I Need Help

[Leftcoaster]

I started with a single self sim with athletic, friendly traits and made him an athelet. Played him alone through to retirement from level 10 Sports Star. Never left his 1 bedroom house.

Then, I started over and made a new self sim with wife to start, I started the Law Enforcement Career, Wife was an author/painter working from home raising 3 kids. After my guy became an International Super Spy, he died repairing the dishwasher.

Now my sim family has moved to a bigger lot and built a 4 bedroom 2 story house.

The family is:
Me + Wife, both Ghosts
Oldest Daughter(Music Career) + Husband(Fisherman, stay home dad) and 2 kids
Middle Son (Military) Engaged to Gardener/Cook, hasn't moved in yet.
Youngest Son (Author)

Eventually I'm going to start over in Riverview, to try out that town, but instead I might move my astronaught out with his fiancee and start over from there.

[Carl]

What an amazingly thorough answer Horkslair, that could help a lot of people with making friends. When you combine any of those it's powerful, but with all of them, and some of the charisma challenges completed people become friends after just a few interactions. I love how skilled they can get at this, it's yet another thing they can grow amazingly good at.

[sherlockholmes]

Here are a couple tips:

Make sure your Sim isn't trying to do too many things at once; like pick 5 or 6 skills max. In the beginning, I made the mistake of trying to do tons of different skills at once.
In the beginning, it's good to have a career. Careers teach you to be efficient and to work on a schedule. Self-employment is fine but it teaches you very little about time management, since you quickly fall into a routine that is uneffected by anything outside of your lot. Like you can paint anytime you want.
Eat breakfast and have a quickmeal instead of dinner. Breakfast is good because you get the moodlet during the day, which helps with your productivity. It's not like you need moodlets while you sleep. I actually set it up. If my Sim needs food before he/she sleeps, I give have them drink juice until the bar is half full, then throw away the rest of the juice. That way when I wake up my sim will be hungry.
I usually start with no career and build up skills up to around level 3-4 because this only takes around 2 days. Then I join the career that's related to the skill I've picked, so I don't have to worry about building up that skill and career at the same time. If that skill  is a self-employment skill, I usually ditch the career at around 5-7 and go to self-employment. By then that skill should be around level 9. Then I go from there.

Anyway, just have fun. The thing I like about Sims is that you write the rules pretty much, and you can set your own goals.

Happy Simming everybody.

[Pam]

That's good advice, Sherlock, especially about the schedule part.  Being on a schedule can be important in Sims 3, like when you're raising a family.  The kids have school and that's not flexible, so they need eating and bedtime schedules.  It makes it so much easier to manage a large family that way!  There are also lots of things that can't be done at night (visiting friends, doing things around town), so a daytime schedule is helpful in that respect, as well.

[samoht04]

I found business is the best starting career in a family. It got my Legacy family off well and marrying Agnes Crumplebottom. Anyway, you can make easy money with no skills. just make friends, then have days when no work  not doing anything so you hold meetings and get a few $$$!  

[Saltypaws]

I think the most friends I made was with the Rock Icon, signed autographs and then played for tips until he dropped almost.  Made alot of money and friends at the same time.  This game is trial and error, just like life is and so much fun to play.  So I agree with Pam and Carl, this game is all about what you make it.  I do not use the mean cheats either and tend to stay away from them, I have used them a couple of times to make a thief, heck, he stayed in jail more than anything. 

The combinations are endless, so the best thing is just experiment and have fun doing it.  I am sure you will find the right combination that suits you.