110mb.com website hosting review: 1/10

110mb.com is a free website hosting service.
I don't have a lot of money so can't afford to pay for my website to be hosted at the moment.   I first found out about 110mb.com a few years ago and had my first website hosted with them until I realised that the 'box' on which my website was couldn't be accessed from Spain (to where I had just moved)  great! How many other countries can't access my website!

However, I setup a new account on another one of their hosts or 'boxes' and that was okay for a while.  But frequent failures and downtime on their part, gave me great doubts and annoyance.  (I also read on their forums that many other people have also experienced lots of problems).  How can you have a web hosting service if most of the time, your servers and hard drives don't work!

The final straw with the awful 110mb.com came recently, when I tried to access my website and got a page that said my 110mb account has been suspended, followed by some amateurish adverts.  Great! Thanks!  No warning, no messages!   Also, they are impossible to contact, no email address shown, and just a FAQ style help page with no means for me to find out why the account is suspended.

Looking at the reviews of 110mb.com on this page, it looks like I'm not the only one.

 So I've decided to make a website using weebly.com, which so far looks a much better service, and with my lack of web development skills has made it easy to update and edit the website pages.

So, 110mb.com is definitely a webhosting service to AVOID.

GP Race Manager

Don't worry, I'm still alive.  I haven't had time to work on the PC or Android version for over a week, but today I've got back to them for an hour or two.

No real progress to report.
For the Android version, I've been editing the screen that shows the championship standings.
For the PC version, I've been playing with the order in that the screen is drawn, as this works differently on Windows and Linux, and I had some buttons semi-hidden behind labels.

F1 PC Manager Game, Day 4

 I haven't had much time to work on the game.   (current working title: GP Race Manager)

I've added a few things to the PC version, and it is nearly at the same stage as the android version.  I've added free drivers, and the development of parts.






















Here's the current functionality of the game:
Select team to manage (PC - YES) , (Android - No)
Fire and renew your drivers contracts (PC - YES) , (Android - Yes)
Sign other teams drivers (PC - YES), (Android - Yes)
Sign free drivers, (PC - nearly), (Android-Yes)
View car part development ( PC - YES) ,(Android -YES)
Develop new parts, (PC- No) , (Android- YES, basic system)
Increate engineering team (PC - No), (Android - YES)
Work out lap times depending on diver skill /car / engine, (PC - YES), (PC - NO)
Basic lap by lap race, (PC - NO), (Android - yes)
Give points depending on race result, (PC - NO), (Android - YES)
Advance time onto next grand prix, (PC, NO), Android -YES)

F1 Manager Game (PC version) Day 3

Yesterday worked for a couple of hours on the Windows/Linux version.  A lot of that was spent testing the game on Linux and Windows, realising that the order in which the GUI components are coded really affects the layout on the Windows version, sigh!   I code in Linux, so hadn't tested it in Windows, when I did, the buttons were half visible and different parts of the GUI were overlapping other parts badly.  

Anyway, as the screenshot above shows, I've started making the race screen, and the cars are given times automatically, depending on the car  and driver ratings.

F1 Manager Game, PC (Linux / Windows) Version (Day 2)

Here's a screenshot showing what is the start of the PC version of my F1 Management simulation game.  (probably to be called GP Race Manager)

Currently, you can select a team, hire and renew the contracts of your drivers, and sign other teams drivers for this year / next year, as shown in the first screenshot

I also have started the development/garage screen, to show the quality of different parts of the car.  But I haven't yet implemented increasing/decreasing staff levels or the developing of new parts (as I have in the mobile version).   At this moment I'm just copying what I've already done in the Android version, but I hope to make it more detailed once the Android version is complete.






As said before, I will focus 90% on the mobile version of the game until that is finished, before I give any real attention to a PC version.  But I do hope that I can get a version available for Linux and Windows PC's, one day...

F1 Android Manager Game (day 10)

I haven't been able to get a lot done today (don't worry, I'm still very motivated!)
I was able to implement the effects of using the soft/hard/wet tyres in the race and qualifying, with the soft tyres wearing down quicker, yet giving a faster lap time. The amount of fuel goes down each lap (also affecting lap times).

I will have to change the numbers in the future, to get the right  balance as the condition of the tyres and amount of fuel doesn't affect the cars lap time enough.  I'm pleased with the differences in time between the soft, hard and wet weather tyres, such as a driver using the wet weather tyres will definitely be at the back of the field.

I also have reorganised the race screen a little bit.

Finally, I've made a start on the PC version (Windows and Linux), which I'm using Blitzmax to create.  Even though it's a different development language, converting and changing the code I've already written isn't taking too long, although I do have to rewrite every line, and coding the GUI and buttons will add some time.

