The tXtFL Game Guide

Playing tXtFL

Game Setup

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

UPDATE As of tXtFL 3.6, multiplayer over the network has been restored and revamped!

Number of players. You can play against the computer or another person. "Automated games" is a way to simulate up to millions of games automtically.

MOBILE On tXtFL Mobile, you connect to other players through Google Play Games. No need to fiddle with IP addresses!

Multiplayer. You can play on the same device or online. On the same device, you alternate turns while the simulator tries to keep your secrets.

DESKTOP To play online, one player becomes the host, and the other connects over a LAN or WAN. To connect over a WAN, the host computer IP and port must be accessible, such as through router port forwarding. The default port on Windows or Linux platforms is 23, but on Mac platforms a port of 1024 or higher should be used.

Once the host has set up the port, the client can connect using the address specified in the host, such as 192.168.1.3:1024. You can also use the hostname instead of the IP if on a LAN.

Game type. You can play a new preseason game (choose your team and opponent), start or continue a season, or resume a previously saved game (see "Save Game" for more details).

NEW tXtFL 4 brings Franchise features. You can start your own franchise based on an existing team, draft new rookies, and build your team for multiple seasons.

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

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. Pressing "Go" at any time will auto-select for you.

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.

Specific Play. Plays are based on the category you've chosen. The order of choices roughly corresponds to the layout of the field. Plays farther down on the list are targeted farther down the field, and those on the right, left, or middle columns are targeted toward the corresponding horizontal area of the field. On defensive plays, the organization is similar, and plays should be chosen based on where you predict the offense to target.

Outcome. 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 Drive history tab and update the stats tabs.

NEW tXtFL 3.5 includes a dedicated Game Stats tab to track third-down efficiency, time of possession, and other stats from your entire team.

tXtFL 3.0 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.

NEW tXtFL 3.5 also includes penalties. You can choose whether to accept or decline penalties committed against your team or even try to induce penalties through the deep pass.

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.

NEW tXtFL 3.5 includes a Standings tab to track how your team is faring in the race to the tXtFL Bowl.

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.

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

Continue a Season. You can pick up where you left off from any unfinished 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.

Timeout. As of tXtFL 3.0, you can 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. 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

UPDATE As of tXtFL Desktop 4.0, the app remains responsive even while running many automated games.

DESKTOP 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 Desktop 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.

If you turn on the option to "Record player stats from automated games" in the Options tab, all games will be recorded. Note that recording these individual games can slow down the simulations when a large number of sims are run.

Team Management