I'm somewhat surprised to scroll through the replies and see mostly favorable takes. I agree with just about everyone that DDSPF16 had its issues, but the only tangible benefit I feel like we gained from the switch to 21 is the player traits. But I'm not sure that the end result is all that different in terms of being able to customize your player.
You could argue that increased playcalling options are a bonus, too, but more is definitely not better in this case. There is a huge variety of possible game plan options and absolutely zero effective way to test the performance of them. It's incredibly frustrating because you're pretty much just guessing when it comes to setting strategy, which ultimately creates a situation where we arguably have too much parity, which I actually already think was a problem. Easy for me to say as resident OCO guy, but toward the end of our time with '16 it already felt like the ASFC was just a giant random number generator. Now it looks like the entire league might be that way, except for Baltimore who is consistently awful in season sims and gives NSFC teams two free wins.
In terms of stats and effectiveness of different positions, I really felt like we were in a great place balance-wise with 16. We could have stood to make running a bit less effective to alter the meta, but overall stats looked good. And maybe this is at the core of DDSPF21 seeming like total nonsense as I play around with it. The sim team basically had a season and some change to design archetypes, set rules, and balance test. I just don't think this engine is even remotely close to being ready for use on top of the other issues, as evidenced by the last second RB skill patch. If that wasn't revealed in the sim team's work getting all of this ready, what else are we missing?
Finally, there are the changes that are purely cosmetic, which I could take or leave personally. The sim speed is really annoying - I think last night's lasted 90 minutes - but it's not the worst thing since, other than playoffs, live sims don't feel like much of an event since the switch to youtube, and non-live viewers can always just await the VOD. There also seems to be a really awful issue with penalties in this sim, and game intelligence doesn't seem to have improved much with timeouts still being called between three straight half-ending runs.
Ultimately I might be one of the only people here who is totally off put by the switch. And before you say it's because OCO sux, remember that we weren't exactly crushing it lately with 16. I think my biggest gripe is that it feels like this was all rushed for the benefit of... watching passes move through the air? This doesn't feel like a real upgrade so much as a lateral move for most users and, so far, probably a move in the wrong direction for people who are really involved with their teams. I think waiting a bit and simming through a season or two in tandem with 16 would have been prudent. You could have largely copied strats and generated player builds to get further samples that way.
In the end the switch was made. I'm not interested enough to really push further against it - I think the time for that is long past anyway - but this is draining my interest in the league even faster than had already been happening.
You could argue that increased playcalling options are a bonus, too, but more is definitely not better in this case. There is a huge variety of possible game plan options and absolutely zero effective way to test the performance of them. It's incredibly frustrating because you're pretty much just guessing when it comes to setting strategy, which ultimately creates a situation where we arguably have too much parity, which I actually already think was a problem. Easy for me to say as resident OCO guy, but toward the end of our time with '16 it already felt like the ASFC was just a giant random number generator. Now it looks like the entire league might be that way, except for Baltimore who is consistently awful in season sims and gives NSFC teams two free wins.
In terms of stats and effectiveness of different positions, I really felt like we were in a great place balance-wise with 16. We could have stood to make running a bit less effective to alter the meta, but overall stats looked good. And maybe this is at the core of DDSPF21 seeming like total nonsense as I play around with it. The sim team basically had a season and some change to design archetypes, set rules, and balance test. I just don't think this engine is even remotely close to being ready for use on top of the other issues, as evidenced by the last second RB skill patch. If that wasn't revealed in the sim team's work getting all of this ready, what else are we missing?
Finally, there are the changes that are purely cosmetic, which I could take or leave personally. The sim speed is really annoying - I think last night's lasted 90 minutes - but it's not the worst thing since, other than playoffs, live sims don't feel like much of an event since the switch to youtube, and non-live viewers can always just await the VOD. There also seems to be a really awful issue with penalties in this sim, and game intelligence doesn't seem to have improved much with timeouts still being called between three straight half-ending runs.
Ultimately I might be one of the only people here who is totally off put by the switch. And before you say it's because OCO sux, remember that we weren't exactly crushing it lately with 16. I think my biggest gripe is that it feels like this was all rushed for the benefit of... watching passes move through the air? This doesn't feel like a real upgrade so much as a lateral move for most users and, so far, probably a move in the wrong direction for people who are really involved with their teams. I think waiting a bit and simming through a season or two in tandem with 16 would have been prudent. You could have largely copied strats and generated player builds to get further samples that way.
In the end the switch was made. I'm not interested enough to really push further against it - I think the time for that is long past anyway - but this is draining my interest in the league even faster than had already been happening.
![[Image: rq0K779.png]](https://i.imgur.com/rq0K779.png)
