stop and manage their needs, which helped break things up a little. Her stepfather is the vampire, and while Plasma Jane isn't on the Cantina menu I saw him drinking one in the Cantina when he got thirsty. Interesting. I also noticed that once he got thirsty and autonomously popped into The Dwelling, and his thirst was slaked. I'm not sure how to take that.  :D  (Are there plasma packs on a tray in the lobby, or did he bite the desk clerk?) And in the Resistance Encampment, stepdad pulled his laptop out of his home inventory and started using it.  LOL. I also saw Super's husband with low hygiene and low bladder pop into a tent to "freshen up" and come out fine. (It's like a Tardis and there's a little public restroom in there?)

So, the needs mechanic on Batuu, yes, it's basically hunger and energy and if you're doing missions you just don't get hungry or tired.They arrived on Saturday and Super finally got hungry on Thursday and hasn't gotten tired yet. I was feeling a little missioned out, so I switched to another save; I probably shouldn't do her entire aspiration in one sitting, anyway. LOL

So, the Star Wars aspect: Full disclosure: I've written Star Wars sequel trilogy fanfic. (LOL) So I actually really enjoy the Star Wars bits! but would hesitate to recommend this pack to my friend who hasn't seen them. In general, it seems to me that the enjoyment someone gets out of the Star Wars elements seems directly proportional to how much they like Star Wars in general and the sequel trilogy in particular. As a lot of early reviewers said, this feels a lot like a pack for Star Wars fans rather than Simmers.  That said, I am your target audience, yo. I just waited for you to shake out the bugs, 'cause I really needed this pack for my Super Sim the most.

I would have liked more buildings being non-rabbit-holes, but I suspect that was done for the next reason: There's A LOT of traveling. Every time you get a mission you're hopping from the Resistance Encampment to Black Spire Outpost to the First Order District to Black Spire Outpost to... I suspect the rabbit holes were done to keep the loading screen time down.

So, the missions:  I may be alone in this, but I actually like most of them, but I'm using all her Super Sim powers.  See, you can't use Witch or Vampire or Mermaid powers on Batuu, but if you've finished the Joke Star aspiration and have the Hilarious trait you can use that, and you can use Incredibly Friendly, and I'm absolutely abusing those mechanics in my missions. In an early mission, Super was trying to survey a supply crate and I set her famous actor stepfather (they're all Global Superstars, and even on a planet far, far away people are excited to see them) to do a literal song-and-dance number as a distraction (LOL) but Lt. Agnon caught her anyway, so we hit him with Hilarious Icebreaker and The Funniest Joke in the World. I was afraid for a moment that I'd accidentally killed Lt. Agnon, because he seemed to be getting hysterical, but he calmed down and let her go. So she's currently high level 3, a hair from level 4, in the Resistance but has 100% friendship with Lt. Agnon because every time she sees him she tells him more jokes. We've also been trying to charm Kylo--quite successfully. :D So whenever she needs to break into the First Order area, her family ties up Lt Agnon, Kylo, and any stormtroopers in conversation while she does it--preferably in the silliest way possible. She's also level 10 in programming, rocket science, charisma, comedy, and fitness, so she's better at hacking than her droid and had a fun lightsaber sparring match with Rey that ended in a draw.  <3  That said, I think completely getting rid of needs is a mistake because even though I'm enjoying missions I don't want to do them for hours and hours straight, from Sim Saturday to Sim Thursday without sleeping or eating. She also doesn't need social, probably because a lot of the missions involve charming people, so her family are chatting it up with each other and the locals... and of course their distraction duties.

I probably won't have her do the First Order aspiration, because that's out of character for her, and I'm torn on whether she can do the Scoundrel aspiration in character or not. But my hacker will absolutely come be a Scoundrel, so there you are. (She wouldn't have been able to do this pack either.)

I also me, tooed a bug report involving updating your Batuu outfit when you have a household member at home (the Servo petsitter!).

All in all, I don't think the pack deserves the hate but I do think getting rid of needs is a bad idea in general. I haven't taken any of the need-freezing traits for my Super Sim except Steel Bladder (so she can drink Snagglefluster to her heart's content), so I really mean it when I say it's a bad idea. She has over 100,000 satisfaction points and I refuse to spend any of them on need-freezing rewards because I think the game needs need management. So I've been having fun on Batuu, but also we have no schedule at all and everything is hyper-focused on missions and grindy mcgrindersoning on them, and anything gets old when done like that. So I'm going to break it up by interspersing other saves for a bit.

As you were.  :D