So I’m kinda confused about this. I have a Tacx Satori trainer. Which has a manual resistance lever. Now when I go uphill I change my resistance (So I try to simulate the route as good as I can). However, what with people who just keep their resistance on 1? Won’t that make it easier for them? As they don’t feel the hills like I do?
Doesn’t this make the game unfair?
Watts are watts whether you are on flat, incline or decline. I have the same trainer, but use a power meter with it and I don’t touch the resistance lever at all I just shift the gears. It is not easier or an advantage to do that.
Just so you know, I did use the resistance level a couple times early on and found that the trainer lost its calibration so I stopped doing it.
Im still kinda confused.
If I have my lever on lets say 6 and you have it on 1. Wouldnt it be harder for me to generate the same amount of watts as you?
Why would it, all you have to do is shift it into another gear.
It’s still that same watts.
If anything, it’s probably easier for you to apply force, since you have more resistance to push against.
Consider pushing someone’s hand. If they provide resistance, you can apply X force. If they move their hand away as you’re pushing it, it’s much harder to apply force. You’d have to push faster and further to generate the same total force.
Since power is a combination of (force * distance) / time, in other words you generate the same power, but the other guy has to pedal faster (increasing distance travelled by the pedals for a given time period) or use a higher gear (increasing force for a given cadence).
Something like that anyway. 
Consider an extreme situation where the other guy is on a trainer providing zero resistance at all. If in-game speed were purely dictated by wheel speed then yes he has it easier. But he can’t apply any power to the “road” because his wheel’s off the ground.
Thanks guys, that actually makes sense.
And makes me feel stupid…
Everyone says that Watts are Watts on here, but I have the Tacx Sartori and my FTP massively decreases when I use the higher resistance levels.
I imagine there is something wrong with my trainer?
You should not be changing the resistance levels on the trainer, you need to leave it at the level indicated on the Zwift Pairing screen.