Ideas for new power-ups

Anyone else here fed up of getting the “Van” power-up every single time they go through a banner (or at least, that’s what it feels like!). To me, it’s the least valuable power-up as if you’re a solo rider like me (I’m rarely fast enough to stay in a big group), it’s completely worthless.

To that end, I thought I’d ask to see if anyone had any ideas for other powerups that could be given out to give a bit more variety. I know they got rid of the burrito (for reasons I don’t know) although it still appears as an icon, but really there’s only three at the moment once you exclude the XP ones. The only rules are that they can’t be TOO overpowered.

My idea is for a hill flattener. For 20 seconds, you get a reduction in the gradient you are experiencing. I’m not talking turning Alpe du Zwift into a flat road or anything excessive - just a slight reduction e.g. 8% down to say 6% or 7%.

Any other ideas?

The feather power up essentially flattens hills for a period as it increases your power to weight ratio.

Yeah the van / drafting power up is often useless if you’ve got no one around to draft off.

OMG! I thought the whole point of it was you didn’t need someone else to draft off, since the powerup makes it like you’re drafting someone. Now after three years I’ve learnt the truth! :smiley:

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That’s the aero helmet you’re thinking of that gives you a free draft. The van only boosts a draft you’re already in, which for me is virtually never.

I remember when the power ups were introduced and there was some community discussion and we determined that the breakaway burrito was anti-social. It made it so that the person behind you didn’t get the draft effect.

Now that racing has matured much further in Zwift I think it would nice to bring it back. I could see it adding a fun dimension to the races.

New power ups??

How about an espresso power up. Provides a short 10% boost in power output. Ideal for that pull to breakaway on the flat or the final push to the line. However be wary of the caffeine crash a few minutes later as you suffer a 5% power reduction for a short time too. This makes timing of use critical in race scenarios.

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@Duane_Gran Ah, so that’s the story behind the burrito. I only joined Zwift about this time last year, so never knew what it was used for.

@Nigel_Doyle While the feather and my hill flattener would be similar, I think they could be made just different enough to have both. The feather can be used on all terrains and also is a massive boost for a very short period of time (only 10 secs isn’t it?), whereas I see a hill flattener as one that can only be used uphill (maybe having more effect when on larger gradients?) but overall being a smaller boost over a longer period of time than the feather.

The Madison Sling powerup. Only usable when a member of the same team is within 2 metres. On use it gives the other rider a short duration speed boost.

Prerequisite: teams built into the game (like WoW guilds)

Basically Power-ups are cheats since they are not coming from your legs. Also, they exacerbate the difference in riders abilities so they are not only cheats, they are also not fair.
Calling Zwift a ‘game’ doesn’t mean you can destroy EVERYONE’S joy in Zwift. Also; why cross platform and not silly-power up-cheat-events only, specifically for riders with a childish desire for cheating and making everything easier and easier and easier ? Weight doping is a bad enough phenomenon already. Power-ups are making them even more super-human.

Here is the best Power-Up of all time:

The EMP-Power up.
An Electric Magnetic Pulse bomb that disables all Power-ups for all time AND make adults act as grownups again. Ride with their mind and legs instead of silly childish cheats that are assigned randomly, rendering every ‘race’ a CASINO WHEEL OF FORTUNE EVENT !

Imagine Power-ups in the Tour the France. POWER-UPS WILL THEN DECIDE WHO WINS, NOT THE RIDERS !!

Don’t agree ? There are TONS of races to be watched on YouTube. NONE are fair. The strongest rider NEVER wins. The sequence of the Power-Ups decide who wins.

It is quite disgusting to witness this kind of childish stupidity on Zwift. Brilliant to destroy Zwift for everyone by implementing it platform wide and not for childish cheat-events for those who choose to live their whole life cheating.