The tXtFL Game Guide

Advanced features...

Settings Panel. tXtFL 3.1 sported a new Options panel to apply your preferences to the game.

Retro plays: tXtFL includes a number of esoteric play types such as "kickoff dropkicks" or "safety kick placekicks" to stay true to the game, but you can always "drop the dropkick" to reduce clutter by unselecting the checkbox.

Penalties: Penalites are new for tXtFL 3.5 and add a new strategic dimension to the game. Unselect them if they're too distracting.

Record player stats from automated games: Typically player stats are not recorded from automated games to prevent the database from ballooning and loading games from grinding to a halt. If you don't mind the wait, you can still save these stats, and as a bonus for your patience, you'll also get a spreadsheet of total player stats at the end of the automations.

Game stats file: You can save the entire box score of each game. As of tXtFL 3.5, the file will include scores by quarter, player stats, and the entire play-by-play history.

DB server: If you'd like to run several instances of tXtFL in parallel, you'll need to run the database as a server to allow simultaneous access. The database is also accessible from any database editing software you may want to use to view/edit stats.

Difficulty level: As of tXtFL 3.5, you can adjust how difficult your opponent will be. Advance to the "Painful" level with caution!

Database Management: Want to tweak your players and teams directly? You can directly edit your football database using a database editor. Learn how.

You can request a command line version of the simulator.

Command Line: The tXtFL simulator has its roots in the command-line. As it grew a graphical shell, we thought to ourselves, "Why not keep the command line?" You can control your team by double-clicking selections in the table or using standard tXtFL commands in the input area. For those new to the command field, here are a few notes:

*1 If you want to go back to the previous prompt, choose the Back option (*1).
Enter,Enter,Enter Pressing Enter without making a choice will randomly make a selection for you. This is a great way to play an entire game even when you don't want to think.

In tXtFL 3, we've included tXtFL-cmd.bat, which allows you to launch and run the program in completely command-line mode.

Additional options: tXtFL also has a number of start-up options. You can apply these at startup from the command-line (e.g. java -jar tXtFL.jar --clean or ./run.sh --clean), or you can append these options to the launch command at the end of the launch files (run.sh or tXtFL-cmd.bat).

"--cmd" Starting tXtFL with the "--cmd" flag will abandon the graphical interface entirely for this session and start the simulator in Total Text Mode. You can play the entire game and even draft players from a terminal window. Great with screenreaders for those with visual impairments.
"--clean" Sick and tired of your old teams and players? Clean it out by starting tXtFL with the --clean flag, which will replace your database with a fresh copy.
"--import=[file1]|[file2]" Import your spreadsheets directly from the command-line.

Compile tXtFL: If you'd rather compile tXtFL for yourself, tXtFL makes that easy through build scripts. Note that compilation is simple but not usually necessary. The Java binaries run the same on most platforms.

As of v.1.1, binaries can be built in one step by running the script, build.sh, from any bash prompt (eg Terminal in Linux, or Cygwin in Windows). Once built, the program can be launched by running, run.sh.

Run on an Unsupported Platform: Want to play tXtFL on your HPUX? or Solaris 10? or prefer Carbon to Cocoa on the Mac? You can swap out the lib/swt.jar with a library for your platform. Download alternative SWT libraries. Please note that we have not tested on any of these platforms. If you're given it a shot, we'd love to hear how it worked!

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