Not sure if this has been mentioned before but here goes… In a recent interview, Eric Min mentioned that he preferred limiting the number of worlds in order to increase rider interaction. It was also mentioned that Zwift has the resources to have a team large enough to do a map every month but it may not serve the community well. This got me to thinking that it’s possible to both increase the number of worlds/routes available to users while also limiting them to maximize rider interaction. I realize this approach may not be possible for a number of reasons within Zwift, but thought I’d mention it since it’s novel.
The concept is that any number of unique routes/worlds can be created and simultaneously ridden by multiple users as long as the elevation profile and length of all routes are identical. For example, say rider ‘a’ is riding world/route ‘A’ while rider ‘b’ is riding a completely different world/route ‘B’. While from a top down 2D map view the two worlds/routes may look completely different, from the side-view if the elevation profile and length of the two routes are the same, both riders can appear in both worlds simultaneously as they are ridden. Rider ‘a’ would appear in their world ‘A’ while also appearing in rider 'b’s world ‘B’. Rider ‘b’ in turn would appear in their world ‘B’ while also appearing in rider 'a’s world ‘A’. This concept extends to multiple riders and worlds/routes.
Given where Zwift is at in the design, this idea may not be possible to implement, but it is a method that I think can be used to create any number of unique places to ride in while also maximizing rider interaction. The concept to making this work is keeping the route elevation profile and course length the same for all routes. So instead of making a single world with a given route, ten worlds can be created with different route designs from a 2D top down map view, but if they all use the same elevation profile and course length, all riders can simultaneously appear in all worlds thus maximizing rider interaction.