Sim Tranquility

Vima - Live band night and I get some tranquil hang-out with a dull atmosphere. The design doesn't quite pass the test. The yellow has a real soft hue, but the green is bright and just doesn't go with it. Either one of these colors would work at the right, although the top one is a little better I think. The bottom green could be used for text. The graphics text is rough and aliased. They need a slight makeover. I also noticed the titles aren't saved as JPGs. The images are dithered (speckled). If they had been saved as GIFs, the quality wouldn't have been lost.

The two houses here look nice. Not too large and they have a little yard. But the choices are slim. Same goes for the small selection of walls and floors. The swags borders are cute and for those of you who don't like moulding on your walls, you might appreciate the selection.

Themes: The skins provided don't credit Fionn from SimFreaks and the readme's for the mesh artists aren't in the files. I know this is against their policies, because I've seen it stated many times in various forums. The pictures are really large and take a while to load. I wasn't sure where to click to download, because the lines under the links have been removed. It would probably be a good idea to create thumbnails of your images that they can click on to enlarge. Also, make it obvious where people are supposed to download the items by either leaving the underline or making a little disk or something for people to click on.

Skins: Some of the skins appear to have some really nice use of the opacity to create a little depth in the body. The edges are a little rough on a few of the skins and the quality seems to vary slightly, but I think it's a pretty good start.

Objects: The objects are not really for my taste. The kimono doll might be cute, but I'm not sure. I've downloaded the cat before and if I recall it didn't really walk, which I sort of missed. The cat is really pretty to look at though. Some of the objects use a lot of creativity, but could use a little better artistic delivery.

I'll have to give this site two martinis. I know they've put a lot of effort into the site and I hope they will continue with a little improvement.

Squeegee - And at this moment my pulse has slowed just thinking about the soothing name. Such serenity has not been achieved in years. Maybe I will light up a few incense to get the satisfied effect of such calm bliss.

I hate to start off on the wrong foot. But the tranquility sort of ceased right when I tried to read the black lettering that is in the dark green navigation are on the left side. I can only see where the buttons are by watching the mouse pointer turn into a hand. And then read the URL at the bottom bar of the browser.

I am checking the "About Us" page first. Seems there is a staff of five here between the ages of 12 to the 20's. It's a friendly group. I am looking forward to viewing what is offered

The objects area features about a half dozen distinctive offerings such as "Quincy" the cat, and "Falling Rain". I seemed to have heard about the falling rain before, but I have never had the inclination to try it out in the game. There are creative objects featured. But there is nothing that perks my own interest. The "Skins" area features eleven skins.

This site seems reasonably new and so it doesn't have much of a inventory yet. I did take time to look in all the nooks and crannies. And I did enjoy the "Winter" theme that was introduced in the "Themes" area. The link to the Winter is below a user Poll. So you have to keep your eyes peeled. I tend to think that the themes should take priority over some poll. But that is just my view.

I want to share that I do like the images that feature the skins in the themed areas. I enjoy how real landscapes are used as background for the Sim models. Pleasant touch.

And now I must sum up this review. The site doesn't offer that much material yet. But it has the staff and ability to make some marvelous things. I look forward to new offerings. But the black text with dark green in the background on the front page was a negative in my opinion. Maybe if the black text was changed for a tan color?? Anything lighter then the dark green so that a person's eyeballs are not as disturbed after such peaceful tranquility at looking at the rest of the website.

I respectfully submit the review of two martinis.

Sister Cecilia C. Robertsim
Pastor of the Church of Simmintology - Sim Tranquility I like the sound of that, what will it be like. One must wonder, as the good Church Lady does, if the name is just to lure in the good God fearing folk into a den of iniquity and then all Hell will break loose. Pat warned me to be careful and would have come with me but he had a meeting tonight, it seems that there may be a new scandal in Washing Simtown DC, those politicians...my, my. Does the work never end for the God fearing? We were on our knees for hours last night and this morning, just praying for the less Godly. Praise Be!

