This might be an unpopular opinion but I kind of wish that unplayed sims went through their lives more autonomously, maybe even making families on their own. I dislike the automatically generated townie families as the only answer to a lack of uncontrolled town progression, because it just adds even more people with no connection to the rest of the town into the game. I'm pretty sure that there was a setting for toggling story progression in unplayed sims in the sims 3, so something like that would be a nice addition, along with maybe a setting to stop the game from generating townies. Right now, the game can feel too sandbox like, with a lack of consequences or changes in the environment that aren't directly willed by the player, and that can make it hard to maintain interest in it for long periods. I know the idea of this sims was to give the player as much control as possible over the world, but that really hinders any meaningful accomplishments.
On to more specific thoughts, I think that the some of the occult life states need a rework. Vampires and spellcasters both are as good as I can imagine, are plenty of fun in game, but aliens and mermaids have consistent issues when playing, and don't have much else going for them otherwise. Making an alien via genetics often will occasionally cause one to be born without a human form, and when that happens, the alien's actual form that the player spent time perfecting becomes the disguise, and the true form is randomized. Almost any discrepancies in an aliens form causes them to irreversably randomize, and I feel like that's one of the worst things that can happen in a game prioritizing customization. Mermaid tails break very easily as well, but that one is purely just a bug. Gameplay wise though, the only difference between these occult sims and regular sims is an appearance change, and a 5 new interactions. Vampires have a new set of worries and issues with sunlight and thirst, while spellcasters can make any sim feel overwhelmed powerful outright, but the other two just get a couple new mischief actions and maybe a utility action. It'd be nice to see some sort of change like aliens can learn about the science and culture of sixam with alien specific space missions, or maybe mermaids get access to a couple of exclusive skills related to mermaid activities that they can actually build upon. That would be nice.
Another thing I've noticed, since I'm just listing things, is that some aspects of gameplay have been getting removed. For instance plants used to have specific growing cycles with some taking longer to bloom than others, but now they all bloom at the same time every day. And alien human hybrids used to have access to some of the alien powers, but now all my hybrids can do is the handshake. I've seen other players mention removed content as well, and I just have to say that it's a little frustrating.
Last thing, and this is my most specific one, is the family tree. Sims still disappear from it despite the patch in the past, but now glitch reports regarding the family tree are no longer getting screened. As in "genealogy" as a category is mentioned as a category of glitch report that won't be screened. The ability to look upon past generations of sims is one of the only remaining things in the game that can really feel like a long-term accomplishment, and if all record of it gets culled at some point, it just feels like some of that time was wasted. I don't know if the system needs to switch to some sort of static photograph in the tree to save data, or if you'd need to require the player to formally select which sims don't get culled at the sacrifice of performance, but please give something about this. I don't know how to or want to have to resort to getting mods (it feels like cheating to me, and it's also me having to depend on the generosity of a stranger to enjoy a game that I've already spent 150+ dollars on), but if I can get a solid answer on if anything is even under consideration, or if that particular aspect of the game has been abandoned, at least I would know that it's the only option.
Really like the game though, and keep up the good work!
EA Staff (Retired)