Yeah, definitely tough.
We’ll look at having lower weighted Pace Partners in the future (the average D Zwifter weighs 75kg and I think DD is 85)
Here’s the latest update to Pace Partners, including extra paces: Changes to Pace Partners [May 2022]
Pace partner tuning….
Instead of having a pace partner for every possible power bracket would it be possible to go back down to 4 per world again but have each with resistance scale? In workout mode on the companion, you can adjust the bias relative to your ftp, would it be possible to have the same thing with either CDA or rolling resistance? With that you could have a wide enough range so that each of the existing pace partners would meet at their extreme limits of resistance. Might be easier to run pace partners on more worlds if there are fewer to run? Would also give folks with different power the ability to ride together; stronger riders increase their “resistance factor” so that they’re working at a relative scale to the others.
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I know this is a bit of necropost since there are more pace partner now, but this is kind of an issue. I know I’m at the more extreme end at 120-kg and my FTP is 220-W. I really like the aspect of using pace partners, but it’s hard to get an effective session with them. With D. Duster, 130-W is way too easy and I barely get anything out of the ride except miles/km and a sore butt, but with D. Diesel, 190-W is, umm, not fun for any extended length of time. Just wish there was a bit more options for me besides active recovery or tempo.
I know it’s a me problem, as the gaps get proportionally larger as weight increases and most riders are well under 120-kg, so I’m not advocating for more race partners. I agree with @RC_Ivany. I think this could be solved by having a bias option on these pace partner rides that allows your to essentially bump up or down your weight to get closer to the needed W/kg. You should get drops according to your true W/kg, but the avatar keeps up with the group.
It’s a group ride and not competitive so I don’t see the harm in the option. It’s also a lot easier than going into settings each time to adjust your weight and then remembering to correct it before any structuring workouts/rides. I just want to have a long, consistent endurance session with a group, but I suppose that won’t happen until I lose 20-kg, increase my FTP by 60-W, or a combination of the two, just to ride with D. Diesel… 
Diesel will drop to about 112 watts when Zwift changes his virtual weight to 75kg. This might help a bit, at least on flatter routes you should be ok.
we have the workout Bias already built into the workouts, how hard would it be to add that to the pace partners? Everyone would still be in the same group but one person could have the bias turned up to 120% and the next could be at 80% you would have bigger groups and a broader spectrum of people riding together. isnt that what we want for Zwift? community connections.
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Given a workout is ERG mode and riding with PP’s is SIM mode, probably not as easy as it seems…but at the end of the day, its just bits and bites so find/create a Feature Request and see if it gets traction.
Your point about ERG vs SIM mode is valid, to my mind the bias slider would be relative to all the resistance feedback from the world. So same idea as ERG but with more variations and more frequent changes all relative to what’s happening in the world…
See:
A Pace Partner ride is just a free ride so there’s no ERG interaction with them at all.
You are just riding with another “person” on Zwift.
Yes, I understand this but could it not read the terrain and scale accordingly the way the bias reads the erg in a workout and scales relative to that? it just seems like something that could work well to bring larger groups of people together?
Problem I foresee is that loads of people would set their bias in order to hang with the biggest group (traditionally C. Cadence) and all the other PPs would be down on numbers.
Perhaps if the upper range of C met the lower range of B, no overlap it could help… it would be interesting to see how it played out. PP have really taken off as a thing. I never free ride anymore, it’s either race, PP, or structured workout. free riding seems so boring now.
It sounds like a significant amount of work for relatively little gain. People should ride with the Pace Partners whose pace is best suited for them. A whole chunk of dev work to suit every single pace is unlikely to happen.
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Then bike choice remains the only way to “tune” the resistance. It’s effective, full aero or MTB/gravel. TT bike if you’re really in for a workout. 