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My only idea so far to bypass this issue is to add an userdata input to every non SimpleActionState who sets the outcome to "simulation" if needed. Than for the critical parts the transition for the simulation outcome could be defined to skip all SimpleActionStates and continue with the next state which is useable for the simulation.

This sounds like you are on the right track.

Two possible suggestions/improvements:

• Consider using a ROS Parameter - e.g. /simulation. This is a bit more elegant than using a userdata input.
• Even better, you could subclass the SimpleActionState to check if the /simulation (or ~simulation) ROS Param is true, and if so, to return the expected output.

ROS Parameter Server
ROS Name Resolution

FYI, I'd suggest looking at FlexBE. It's a graphical state machine editor/simulator built on top of ROS. It's still being developed and may be good for your needs.