I’ve raced in about 400 zwift races and never had huge issue with the pack dynamics. In several races recently, my avatar starts randomly darting to the right of the pack and losing the draft. This happens over and over.
Has anyone else experienced this?
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absolutly yess! i have noticed that too… here and there loosing draft because the avatar didn’t stay behind riders in front, instead goes beside them…
Yes I have seen that too on occassion . Its like I am passing some invisible riders or pack and stay outside of the draft . Normally I just up have to up the power as if I am on the front but occassionally I will stay out for too long or unexpectedly while I am not 100% realising and it can be too late . This leads to the crazy situations of getting dropped in descents where everyone is in tuck even … or on flat roads . It is well documented elsewhere too , its exacerbated by the fact zwift does not simulate cornering and you can pile round hairpin bends at 80kmph.
Pack dynamics I beleive is being “worked on” (Like it has been for a long time without much progress) because the same can be said of blob dynamics in general . I am sure everyone has experienced the sitation where you ( or a small group) go off front at high WKG that would see you pulling 20-30 seconds in RL but you are only 2 or 3 in zwift . and then the group can just lazily do nothing at all and just pull you back when there is no one really taking any turns at the front to match you , its just the inertia almost programmed in to a group riding together pushing each other on . Something not quite right there either. .
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… my speech!
and that is what cycling is all about… to make moves and try to get away… but as you say, it’s impossible in zwift, and EVEN if the pack/group is doing nothing than just pedaling the same way as before without really chasing
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This has definitely been going since the latest pack dynamics update (Feb 2021), but not consistently. I have a hunch that it might be worse in worlds where you ride on the left.
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In some races recently, i was so bad I had to drop out. I might as well been riding a TT. It was no fun at all. I sure hope they fix this or I won’t be doing zwift
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Ahh, Sure, I’m a US rider and I was riding on British course. My avatar obviously is confused about which side of the road to ride on. Silly me!
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Not sure if Zwift notify if they have changed Pack dynamics in a release but the first ride post [October 2021] update felt very wrong on pack dynamics . During a sub-threshosld effort group ride event in a pack of about 30-40 riders would rapidly peel off to the right in a sort of erratic and very emphasised chaingang peel off , in some cases these riders would form a small group of there own on the right hand side of the road … not a problem until we hit a left hand hairpin … then in effort phases it seemed nearly impossible to gap anyone even doing 3 w/kg above group effort . Hope it was just subjective on the later as it wont bode well for competition if that sticks.
Pack dynamics is apparently a backend thing so it is independent of the Zwift client updates (the new, much less crazy version can be turned on for specific events).
The unpredictability of the draft in the current one was enough reason for me to stop using the Tron bike altogetuer, at least with other bikes you get visual feedback in form of the avatar’s riding position.
Rode earlier and sticky draft seemed to be much worse than has been in recent weeks