Outdoor Retreat always seems to rate low on "Favourite Game Pack" polls. I love the outdoors and love camping. The little world looks stunning since the release of seasons. But I can't bring myself to buy Outdoor Retreat due to the negative polling.
So (if you're not crazy about Outdoor Retreat) what makes it a less-than-wonderful pack? Or, if you like it, what makes it under-rated? Should I get it?
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It does an okay job at what it's trying to do but the activities in that pack just don't interest me personally. I get bored so quickly with the fishing and the bug collecting and the foraging and stuff. It's just not my cup of tea.
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I like to make characters and play out their stories so with the help of this pack I can have homeless sims/live off the land sims that can live out in the weather with firepits and tents anywhere basically. I use the coolers for dungeons and trapped sims and challenges as a cheap way to get food.. or bring them to areas where I know food won't be available. Fishermen can go on trips there. My wellness oriented sims go there with their yoga mats and meditation stools to commune with nature. My Lotharios go there to get lucky. I've had father/son camping trips (okay that sounded sexist I guess but whatever). I also use it to get as close to having a witch type of character in the game that I can.
There is a new skill to learn, herbalism and .. I have to say I do rarely use the lotions and salves now because it's so easy to get most of those effects in other ways through the game at this point. I don't mind having the many of the creams and lotions on hand but won't go out of my way to keep up a supply on hand now. I just complete herbalism to have another maxed skill for the appropriate sim type.
I think the CAS isn't quite as good when compared to later packs but I do use many of the items still. The build buy.. well it has rustic hand hewn looking stuff so good for that type of character. I get way more use out of the camping chairs and couches ect... personally.
I think a large part of my enjoyment though might come from the way I play. I can't possibly see taking a large group camping.. at least if I were trying to get them all to learn herbalism. That would be a mess. They have updated things though so you can get pet supplies and toddler things there though. It's also a place to buy growfruit.
I would suggest getting it on sale at this point when it goes on sale.. and it will. Make sure if you want to learn herbalism you send your sims in Summer because that's when all the wild plants are in Season (after a short.. less than a day growing time). You'll have to learn the patterns of insect spawns in the different areas but it's not hard. If you don't like the busy work or collecting/learning.. I don't know what to tell you. That is a big part of my enjoyment of that pack.
In some ways it's a much slower paced pack than some of the others (if your not pursuing herbalism) and if you like to appreciate the surroundings in the sims and camp it will be well worth it for you.
I've also built some cabins for full-time living in Granite Falls, just because I love the world so much. (You keep extending the vacation, and of course, if you forget anything when you build the house, you have to send the family home in order to edit the lot. It doesn't work if you've got kids and teens, since they have to attend school. I really enjoyed playing a family with a toddler, however, and after Seasons came out, I did a mother and toddler in an off-the-grid cabin - winter is pretty brutal up there.)
The one thing that generally annoys me is that it's difficult to move around in the forest, because you can't really zoom out too much lest the trees obscure your Sim. So it's a bit slow, if you're there to collect insects and plants.
And of course, the fact that is just a holiday destination that you have to take vacation days for and pay to stay in. I could definitely see a Sim living there for good, even in a tent, to complete some of the outdoor aspirations.
The main reason I still send my sims to Granite Falls is to introduce them to the herbalism skill, because you need the unique plants and bugs from there to brew potions. But even that was kind of broken by Seasons because the plants no longer grow all year, diminishing the usefulness of the pack even more unless you happen to be in the right season when you go there. (And before someone lectures me that plants in real life don't grow all year either: I know, but the ones from Vampires do, so why not those from Outdoor Retreat, where it makes much more sense?)
If you're into herbalism and potions, though, then yeah, you might still want to give Outdoor Retreat a try. As I said, the pack also comes with a beautiful vacation world, BB and CAS items, and a new aspiration. I don't dislike the pack, I just think others have more to offer, which is why Outdoor Retreat is so low on my list.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
Granite Falls itself is also a really pretty world, and has such a different from the other worlds I have.
I have rebuilt three of the lots, modeled them after my friends' cabins. The biggest lot I replaced with a farm that is a karaoke bar which makes the place feel more lively and gives sims more things to do.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
At the time I first got the pack, I was playing a Sim who was obsessed with bugs, so taking him out and having him hunt all the different bugs down was pretty cool. He almost had a complete collection before he died of old age. His daughter ultimately finished the collection for him. I'd say my only complaint is how difficult some bugs are to find. I stuck a few them in a room and saved them to my library to place them whenever I need them for a recipe. With the in-game reasoning of if you put multiple bugs in the same space, you will get a lot more bugs in short order.
@Mariefoxprice83 I love your suggestion of adding different types of lots to it. I may try that.
As others have said, Seasons really makes it a beautiful place to explore.
I put a restaurant in mine, and the restaurant was just as busy as the ones in the main neighborhoods. It was definitely not just other sims who were camping, because my sim from Del Sol Valley showed up and he was at home when I saved his household.
I like to keep one big family cabin, one romantic couples cabin, and a campground, just so I can go there with different families and have different experiences. But I don't think removing all but one of them would keep visitors away from the community lots.
I like Outdoor Retreat mostly. Adding a couple of community lots gives the sims more variety for their entertainment, for sims who aren't super into fishing and such. The only thing I don't like is hunting for bugs and plants. I haven't found an easy way to search with all the trees.
You have to move the camera in close to get underneath the trees (you won't be able to see the insects, anyway, from far away). It helps to check Carl's guide, so that you know which plants and insects are found in what part of the park - only a few of the plants spawn in the campground area. Some are found in the National Park, and for the morel mushrooms, the best place to look is in the Deep Woods.