@Brian_Z That sounds fun. I want to do that too. Make sim, put sim on an empty lot, use cheats to reduce cash to $0. Then avoid any easy simoleon generating methods like beachcoming, copypasto, a job and the like. Then slowly build up a house with items scrounged in the dumpsters and built with the woodworking table, and the new skills. That sounds fun. Only income is from dumpster diving and selling stuff made from dumpster diving.
Sounds like a future challenge! But we won't be able to do an Eco Lifestyle one for a while.
As for your questions, I already pre-ordered.
What I plan to do first is put a couple of community center lots in my Wisewoman file. The big lot in Del Sol Valley will be bulldozed and one will go there, next to the Zests and the Calientes.
Most of my Sims families are the only households in their neighborhoods, so I might have to move in some families and see what they come up with for N.A.P.'s.
I'm excited about the Neighborhood Action Plans and the Community lots, also about living off the grid. And I want to see those neighborhoods in Evergreen Harbor in their various states.
Not so excited about dumpster woo-hoo (although dumpster diving is fine), death by flies, eating bugs, or the meat garden.
Overall, my opinion is high. My fingers are crossed that this will produce the right amount of unpredictability that TS4 has lacked.