The tXtFL Game Guide

Playing tXtFL

Quick Start

The quickest way to play is to press and hold Enter. The computer will automatically put the game in autopilot and play an entire game. You can break in at any point by releasing Enter and resuming your active coaching duties.

The Interface

Built-in Browser. The left side of the window shows this manual and functions as a fully operational browser. You can expand the size of the browser by hovering over its right border to get the double-headed arrow and then dragging to size.

UPDATED: The address bar also doubles as a way to send the app special commands, such as importing spreadsheets.

The tXtFieLd. The "field" shows the actual game output, serving as a radio announcer of what's going on in the field.

Playbook Controls. Your role as coach is to pick the best combination of players in the best assortment of plays to bring your opponents to their knees. The playbook consists of prompts (top), answer choices (middle), and your input (bottom). The prompt asks you to select an answer from the table (double-click, or click and press Next), or simply to take the default choice.

UPDATED: Plays are now organized in columns and by distance so that you can easily see which plays are to the left, middle, or right, and which are short or long.

Game Statistics. The right side of the window shows the game scoreboard (top) and drive history (bottom). You can select individual drives from the drop-down box at the bottom.

Player Statistics. As player stats accumulate during the game, they're shown dynamically at the bottom of the window. These stats will eventually be entered into the database.

UPDATED: The way that the app keeps tracks of stats has been completely overhauled to make it more efficient and easier to incorporate more stats.

Game Setup

League Selection Each league comes with its own set of teams, conferences, divisions, and perhaps most importantly, rules.

Game type. You can play a new game or resume a previously saved game (see "Save Game" for more details).

Number of players. How many people (i.e. non-AI) will be playing? In one player mode, it's you vs. the computer. In two-player mode, the two players coach opposing teams and share the same keyboard.

"Automated games" is a way to simulate multiple games automtically.

Networking. One computer (the "host") runs the game, while another computer (the "client") telnets to the first computer. That means that only one computer needs tXtFL. Most computers have telnet built in. From "Run..." in the Windows Start menu or at a command prompt, type, "telnet address port", where "address port" are the numbers displayed on the host computer after the user has chosen the networking option and selected the port to listen on.

Team Selection Select your team from the list. You can also create your own teams, or download updated rosters.

Coin toss The referee chooses one team randomly to call the coin toss. If you're asked to call the coin, pick "h" or "t". For now, the winner is assumed to receive the kick off.

And now, it's time to boot the ball.

Game Play

A typical play consists of 3 parts: 1) You choose the play category, 2) You choose the specific play, and 3) The players carry out your call.

1. Play Category. The categories are automatically adjusted to the current play type. For example, at the start of the game, you are presented with a list of kick-off categories. To make a regular kick, choose "kick-off." You can also let the computer decide by choosing nothing and pressing Next.
2. Specific Play. Plays are based on the category you've chosen. An "R" or "L" at the end of a play name means that the play is geared toward that side of the field—"Right" or "Left," respectively. On defensive plays, choosing the R or L side depends on which side you will strengthen in anticipation of the offense making a move in that direction.
3. Watch Your Players. After selecting the play, the computer will automatically run it. The tXtFL simulator employs customized mathematical models to simulate probabilities of pass completions, sacks, yardage after the catch, and other individual components of plays to orchestrate the dynamic game of football. A sports announcer will track the play for you and report key details on players, play calls, and yardage.

Once the play has completed, the simulator automatically enters the play into the Game History panel, complete with a drop-down box to reference past plays. The players who participated in the play also have their stats entered into the individual team stats panels.

Two-player mode works the same as one-player mode does, except that the coaches alternate between making each of their choices.

NEW tXtFL 3 gives you more strategic coaching decions such as calling timeouts or running onside kicks. The clock has also been carefully tested and tweaked, so be sure to keep careful tabs on clock management during end-game situations.

Seasons

Completely new for tXtFL 2 was the ability to duke it out over entire seasons while vying for the coveted tXtFL Bowl ring.

Create a New Season. You can generate as many seasons as you like for any league. After selecting a league, choose, "Start new season." tXtFL defaults to a 16-week season, but if you're a forward-thinking footballer, then you may opt for an 18-weeker. Or if you're impatient, go for something shorter.

Play a Season Game. After generating a new season, you can play games for any team in a season. When you select a team, the opponent will automatically be picked according to the season schedule.

Automate Season Week. Once you've played a game for a team, you're given the option to simulate the rest of the league's games for that week.

UPDATED You can now automate even the first game by choosing Options > End game > Automate the rest of the game (see options).

Continue a Season. If you exited and restarted tXtFL, you can pick up where you left off in a season by choosing the "Continue season" option.

Playoffs. Standings are reported at the start and end of each game. When the season is over, the top teams of each division and any wild-card contenders will be entered into the playoffs. The number of playoff weeks is determined by the number of divisions to boil down the teams to a final, epic bowl game.

tXtFL Bowl. The coveted tXtFL Bowl ring is yours to own. After defeating all divisional opponents, you'll be directed to duke it out in the tXtFL Bowl.

Options

Each coach can call several options to customize the coach's team or the entire game.

• NEW Timeout. Call timeouts throughout the game for careful clock management. When you call a timeout, the clock will be dialed back to the time at which the last play ended. If your team is down as the clock expires, the game will prompt you to use any remaining timeouts to give a few added breaths of crucial life to your team.
• Save Game. If dinnertime creeps up in the middle of a play, you can stop right where you are--without saving--and nobody will ever know the difference. Unless of course the power blows out and your computer fries. In that case, or if you need to turn off your computer for saner, purposed reasons, save your file with this option. tXtFL saves in a special binary format that should protect any casual human opponent from altering the game while you're not looking, so long as you remember how your team is doing.
• End game. You can end the game early, storing the game and all stats as-is. UPDATED: As of tXtFL 3, the game will prompt you to automate the rest of the game. This way you can immediately automate any game from start to finish.
• Main menu. Returning to the main menu will completely end the game without storing any stats, as if the game had never been played.

Automated Games

While coaching doesn't usually afford you the luxury of going on autopilot, occasionally you may want a simulator to do just that so that you can predict the results of various match-ups. tXtFL lets you do that through automation mode.

Select "Automated games" from the number of players choice, and then enter the number of games you'd like to run. You can then choose to simulate a single match-up (exhibition game) or even all the match-ups for a week of a season.

Following the game, the average scores will be displayed along with scores by quarter. If there are too many games to display, you can still find them all in the listed file.

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