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Release Notes and Known Issues

For details on how to engineer a release, please see the Release Checklist.

Completely new graphical interface with mouse-driven controls, built-in browser, and play tables for both the tXtFL simulator and tXtFL Draft player/team creation tool
One-step creation of all teams and players
Updated for season 2008-9 stats
Option for fully automated game play, including one-click launch of hundreds of simulations
Game Guide overhaul with context-specific page loading
Added Mac and OpenJDK (Linux) system support
Software update notifier and news bulletin
Game summaries stored for file for analysis by basic stats aggregator
Incorporation of benched players and fixes for when positions are unfilled
Score celebration and sample team/player refresh

Notes and known issues:

FIXED (in tXtFL-0.9.2-1.dmg): A permission error was found that prevented tXtFL-0.9.1.dmg from launching the sim. This bug has been fixed in tXtFL-0.9.2-1.dmg. (2008-01-07)
FIXED (in tXtFL-0.9.2-1-win-installer.exe) The original release did not run on WinXP platform because of a library linking issue. A new release that runs on WinXP has been posted, while the original release takes advantage of the new WPF graphics but only runs on Vista. (2008-01-07)
All builds now run only on Java software (v.1.4+)
Running "tXtFL.sh -ng" will run the sim in java-textalone mode
Players with the same first and last name overwrite each other
Punter stats not available

New features in 0.9.2:

New stats sensing mechanism, with depth charts and built-in browser
More flexible player position assignments to utilize a wider range of players
AI tweaks to make greater use of coaching points and improve pass and rushing play realism
Game clock realism improvements
SWT graphics upgrade and reduced download size
First graphical tXtFL package for Mac platforms
A few new default special teams plays

Notable bug fixes in 0.9.2:

Known Issues

Fails to download stats because of a change in the format of the stats site. (2007-11-24) A new statistics sensing mechanism is being added to tXtFL for downloading stats from a new site. The new site provides 2007 season stats and offers a simpler way to create teams.
WONTFIX (FIXED in Ubuntu 7.10, more?): In Ubuntu the SWT browser used to crash, and down came tXtFL with it. The problem was with a plugin that couldn't be found. Tests in Ubuntu 7.10 show that this plugin still emits error messages, but tXtFL still runs. (2007-12-21)

Summary of major changes in v.0.9.1

Detailed map of changes in v.0.9.1

Improved AI:

Upgraded team and player specs for greater flexibility in adding new sections
"Coaching points," where each team is allotted a certain number of points to distribute among various coaching areas to improve play probabilities in areas given higher points
Player skill values to influence stats-based skill calculation values
New defensive pass plays, corresponding to the more common and better known formations
Treat "RLB" and "LLB" solely as placements, rather than positions to correspond more closely with established nomenclature while keeping them as placements on the field rather than default assignments to players
Incorporated more defensive positions into defensive pass coverage
Reduced the number of plays per game by calculating the probability of going out of bounds, even under non-pressured situations, and lengthening the default time interval between plays from 15-->35s to more accurately reflect US clocks, while allowing an out-of-bounds to stop the clock
Distance thrown in a pass play is now factored into its success probability
Runs after kicks and punts are longer by giving more weight to ball carrier's run ability

Download stats from web:

First Launch system to welcome when user launching tXtFL for first time and offer option to start downloading, and option to download at start of every game
Automatic browser launch to football sites for stats downloads (browser mechanism courtesy of Bare Bones Browser Launch, centerkey.com)
Graphical interface in Draft to parse statistics from pasted text or a spreadsheet into customizable team or player files

GUI enhancements:

Upgraded to SWT 3.1 and GCJ 4.2pre (courtesy of thisiscool.com)
tXtFL Draft gets a GUI!
Beginning to migrate GUI and input access methods to LibTxtfl for shared usage
New installer, with automatic launch of tXtFL, using the NSIS 2.22-built installer with the Modern UI
Runs on Linux platforms with a standard libgcj (4.1+) installed

Stats bug fixes:

Fixed attempt to apply stats to both teams
Fixed crash when incrementing fumbles lost after fumble lost leads to recovering team TD (bug #1637195)
Prevent infinite looping when can't find player; allow for gracious exit when no defender available
Updated the kicker/punter rather than the returner after punts/kicks (1604296)
Fixed missing delivery and recipient distances on pass plays
Increased the width of the the history display
Tackles can be recorded as fractions of numbers (bug #1604292)

Other bug fixes:

Fixed Cygwin cygpath parameters for building on Windows platforms (bug #1604291)
Draft now correctly identifies and applies RecYds, RedTDs, Position, and DepthOrder stats (bugs #1602852, 1162311, 1164963)
Fixed infinite loops when players of certain positions do not exist, and increased the probability of having these players (#1604297)