Yeah, playcalling is weird. The other night I played against the chargers twice for a Qtr each for testing purposes, I was the same team (SEA). One Qtr it was filled up with PA shots and 4 verts the next game 1 qtr was like the Chargers were mixing it up and I didn't hardly see any stupid play calls. This was on default Charger playbooks.
I would say get your threshold and speed down first. I prefer very slow, some people think that's too slow. Others prefer normal which I think is too fast. Once you have those to your liking then I would start building your sliders around that. Threshold is everything in this game and will dictate all the others areas. That will at least give you a idea of what looks and feels right or maybe this slider needs to be pulled back some because that's not looking right. That's how I normally start with AM. I try and take sections of the game at a time and get that to play how I like and then start on other areas otherwise things can get wacky quick. I'm sure you know all this already lol. Thats whats great about this community is that I can learn things from you and vice versa.