Today in the PC version, I managed to get the navigation buttons working, and load and display all the drivers.   However, I'm 90% focused on the Android version, and will only do the PC version, when I only have half an hour to programme or I need a rest from the Android version.


Although, as mentioned, I have changed the layout slightly, I've also added some screenshots of the current progress of the race screen to the previous post.

Mobile F1 Management Game (Days 8+9)

Wow, yesterday afternoon, I spend my first afternoon on starting to create the racing 'Grand Prix' part of the game, but after a few hours of frustration and not getting anywhere, I decided to leave it.  I was pretty down, and felt that maybe I should give up now on the project...

But, boy! what a difference a good nights sleep makes.  Today, I woke-up with some new ways of working out the problems and started the racing code from scratch.
It's still not finished, but I'm pleased with my progress.  This is really the  critical 'do or die' part of the project, which will mean that I can finish the project or it ends up as yet another unfinished project on my hard-disk, but so far, so good.

Recent Progress:

Qualifying

• Three timed qualifying periods as in F1
• All the computer cars go out and qualify (at this moment they do only 1 lap, and that's there best possible time).  
• The user can choose which tyres to use (soft, hard, wet) and this affects there qualifying time.

General &  Race

• The cars lap times, depend on the car and driver rating.
• The cars tyre and amount of fuel affect the lap times
• Positions are automatically updated

I still need to:

• Work out the tyre wear each lap
• Implement overtaking (now the cars just change position automatically depending on their lap times)
• Implement team orders, eg: go fast/save tyres/...
• Add Pitstops
• Implement rudimentary AI, such as choosing tyres, deciding on pitstops, qualifying such as the top teams use hard tyres for Q1
• Add weather to the circuits
• add chances of accidents, depending on commands, tyres, weather

Android F1 Manager Game (Day 7)

I haven't had much time again.  But, I've finally completed the drivers signing/sacking section of the game, with todays updates bringing the ability to sign drivers from other series or unsigned drivers.  I still want to improve the look, such as to sort the drivers somehow, but I'm relatively pleased.

I've also made a start on what will be the hardest part, the race screen, calculating the car's and driver's level of performance, and displaying the players two drivers stats at the bottom of the screen, as well as the top ten drivers, positions to the left of the screen.  


Finally, if I manage to get this released for Android, I'd love to make a version for Windows and Linux PC's, and I've been testing various, visual basic style GUI programming languages, such as Lazarus and Free Pascal and wxWidgets.  But, I've decided that I'll use my old favourite BlitzMax, and have started making my own gui library, so in the future I can quickly create the layout and buttons, and worry more about the game programming.

However, at this moment a PC version is just a thought, as the mobile version is hell of challenge, and I'll concentrate on that at the moment, as a PC version would have to be even more detailed, and maybe futile for a one-man team.

F1 managament Game for android, (Day 6)

For the first time, I'm starting to feel that this big project might actually be possible. But, from past experience, I know that the hardest part will be simulating the races, and that is where this project will succeed or fail. Anyway, as I said I'm feeling quite positive and today I've focused on getting a basic system for improving/developing new car parts.

The screenshot shows the new garage/factory screen so far. I've added the ability to decide on the size of the workforce, (a bigger workforce meaning that work gets done quicker and the possibility of larger improvements).

Also, a different part (as shown in the screenshot) can be selected to be improved. Improvements are shown after each race weekend.

I've also fixed a few things with signing and sacking drivers. I've added a button that allows you to re-sign a driver for next year.

Finally, I've previously been planning the game bit by bit as I've been going on, as I have been being pessimistic about the chances of finishing the game. But, with two sections (drivers and development) having their basic functionality completed, I'm being optimistic, so have started to plan all the tasks that I need to do in a spreadsheet, rating them by time/importance and difficulty. Which will help me to decide on which part of the game to focus on depending on how much time I have and how tired I am. So, if I have only 30 minutes I can pick a smaller task and complete that. I will go on adding to the spreadsheet everyday, and if I can complete the most important tasks, I can then decide which of the less important tasks I should do before releasing the game.

mobile F1 management game (day 5)

Today, I've been working on some actual code that makes the game interactive (previously, I've been focusing on displaying the drivers and teams, making sure the points system and race calender progress and work). The game now has a basic 'hiring' and 'firing' system, where the user can fire their drivers, and also hire another teams drivers. However, drivers from a bigger team will not join a smaller team immediately, but may agree to join at the end of the season, if the team isn't too small). The screenshots below show today's progress:

1. Fire a driver. 2. Search for and hire a new driver. 3. Your new team look is complete.

Select for which car you want to hire the driver.

If your team is a smaller team, drivers from bigger teams won't join