Throwing in another bag of . once more being about Zwift’s knowledge about communities and forums - of course, an even subtile playing around will be noticed… Maybe it’s worth skipping the next realignment in working staff and updating the forum management mindset instead, as they do in politics…
Concering XP and leveling, as proposed several times above (including Eric in Streak and XP Leveling Adjustments [April 2024] - #623 by Eric_Schlange_ZwftIn) decide for a simple, transparent, open end solution - progressive level stepping, no banked XP. Since with drops already another reward system exists, in my opinion, an additional prestige system is not necessary - what about printing the level number in a very small scale on the cycling shorts.
Mark,
As a long time user of Zwift, here are my suggestions:
Either pick a strategy like the prestige system Eric mentioned, or simply go for infinite levels based on a reasonable interval.
Right now Zwift seems to have settled on 20,000 XP for level advancement at the top end. That seems like a pretty good happy medium. I would not make it less than 15,000 or more than 30,000.
Whichever system you choose, put people at the level they would rate with their current XP in one shot… just put us where our current accumulated XP rates.
The bonus drops for levels beyond 100 sound nice, but in practice are a waste. Riders have been asking for a way to archive or delete items in their garage for years, and we’re still waiting. So by the time you get to level 100 your garage is already full of junk, and the last thing you want to do is buy more stuff with your drops.
If you go with infinite levels, please don’t make each level a chance to get more stuff… or give us the option of not taking anything. Again, I have a garage full of stuff I’ll never ride/wear. Of course, giving us a chance to get rid of old stuff would reduce that problem.
Bottom line, please advance us either by infinite levels or a prestige system to the point we rate with our accumulated XP, as opposed to using some difficult banking system. Please.
To give an example of how these changes are confusing, consider the following facts:
I’ve been zwifting for almost ten years now.
I have 1.22M accumulated xp.
I am currently level 95.
I was level 94 when the update came through.
My banked xp changed from lv98 to lv 94 with the update, and now has disappeared.
How does a system where i neither am level 100 or have banked xp make sense? Is this a bug?
If you want people to have long term goals they need to be defined in a way that makes sense and we need to have confidence they won’t change.
I hope there will be a system with a top level. In my opinion a system with levels never ending is less motivaiting. I want to plant the flag on the top of the mountain. Not just climb the level ladder forever. Better then to do the leveling twice or more. Some sort of Prestige system could be ok.
@Mark_Cote is there a reason that ZHQ decided to stick with the convoluted acceleration plan instead of just instantly placing people at the levels they should be at on the scale? Granted there will be a very small number of people who started recently who’d be moved down but surely you could come up with some similarly convoluted decelerated leveling plan for those few people, which would resolve itself within a few levels?
I suspect there is still quite a few people that like the accelerated levelling including me.
yes it’s far too confusing and possibly not accelerating fast enough but it’s nice to see some level movement even though i’m really well past xp for 100.
I think it was the 25 to 50 where they gave you the option to jump straight up or accelerate might be best idea to give users the choice. But then again that’s all more dev time so might be best to just leave things as they are and work on whatever comes after 100.
latest zwift cast episode is worth a listen covers some bits on levelling not spelled out here https://zwiftcast.podbean.com/
mainly just how very few users are actually at 100
In your case would you still want accelerated leveling if there were more levels for you to achieve? Or in that case would you then prefer to be at the level you’ve already earned based on your XP?
I can understand some folks liking banked XP when the only alternative is sitting at max level with no ability to progress levels ever again, but if they either had more levels above 100, or a prestige system would you be ok with that rather than the more complicated banked XP solution?
Given their is no real benefit for higher levels i’d be happy to keep accelerated until i’m back to where i should be but if there was a prestige or some other incentive to be higher maybe i’d prefer to jump straight there.
Overall it’s really not a big issue to me. I rarely look at levels now like i used to when i first started zwifting. Given the time i’ve been on the platform there is far more things than engage my interest but i think for new users it’s still appealing to see the level progress.
So for zwif it’s a balance. please the few that are unhappy with how much time they spend on devs doing that when there is a million over things to be done. A simple button to jump to actual earned level for XP might be easiest option. Then work on whatever comes after 100.
I think part of the problem is that there is a huge disparity between the level 100’s. If you were an early adopter and have been riding steadily for several years, but have been going a little slower since this December, you quickly found yourself several levels behind people with significantly less mileage and XP. You also had/have situations with people that are level 100 with maybe 50,000 kilometers, while others have well in excess of 100,000. So I think going beyond level 100 makes sense… and also not making people wait for it. If you have earned the XP, put that rider at the level commiserate with their earned XP. It will be simpler for Zwift and greatly appreciated especially by the long term riders.
For me the issue is the contempt that zwift has for it’s longest users most loyal users.
Ultimately it doesn’t really matter what level I am, but after more than 9 years and enough XP (1.1m) to be well past level 100 but I’m not due to dumb decisions on how banked XP is used multiple times.
I think it needs to be left alone for a while. No changes whatsoever. Maybe stop listening to a tiny minority of users who likely don’t represent the overwhelming majority.
Never allow anyone to skip levels, bad precedent for a fitness game. It’s like cutting a marathon course.
If we’re going to use bad analogies as arguments then the current system is like telling people who started as soon as the marathon started that they have to run an extra half marathon to get to the finish line and people who start today only have to run a standard marathon
Someone who has 1.5m XP or 2m or higher (as in this topic) earned the ability to be at the higher levels.
That is not cutting anything.
What was happening is I’m going to change the finish line of your marathon to be 5km further when you are 1km from the finish and then banking some of your effort so it takes you longer. While the third place runner gets to do a shorter distance.
That’s not right or fair.
It would be interesting to know what your XP is? If you are at 2m XP or so then I could understand somewhat.
And yes, current and consistent subscriber here with nearly 1.6m XP.
Zwift level progression like any game is a journey. One thing Zwift has said repeatedly is the “fun of level progression.’ I just don’t think they should mess with that. Stay consistent with that part.
Stop compounding errors. Take a breather. Folks who stopped their subscription a year ago shouldn’t get bumped up 40 levels for doing nothing. Reward the current and consistent subscribers.
Do remember above there are some very, very long time Zwift users with huge amounts of hours spent on the platform. They aren’t just folks with about 1.5 hours of cycling and around 50km distance in total.
Not sure people will get bumped for doing nothing.
We do have to ride to get XP.
People that do double points events still have to ride.
I do see how double point this and that just causes XP inflation and the value of XP decreases.
I joined Jan 2017, have 711,000 XP, (56 shy of LVL 75)
I’m ok with it the way it is but wouldn’t care if I got boosted to LVL 94 if that’s where my XP place me.
I think it was dumb the way Zwift jacked around with the levels.
I’m surprised nobody thought it would cause problems.
In my opinion, levels should reflect miles ridden. XP could be used to unlock bikes, kits, gloves or whatever. The many ways you can earn XP, makes the current leveling system unfair.
. once more being 
about Zwift’s knowledge about communities and forums - of course, an even subtile playing around will be noticed… Maybe it’s worth skipping the next realignment in working staff and updating the forum management mindset instead, as they do in politics…