I think Jon makes it clear in this interview that the sudden growth of Zwift and the VC backing has killed any scope for innovation. He basically openly asks for people to innovate and create some meaningful competition.
I think at some point we HAVE to see the fruits of the labours. The team is now huge, and it’s not like they’ve been producing lots but missing the mark - they haven’t produced anything (in terms of rider experienced features - and no I don’t count being able to pick a new route without exiting the game and a route progress bar). In some ways I’m happy that the job interview posted says all the right things, but if that person comes in and will be starting from scratch, any meaningful improvement is a long long way off.
Hanging my hopes in the shorter term on the new pack dynamics. Let’s hope they mix the racing up in a good way.
i doubt it, seriously. fundamentally the best place to draft is the same place it always has been - right at the back. the best thing they can do with regards to pack dynamics is to allow solo riders to descend at similar or possibly even marginally faster speeds than huge groups
in fact anything that stops this happening would be an improvement
Yes I agree that would help. I’m hoping that if the pack dynamics work as they could, effort can be better managed to hold a position, for a pack to keep accelerating it would require riders to intentionally work harder.
One of the problems at the moment is that you put in an effort to move forward in the pack, not going past the front, but on the server you may be at the front of the pack accelerating it. The pack is accelerating all the time without anyone conscious that they’re doing it. This is exaggerated on descents. The new pack dynamics may make races a bit more tactical rather than just do what you can to hold the front group and sprint at the finish regardless of your own strengths.
Will be interesting to see anyway - Zwiftcast suggested it was due for wider release in October.
Which bit are you highlighting in the video?
it should be timestamped, but the descent from the radio tower starting at around 25 minutes where the rider (ikeda, a lightweight premier league rider) gets dropped with absolutely no way of preventing it happening.
i could write a big essay on why descents in general are what really kill zwift physics though, it’s not just stuff like that. I had a 35 second solo gap at the top of the final KOM in a ZRL recon race yesterday, and I had to ride the 3 minute long descent at 4.5wkg to hold off a group of maybe 5 people. i still almost got caught
Is this the same as IRL? I’m not exactly light (about 72kg at the time), but have had trouble following people in long steep descents IRL.
I’m not hugely experienced racing on Zwift, although I race at a decent level when I do (I recently won a Cat A sprint Crit which is meant to be too flat and absolute watts driven for my type, from what I read) but at 66kg I don’t seem to struggle to hold on on flats and descents (I never raced off the radio tower, maybe that extreme a gradient would be different) in the way people suggest (or maybe 66kg isn’t low enough)
So with that context, back to the video was there really nothing he could do? I mean he could have pedalled sooner, surely? (genuine question as he’s clearly better that me and will know the tactics better than me) And anyway as a somewhat lightweight myself it’s the same in real life, my big friends descend naturally quicker than I do (my 75kph is typically their 85)
prem league rules require a 50% trainer difficulty setting, so for him, no, i don’t think there’s anything he could have done on a gradient that steep. but generally speaking, if you’re a light rider, the workaround i’ve found works best (i’m 54.5kg) is to ride high z2/tempo downhill and never supertuck. but you have to have your trainer difficulty slider set to maybe 20% at most or you just spin out on any significant gradient
the bigger problem though is that the pack descends so much faster than a single rider, regardless of the individual rider weight. there’s almost no incentive for anyone, regardless of their weight, to attack off the front on a hill. on a real descent, a bunch often descends slower than a single rider, because well, they have to brake for a corner, and ride single file. in zwift you get this huge bunch of riders taking hairpins at terminal velocity while getting the full bunch draft from each other, and huge gaps get wiped out on even the shortest descents
‘This Season on Zwift’
Certainly a big step forward sharing a roadmap. Good signs.
Another note from the event - ‘20% of Zwifters now compete’
Link a brother up?
I’d recommend listening to the ZwiftCast too
Cheers - that’s certainly encouraging. I’d like to have heard more about some of the oft discussed topics from this thread though!
Also from the DCR post, wondering what this means for community races…
Semi-related to all of that, and with no particular place for me to stash it, I’ll note that Zwift says that starting in November they’re going to be running a new race series that’ll add far more races to the daily calendar – somewhat like the ZHQ races, but with more availability when you log into the game.
As to the roadmap etc. in general, finally!
Zwiftcast @ 48:40 Talking about racing “20% of Zwifters now compete”
I would bet if racing is better controlled we would see closer to 50%
Permission to remain cynical on this being any more than talk ( and to a closed audience that is now shared out ) than Action until it actually happens . That will be a pretty radical shake up and turn around and I just haven’t seen that being demonstrated … well ever .
But fair shout now , cards are on the Table . November it is … Make or Break.
To be fair, the article states early 2022 for the most part. I don’t think we’ll see much other than the new roads (yawn) in November.
As software product development is my world the speed of development has always suggested a major rewrite going on in the background. It’s highly unlikely the UI could change this much without one. If the new platform works (big IF in the early days) then there is definitely hope for faster dev in the future. For now I too remain a little cynical but hopeful