Pace Partner Dynamic Pace Testing [March 2022]

No - I believe we are looking to move to average power to denote the colour.

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Huh, so you are shown Pace Partner options based on their real time w/kg at that exact moment you loaded the menu? That’s not very intuitive.

You are correct in how they are currently displayed.

It was fine before we brought in dynamic pacing.

Ah I see. That probably needs to be changed so as to not be misleading to anyone.

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This morning I finally rode with Coco on Sand and Sequoias for the first time since dynamic pacing was implemented, and I’ve got opinions :joy:.

  1. Bruh.

  2. 0.3 w/kg increase on the hills seems like a bit too much. .3 w/kg moves me up or down a zone, so it changes the character of the ride from “steady Z2” to “Z2 with some excursions into Z3”. It’s not that bad on the short punchy climbs in Titan’s Grove, but it could be really punishing on longer climbs with faster bots. I think .1-.2 increase would keep the bots from getting dropped uphill and keep the character of the ride the same. More variation could be cool for some new bots, but I also enjoyed the steady pace from before.

  3. Dropping to 2.3 w/kg downhill is good, but dropping by .3 or even .4 would work well too. Especially for the heavier bots.

3a) Seeing Coco change colors when dropping to 2.3 is a bit jarring. Maybe they could get dimmer/brighter to reflect changes in pace.

  1. The gap from Diesel to Cadence is way too big now. People already wanted a 2.0 bot - the jump from 1.5 to 2.8 is pretty intimidating.
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I sent a very similar screenshot to my colleagues earlier today.

I rode with Coco today and didn’t feel like it was too much. It felt like the normal “oh, look a hill”

We can and will look at tweaking the dynamics, but my gut was that going uphill was okay, but needed to slow down a bit more on the downs.

Yeah, I know. That was weird and we’re going to fix it.

The gap is the same. She still averages 2.5 (maybe fractionally higher now). However, we will definitely add a 2.0. and a 1.0. And a 3.0 and probably 3.7. Hopefully in the very near future.

I’m undecided on the 1.0, maybe a bit too slow?

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Let the people decide, do a “test” for a few weeks and see if it gets a nice sized crowd. What is the minimum sized group to deem it a success? How many riders does the A bot usually have?

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Put the bots back they way they were and give us 2.0, 2.5, 3.0 etc. Like we have been asking. Not a big fan of the new bots. And PLEASE dear god stop putting them on Sand and Sequoias.

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I actually enjoy the S+S route. It’s better (IMHO) than just cycling around on the flattest piece of road in game endlessly.

Also, there’s only been a change to one bot, so I’m not sure what your experience has been with other ones to make you say that?

Additionally, the only change we have made is for her to go slightly harder uphill and easier downhill. Because that’s what most people do.

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It would be worthwhile running Coco or Brevet up the epic KOM one week to see how it works…
Probably need to run with and without increase in wkg feature.

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I wouldn’t ride with a 1.0 bot, but I think there’s an audience for it. Wasn’t one of the Halloween bots 1.0 or 1.3?

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In my opinion Cadence new pace on Sand and Sequoias is way better hopefully this pacing model will roll over to Brevit also.

A 1W/Kg bot would give mid to high end D riders a z2/1 juggernaut, I’d expect some would be keen to join.

Indeedy. Weighing a fair bit more than Coco, I found it far too easy to drop her in the S+S section after the KOM, falling out of the drops multiplier completely.

Honestly it feels like the draft has been lowered on C. I know I use C for my zone 2 heart rate work but the constant up and down of SS screws it up. Personally when I ride Sand and Sequoia‘s I like to smash it not try to sit there in go at a nice even pace. Also James I’m sure you do not weigh 100 kg like I do. That extra weight means a lot on every little hill when you’re trying to modulate your power to not go ahead of the bot or fall behind.

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Jeg brugte C. Cadence til recovery og lav aerob træning, derfor synes jeg ikke om ideen. Mener der er nok løb og pace partner bare skal være det, som det er tiltænkt. Ingen grund til øget fart opad, det er ikke alle der vejer 65 kg.!!

Here’s what I meant:

Sure enough, Coco was coming down from the Titans Grove KOM.

Just looks weird.

Yeah, makes joining a PP a lot harder than it should be…

OK, so if the idea of the dynamic pacing is to get the bots more like real life than two things need to be fixed. Number one ZWIFT overall needs to make it so that when you go down hill it’s just like going downhill in real life. Some people may say well how in the world are we ever going to stop then if we want to change bikes. Just take one of those buttons that most people never use and make it a brake button, problem solved. Number two, the pace partner has to slow down a lot more going down hills . I don’t know about anybody else it when I’m going down hills my first instinct is not to be doing 250 W.
So I tried the new C bot on sand and Sequoia today and I can say not a big fan. The thing I like about riding with a pace bot is trying to stay right around that specific watt per kilogram. I just do not like the idea of the watts per kilogram jumping all over the place. And I would be willing to bet there are a lot more people who feel the same. After all isn’t that kind of why you have a pace bot to keep you at a specific pace?

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I’m sure that’s exactly what I said.

The Pace Partner in Makuri has fixed pacing.

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