I sim games using a custom O and custom D. Every 3-4 games I go through and see what is working and not working and then plus up the O and D plays that are working. So I noticed something odd about the custom D. The D is running the same defensive set maybe 3/4 of the time. And it is the bottom play on the custom D chart. I said let me just delete that play and see what happens. So the new play at the bottom of the custom D list then started being called the majority of the time. And it is giving up lots of yard. I'm running a 335 + quarter D setup. The custom O is working just fine, with a good variety of plays being called. I'm going to delete the custom D completely and set it up again and see if this repeats.

Okay, I deleted the D and constructed another custom D, a 3-4 using all the 3-4 defensive plays. Simmed my first game. 62 defensive plays. 14 used the bottom formation on my custom D. No other D used more than 3 times.

I couldn't reproduce this. I created a custom defense playbook, added all of the 3-4 defense plays (including the over/under variations). Then I assigned this playbook to a handful of playcalling scenarios, and I get several of the plays called. The play numbers are sums of the play across all playbooks so it doesn't differentiate if a play was called from a different assigned playbook.

Here is what I'm doing to play while only simming games. I do that with all the sports sims I play because I like creating long histories with the challenge of building a good team. I create a custom O and D. For purposes of this test I'm using all the 3-4 plays as my custom D. I also create custom game plans, based on the offense I'm facing -- balanced, running, passing. I keep my offense the same in all game plans and tweak it for individual games. I also make sure that under play calling that my custom O and custom D are used in all slots. And then I just click SIM GAME when I'm ready. So what I'm getting is an imbalance that looks like this. Note that when I was running a 335/quarter defense, it was more pronounced. But the AIin both cases is calling the very bottom play in my custom D at a far higher rate than any other play. Here is what it looks like 3 games into my current season. Note that the top two plays were cut off in the images, and they total 9 plays. Add it up and through the first 3 games, out of 190 defensives plays, 59 have been my 34W Zero Flat, nearly 1/3 of the plays. That also matches what Play Analysis tells me. Now the AI does a good job of spreading out my custom O plays, and even better when I start adjusting the call % of the plays after the first 3 games. And I haven't noticed this oddity in past years. I think for now I'm going to go with the head coach's defensive plan while running my custom O. If there is something I could send you, I would be glad to do that, although the league is a fairly large file. If there is something I'm missing in setting up my game, let me know. I still enjoy the game very much.

I took another look and was able to figure out the issue. We'll tweak it for the next patch.

That's great. Thanks. And another reason I buy all 4 DDS games every year.

I said something about this on the pro football discord but wanted to post here for visibility as well. This appears to be an issue with the pro football 2024 version as well, but only presents itself when “match cb” is turned on.