Completely random piece of info...

Tombstone size is purely dependent on lifetime happiness points. The game counts both spent and unspent points towards your total. You cannot edit the tombstone after your sim has died. They get what they get when they die.

NUMBERS AND TYPES OF TOMBSTONES:

• LESS THAN 75,000: small, flat, on the ground

• 75,000-150,000: small, standing

• 150,000+: large, standing

Melani is a master tinkerer. That is, she's raised her handiness skill up to level 7 now. Yet another mark against the 'super sim' theory I have. Anyway, tonight she got sent a shower from another townie, as apparently, she is the only Sim in town that can upgrade. Sweet.

The upgrade went smoothly, however getting the shower back to it's original owner proved confusing. To save anyone else the frustration of figuring it out, I documented it for you. So professional aren't I?

1. Return the now upgraded shower to your Family Inventory
2. Open up your map viewer and look for the icon indicating the showers owner - they can be anywhere
3. Track them down, or catch them at home, and you will have the interaction option to return the shower.

Easy, right? Yeah, not so much when you have NO IDEA how to do this. Those three little steps took me bloody 10 minutes to figure out. Bah.

Originally posted by pepperlime on The Sims 3 Forums. Posting here as I thought it was pretty helpful and will hopefully help others.

It took me a while to figure out how to talk to other sims and get what I wanted. Honestly the dialogue/relationship system feels oooold old, like ts1 pre-Hot Date expansion. Sims don't talk to one another over meals (wtf?), there's just one relationship bar, and you can get someone to marry you in like a day.

First I get the "Observant" lifetime reward asap, because discovering traits of other sims is a big relationship boost right off the bat (if they're the same as yours). With this reward, you know 3 traits right as you introduce yourself. But sometimes getting the next 2 takes forever.

Think of the opinion of the other sim as something you build up (over and over) to let you do what you want. If it says "... thinks you are being very social" you can do the most advanced friendly interactions, like asking them to move in. If it says "... thinks you are being extremely irresistible" you can do the most advanced romantic actions, like woohoo or ask to marry. Often, when you choose an advanced option, their opinion of you resets to "... thinks you are okay" (so you used up whatever opinion-power you had built up). The exception to this is "first kiss", which the game doesn't consider an advanced romantic option (apparently). Or if you chain 5 romantic options and then a friendly option, it will reset and your progress in the romantic direction will be lost.

Yeah, moving in is more of a rooommate/friendly thing, even if they're your boyfriend/girlfriend. It's an advanced option of the friendly category.

Once the bar is 1/3 green, you can flirt (I play this safe). After that it's only a short time until they marry/woohoo, assuming they don't run away randomly from the conversation. If they're over your house, inviting them in keeps them from doing this as often.

If you mess up and the other sim's opinion becomes "... thinks you're awkward" or "creepy", apologizing can reset it back to "... thinks you're okay".

Dancing together makes your relationship bar go up slowly but steadily.

Talking about a trait or job two sims have in common is the only way I've found to get a double "++" positive interaction.

Chatting on the phone makes your relationship go up, but only in tiny tiny amounts. It's much better to invite a sim over, go to their house, or go to the park and try to accidentally run into them. If they don't want to come over when you invite them, try again a few times. Even if your relationship bar is only a tiny bit green, they might say ok after a few tries.

Relaxing on the bed gives you the option to woohoo/try for baby right away, but if your relationship bar isn't at full, then you should try chatting/cuddling first. Otherwise the other sim will reject your advances and then think you're awkward or creepy.

Added by beaynidSim

To get a couple engaged, you need to build up the relationship and interactions to 'go steady'(it will make them a couple), then after that they can 'propose marriage' and become engaged, and finally its either throwing a wedding party, or get married privately

If you're anything like me and constantly forget to pay your bills, don't fret. The Sims 3 introduces a last day reminder that pops up on your screen in red, letting you know you have one day left to pay your bills.

Note: You have to be on your lot to have this message, but I've always gotten it first thing in the morning when I'm there anyway.

The added bonus to this message is it provides you with a pay them now button that instantly pays your bills. This means your sim doesn't have to walk to the mailbox and waste time to pay them. It's yet another 'big brother' aspect to looking after your sims...

Along side playing God and Cupid to our little sims, we can also play house keeper. As if my own todder didn't create enough mess for me to pick up at the end of each day, I've just learnt that you can pick up after your Sims.

Dirty plates left out? No problem. Just drag and drop them over your nearest trash can to clean up. They left a book out? Easily fixed. Just drag and drop them over the book case! What about those rotting newspapers left outside? You got it - drag and drop into the rubbish bin.

While I don't really relish the though of yet more house work, particularly housework for someone else, this is a huge time saver. I do all this cleaning while my Sim sleeps to not only save my awake time for more productive endeavours, but also to give me something to do.

Ironic that I also do my real life housework while my toddlers asleep? Hrm...

Just found out a really cool tip -you (the player) can turn off your Sims radio and TV without needin their interacton. My sim fell asleep at her party (I know, some party animal huh?) and I noticed both the radio was left on, and someone had turned the TV on.

Not only does this rack up bills, but the sound was distracting hehe. So I clicked on the radio and selected turn off expecting it to wake my sim up. Nope, radio just turned off. I did the same with the TV and again, my sim stayed asleep while the TV was turned off.

This is a MASSIVE improvement over The Sims 2 and very awesome!