I really love the game. Especially the idea of the pregnancy and descendants mechanic. Currently though it feels like the game pushes the player away from using it.
First is the very long time it takes from conception to usable party member. I forget what age it is, 12, 14, 16? Plus a 10 day pregnancy for over 20 days until a character can be used. Then what makes that a lot worse is it seems level is determined on conception. So the child will be over 20 days behind the rest of the party in levels.
It also isn't necessary to use because time can pass quite slowly if you aren't resting unnecessarily. I've currently got a party of age 45 and I've almost done everything in the 0.5.50 version. And I've been taking it slow for a bit because I want to start seeing more children be born and grow up. Like I've recently waited four days for all my party members to give birth. So considering they start at day 16 I think, I could easily do double what's currently in the game without my initial party reaching day 80. I guess some people might find the idea of replacing your whole party eventually annoying, and I do myself, but I think if it was done often enough then it would be better. Like, if you're near the end and everybody gets old suddenly then you might just want to quit. But if you're only some portion of the way into the game then it's like "Okay I have to choose a new party now."
I also have only been able to observe one generation so far, so I can't tell if you get many benefits for new characters? I think it would be nice if they would accumulate traits over generations so like the 2nd generation would have more traits than their parents, then the next generation would have more too. But the books on the topic make it sound like everybody has 2 traits, including children. So there isn't anything better about them.
Fixing the first two things could be really difficult though. It might require massive rebalancing of the time mechanic. My main idea is to make sleeping necessary to some level. Then you'd add tents so you can sleep while adventuring. That would add a lot of extra time usage as the game goes on. Not enough to fully fix it, but it could be a good addition. It would fit with the inclusion of food and water as necessities. I also think having something to break up the extremely long adventures through some of the sections of the forest would be nice.
Reducing the length of pregnancy could help a lot too. Or childhood. But I think currently childhood is only a bit longer than pregnancy when in real life it's a lot longer. So cutting some days off of pregnancy would make it easier to start using children. Then a lifespan decrease maybe? That or like, increasing the speed that time passes. Something to make replacing more necessary, to go with making the children grow up faster.
I'm not sure the best way to do it, it's a very complicated thing to fix. But I hope my ideas are something that could help you. If you do want to go in this direction. Given the game is Descendants of the Forest not First Wave of Adventurers into the Forest, I think the children mechanic is supposed to be more emphasized.
Oh also I've never had a party member become horny. The sex and masturbation skills reference being able to cure it but it's never come up. I like the idea though, so I'd want to see it more often. I don't know if that's a bug or something that isn't very common.