The new dynamics are making social group rides excessively difficult. It’s easy to get dropped, and it’s hard to get back, and I think especially sticky draft is to blame here.
I don’t particularly like the feel in races either, but racing is partly cracking the mechanics (at the moment), so I can take it or leave it.
But the group rides are a real problem.
I don’t know where your feedback is from, but the feedback I’m hearing from others in the same position — leading or sweeping in the large community organizer social group rides — is that it’s just harder with no clear upside. (All the other problems like the chat changes are just compounding the problems, and frankly I’m getting pretty worried about the social and community aspect of Zwift.)
Are the changes making the pack dynamics more realistic? YE— actually, no. We lack nearly every possible mechanism of feedback and control that we have riding IRL. There are no ‘realistic’ changes in isolation, and that label absolutely should not be used as a target.
I’m not sure what sticky draft is supposed to emulate, for example, but what I do know is that IRL I can usually go around people instead of being stuck behind them.
Racing and other events should be considered separately until sufficient feedback/control is in place, because some subset of those ‘realistic’ changes works better in one than another, and unlike IRL, we can consider them separately — and the ability to also apply them separately is clearly there, as evidenced by specific targeted test events.
The point of group rides is to ride together. Therefore, unless opted out by the organizer the ruleset in use should minimize difficulty staying with the group.
The point of races is to get away from others. Therefore, unless opted out by the organizer the ruleset should favor creating gaps.
This is a bigger discussion, and since this is no longer FutureWorks, can we get this thread moved to General, or should we start a new one?