Since applying the update I’m having connectivity issues with a Kickr v5 via direct connect or bluetooth.
Latest Zwift AppSilicon running on an M4 Mini 15.6 (24G84), Kickr V5 with latest firmware 4.5.74
Direct connect via ethernet cable straight to a Belkin USB-C ethernet adapter, no switch.
The trainer will pair successfully and I can start a ride, first few seconds looks okay and then when pedalling steadily the reported cadence drops to zero and no resistance felt.
Pairing via the companion app running on an iPhone, 3.73.3 (2308), all works fine.
How much eventual impact to races will these have once they’re more widely around? No more stealth sprinting away. Also an easy visual indicator of how hard someone is working relative to their FTP, no?
The option to turn them off is a bit on the extreme side; have some creativity guys…
What’s next, you want to shut the lights off the Concept Z1 bike because that’s crazy?
Fire socks? Can’t be seeing that!
Dinosaurs don’t exist, let’s make sure those are cleared out from Titans…
Don’t get me wrong I agree it’s “too much”, but something should be there to know riders we have it and others have it as well.
I understand the reasoning behind why the effect turns on when it does.
But some of you guys on here need to get to the core of the issue; not just “I want them off.”
If you want them off, why ride on Zwift; pull up a TV show or stare at a wall.
If we had options to turn literally everything off, you wouldn’t be riding on Zwift / In Watopia anymore; at the end of the day, it is THEIR product, and the designers are using THEIR creative choices.
We just need to guide them in a direction that’s beneficial to the development and growth.
“Off” doesn’t do justice.
Refer to my idea about them being visible only above tempo and not in draft for an example of a better solution than … “turn it off.”
Aren’t fire socks only visible at >150% FTP? That’s already above tempo. Now that I think of it, if racers don’t want to visually give away how much effort they’re doing, I suppose they can in-game change their FTP to eg. 500 watts so that they never turn on. On the flip side, if you always want the socks going, then change your ftp to 50 watts or whatever. Or are these triggers based on zFTP and not regular FTP?
I started virtual cycling on Rouvy because zwift looked fake and childish with those dumb unrealistic tron bikes (okay actually I started on trainerroad) but Rouvy left me in uncanny valley. So I decided to give Zwift a try and I actually really like the cartoony world and outrageous items. Indoor cycling will never be like cycling outside, so it shouldn’t pretend to be, it should be lighthearted and fun and yes I like to show of my century kit, tron bike and soon the lightning socks because a lot of hard work went into earning them and I want people to know that I did that!
I still haven’t really seen the lightning socks in my rides, so not sure how distracting they are. But … assuming they are distracting I don’t think tying them to %FTP makes sense, the purpose of the animation is (I presume) to show that you’re getting some reasonable aero benefit from those socks, and that will happen at a certain speed. The Fire Socks are the ones set to %FTP which makes sense.
Instead I wonder if they can do a couple of things:
More subtle treatment when in someone’s draft: When in the draft you will be hitting less air, and the aero socks effect should therefore be a bit less important, so maybe there speed for when they start animating in a pack would be much higher, or maybe the design treatment should be muted in this case - then we shouldn’t see huge packs of folks with a full animation even if everyone is running aero socks.
Have a progressive treatment: At the lower speeds above the activation point the animation could be less heavy, very subtle, more of a warm-up animation that would be much less noticeable this could build up to the current animation at some very high speed (whatever that is).
There’s an argument for them to add settings to turn things on/off etc, each new setting adds complexity, and new test cases to support/maintain so they are not ‘free’, but in general most folks tend to live with the default settings unless they really get annoyed to the point they want to start looking for settings, so ideally whatever the default is would be a great experience whether or not they add settings.
I put these Aero Lightning Socks on today and saw a couple other riders with them, and have now ridden with them for a few hours which is enough for me to form an initial opinion.
The visual effect is obvious, but it is also quite low in visual height compared to other aspects of the game.
I think that is just going to take some time to get used to as another visual element of the game, and that over time people will generally adapt to it, or tune it out.
The Ride On Thumbs and Confetti bursts from Confetti Socks are more visually taxing to me than these sock effects.
Just did 4 hours with Constance and as with any bot ride you tank along at a tasty pace….there were multiple people in the bunch with this new aero sock effect and it is quite possibly the worst Zwift update ever.
Adds absolutely nothing to the game and once you see it you can’t unsee it
It adds to the game that you can show offf you did at least 250 Wh/kg which is a serious amount of work👊
Edit: mistook the lightning sock for the lightning aero socks, which require 850 Wh/kg, a much bigger achievement even, yes you definitelyshould be able to show these!
