i hope the new addition connects to both yumezi and neokyo (maybe even in more than 1 place!). if they do that, then there will be lots of new loop options.
If it slows you down, isn’t it effectively making it harder to pedal, as it’s making it harder to pedal while maintaining your previous speed? 40kph at X watts suddenly reduced to 35kph at X watts means I have to pedal harder to get back to 40kph.
No. When you go up hill it doesn’t just slow you down does it? It gets harder to pedal i.e. the resistance increases.
This should happen for gravel too.
Gotcha, you want it harder in both ways (maintaining speed and turning the cranks). I guess I just don’t see gravel riding as making it significantly harder to pedal than road, definitely not when compared to climbing. But maybe I’m coming from the other direction. On real bikes, 95% of my riding is on gravel anymore. When I do get onto pavement, it doesn’t feel significantly easier, I just go faster. But that’s a clear YMMV issue, I think.
EDIT: and I’ll just add that I guess I don’t want to see gravel/dirt segments in Zwift become the same thing as climbs. Climbing is one thing, riding a different surface is another. If you’re going to make gravel sections function just like climbs, why include them? It’s an easy way for me to look at it though, because they don’t feel like climbs to me IRL.
EDIT EDIT: I guess it might be interesting to see what it would feel like if they increased resistance but didn’t decrease speed. Maybe that would feel more like what you’re looking for. (But my speed is def decreased on gravel vs road.)
EDIT EDIT EDIT: change of mind coming below…
When riding a real bike, if you are in the same gear and turning the cranks at the same rate, your bike will go the same speed - solo, drafting, uphill, downhill (as long as you aren’t spun out and coasting), asphalt, dirt, etc. In Zwift that sort of works going up hills, but all that happens when you hit dirt is you go slower, and when you are in the draft you go faster.
If you’re at 100% trainer difficulty then same cadence in the same gear should result in you going the same speed, regardless of riding surface, draft, or grade.
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I have noted this in other threads. Drives me bonkers. Doesn’t seem to be on 2wift’s radar, though. They might be busy working on a few font.
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Of course. And when IRL, if you ride into the back of someone, you don’t ride right through them and come out the front. 
Zwift by nature has to do some things differently. It’s also true IRL that riding isn’t always a matter of turning cranks. There are brief moments of freewheeling when we ride, for example, during which times, on gravel, you slow down much more quickly than on pavement. There is also more variance in the road surface which also serves to take off speed from the overall effort, including loose surfaces that translate not insignificant bits of your movement into lateral movement. Can Zwift accommodate for these sort of differences? Or should they make gravel function like pavement? Or just like a climb? Or something different?
I’ve got no dog, or a very small one, like a mini pincer, in this hunt–if people want Zwift to treat different road surfaces just like climbs, that’s fine. IRL, gravel doesn’t ride like a climb. I’d just personally like to see it treated differently. In fact, I might even be changing my mind here about how they should handle gravel differently. Add a bit of resistance, but maintain a good amount (but not all) of your momentum, and force avatars to slip and slide around side to side a bit.
And also, if we’re going for authentic gravel riding, steel bikes should be faster on gravel and get you automatic Ride Ons from everyone you pass, there should be craft beer powerups, and unlockable flannel and big handlebar mustaches.
Also frame bags. I want to see unlockable frame bags in my garage.
Do you think the resistance should increase going uphill? If so why do you not think it should for other scenarios where resistance would increase in real life?
Well, I just said that I think it should in my second to last post
My bad - my attention span was too short!
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No worries 
I changed my mind/was convinced, but I stuck it at the end of a post with a ‘might be’ on it, lol.
I still don’t think it should feel just like climbing, though. That was my biggest issue from the start. But with a static resistance change, and maintaining far more momentum than climbing, I don’t think it would.
Yeah, from how you opened the post I assumed (wrongly!) that you were against it.
I think it makes sense for it to be harder to pedal on surfaces where it would be harder in real life. Otherwise why make it harder going up hill?
I think the effect of gravel up hill should actually be more than on the flat due to tyre slipping/wheelspin
I’d like to see wind introduced too, cycling in to a headwind to make things harder and a tail wind makes it easier.
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only tail winds please!
And big cross winds that make you crash, then Zwift exits, and won’t let you ride for a few weeks while Zwift simulates your recovery time. How’s that for realism? 
Talk of simulated winds in a virtual world is getting away from the what someone was asking about (less gravel tracks).
On the topic of gravel, I think it would be really good to have some more (all in the same general area of course, because it somewhat kills the fun to have huge tarmac sections between them (cough cough, Two Village Loop. Although I guess mixed terrain is part of the idea, too)). More gravel! And as has been said, gravel should have some more simulated resistance than tarmac.
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Sounds like the expansion will be good for you:
“Zwift’s roads are ever-expanding and Makuri Islands will expand in November with roads, gravel, and dirt surfaces winding through the lush Urukazi (woo-roo-kah-zi) map.”
I’m looking forward to it as well, but there are a lot of gravel haters around here. The various surfaces just don’t bother me - it’s all good.
Indeed! 
I don’t see the point of virtual gravel or virtual dirt. A major factor in riding gravel or dirt is bike handling. Rolling well over tree roots, hopping drop offs, avoiding boulders in your path and handling sliding wheels when the surface gets slippy (or you go too fast).
In a virtual world you get none, zero, zilch, nada of this. So what do you actually gain from virtual off road? Stick to tarmac Zwift.
[FWIW i own two CX bikes and regularly ride them on the mucky stuff so i’m not opposed to off road cycling as a genre.]
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I don’t get people hating on gravel. It adds to the look of the environment. So what if you go a bit slower? There is no comparison between Zwift speed and real life speed anyway.
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