Well this is a somewhat pleasant surprise, no off putting colors or graphics, no half dressed hussy types, that you see so often gracing the entrances of these kind of places. I like the simplicity of the bamboo graphic very Asian in influence. Makes me think of a nice garden with the water tinkling over the rocks in the fountain, the sound of birds twittering in the trees overhead, bees droning as they gather the nectar of the flowers.... Oh goodness...Pat in his gardening togs ripping the Evil Weeds from their safety and making things safe for the God fearing plants. Hey this is good, I think I will use this for tomorrow's sermon. Hallelujah Sister!

Objects are few in number and not to my taste some a bit bleary around the edges, unless it is just these new glasses I am using. Oh, I spoke too soon I have found the counter for the new renovation at the Cooking Academy!! Apple handle pulls, how darling...although apples can be bad as well I will have to direct your attention to the Good Book, in Genesis!! I had better not get these counters after all.

I like the idea of the themes page, Winter and Easter are both worthy of special recognition and the idea of a poll to decide what theme is next just shows that these people care about those that visit! One vote for the Adam and Eve theme, maybe I should just vote once more for Pat too.

There is a small section of walls that all go nicely with the two floors offered not a very large collection but if mauve and beige are your signature colors you might want to check these out.

I will give two and an half communion cups, there is not much here but I think that these young people have made a good start and would like to see what they can do with more time under their belts.

I am off to the lounge to let Skyler look at my ring, not that size matters! I just hope that she isn't too jealous, Pat is quite a catch!

Storel - SimTranquility has a nice look: pleasant colors, an attractive logo, a simple layout that's easy to navigate. From the name and the bamboo branch in the logo, I halfway expected the site to specialize in Asian-themed objects, but not so.

SimTranquility's staff consists of four teenagers ranging from twelve to fifteen years old, and a woman in her 20s. Given the size of the staff, I was a little surprised there are so few downloads available, until I noticed that they've only been open since March 4 (or at least that's when they added the hit counter).

I checked out the Objects section first. Some of the objects were original and interesting; I particularly liked the kimono doll, the electronic puppy, and the abstract painting. Some things, though, were disappointing. The cherry trees look as if someone fell in love with their spray paint tool, the table in the Apple Kitchen pack has no texture on the sides, and the counter in the same pack has no shading -- it looks 2-D. The tranquility fountain was quite attractive, but doesn't sit at the correct angle; some people don't mind that, but it bothers me. And the incense burner was not only partially blocked in its screen shot, but misspelled as well.

The Skins section has some decent casual clothes, but a lot of them were only available in light skin tone. The few heads weren't available separately, only as package deals with certain skins. In general I don't care for package deals unless all the items are also available separately; too much of the time I only want one or two of the items in the package, and I usually won't bother downloading the whole package just to pick out the things I want.

The Homes section is pretty skimpy -- only two houses, and only outside views of them at that. Would it have been too hard to add an interior view of each house as well? I like to have some idea what the interior layout is like before I download a house.

The Walls/Floors section was also a bit skimpy: one twelve-pack of walls (see my comments above regarding package deals) and two floors to go with the walls. The floors were available separately; why not allow the walls to be individually downloaded, too?

Themes: this section turns out to be where most of their effort has gone. There are nearly as many downloads here as in all the other sections put together. The Winter theme has 5 skins, 3 floors, 1 wall, 1 painting, falling snow, and a house. The log cabin wall and floor look pretty good at first, but the screen shots reveal they don't tile seamlessly. The skins are okay, and the log cabin home looked all right but also has no interior shot.

The Easter theme had a lot of typos when I first got to the site (Easter misspelled as "Eatser" at least five times), but by the time I got to this section of the review they'd all been fixed via stealth updates. Have to give them credit for quick fixes, anyway! This theme has 4 skins, 4 heads, 1 floor, an Easter eggs package (grass floor + eggs), a wall six-pack (sigh), 1 home. The Easter eggs package looks interesting, but again, most of the skins are light tone only. Considering how little trouble it is to add different skin tones, compared to the effort of creating the clothes in the first place, it bothers me that they don't make the effort

Their forum is surprisingly busy for such a small, new site; it may be worth keeping an eye on. And I was amused by their Awards page. Overall, while there are some problems, SimTranquility shows promise. I'll give them three martini glasses