Zwift Community Live Test Labs race #5

Racing
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Official Feedback thread for Zwift Community Live Test Labs race #5

Let us know what you thought of the race and changes made this week to the pack dynamics!

Event: https://zwift.com/events/view/211390

Broadcast: https://zwiftcommunitylive.com/ ZCL Website

or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ZwiftCommunityLive/videos/2194755523985157

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Ive Tried asking for this and hopefully someone will understand.

Id like to see as a spectator and actual racer , that the mapping (upper right) the road actual be color coded as to the gradient of the road. Im always looking at the map and its just Gray, if i knew or anyone watching see that OMG look at the road ahead its RED there’s a climb.

Just a thought and my 2cents!.

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This was the very first complaint and suggestion my brother made when he tried Zwift for the first time last week on a dumb trainer.

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Thanks Mike! Love the UI suggestions, keep em coming!

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Could really notice the shortened draft.

  1. If you’re at the back and the rider in front raises their power you would lose the draft entirely. Usually it remains active for a cpl of seconds and drags you along.

  2. When bridging to riders in front you can no longer ease off when “just” in range, even tho your speed at the time is higher. To regain contact you need to force yourself into the blob again.

Double Draft being on meant that correct placement within the blob still allows energy conservation. However, when someone pulls hard you need to literally surf their wheel.

I suspect in a large blob you would see a split with every attack.

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Gaming the System

I’ve now seen all of the test labs and here are my two cents:

  1. I’m not sure tweaking the draft (double draft, half draft, draft beer) makes as much of a difference in the world of Zwift as we think it might. In other words, I feel we keep messing around with it to satisfy a vocal group of Zwift downers [folks who do not like Zwift]. And, of course, we want to find out why these Zwifty downers don’t like Zwift. And, yes, the draft is one reason, but I think that it is just given a tad too much weight. Some other things below…

  2. Nathan, you said something in lab two or three when you were interviewing some racers that I immediately resonated with: to paraphrase, “what if there was something on the screen that told you not only when you were in the draft bu how much draft you were getting.” I agree. On the road I can literally “feel” the draft and how much I’m getting. I think that for newcomers to Zwift racing, the lack of draft feedback is perhaps one of the hardest things to adjust to.

  3. Beware of PUs that are “magical” [ie…Ghostie]. The other PU simply enhance what you can already do, but you can’t disappear. Its fun! But perhaps a step too far. I mean, if you go magical, you might as well Spy Hunter it up with smoke screens, oil slicks, and wheel spikes.

  4. I think one of these labs had staggered starts for each category. As an okay B rider who does okay when in shape, I totally agree with the staggered start. When I race, I want it to “feel” like I’m a pro…I want to make the same decisions in my race that I “feel” that the pros have to make (do I chase that break? When do I make my move? ect…". In races without a staggered start, a B rider might be able to make these decisions, but only if the B’s get back together and have time to form a “group” of their own. Otherwise, the B’s get a race with two or three B’s finishing with the A group [and half the time they get DQ anyway] with drips and drabs of Bs scattered throughout the course. And trust me, most of the B’s in the front group get DQ’d! I don’t know how many times I’ve finished 5 or 6 and actually podiumed. When the races are staggered, the bad apple B’s don’t have that critical mass of 4.0 plus riders to go with … they have to stay with us slow-pokes.

Now, I realize that this causes problems for those riders who are high B’s and low A’s. And I am not really sure what to do about that, but I would suggest an “elite” designation for riders who can handle 5.0 plus for say 20 minutes or so. They can still race with the A’s, but it might soften the blow a bit.

  1. In game voice chat … of course you all already knew that.

  2. Everyone wants to feel like a winner! It would be awesome if we could gamify some of the workouts so that they felt like you were racing for a team in the TDF. Bring back the Ghostie riders for this!

  3. Warp tunnels…duh. I don’t want to ride half an hour just to get to the jungle!

  4. Track cycling events … elimination especially. But I bet you all are already working on that.

  5. Ability to make bottom half of my screen (where the power lines are) into a 2D race profile.

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What is the «draftlength» normally?

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We’ve begged for a velodrome so many times and been met with a hard “No”. I think some of the track format races would be a lot of fun. Not everyone just wants a straight up race from A to B. And as a spectator I get far more out of going to a track meet than I do watching a road race on TV.

Elimination/Devil adds an element of tactics that doesn’t exist in a point-to-point.

The “points race” could also be very entertaining format; and actually easier to keep track of in a videogame than the real thing is.

Of course a virtual track doesn’t have the banking of most real velodromes, but there are plenty of things about Zwift that don’t match the real world.

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Thanks for all the feedback everyone! Noted and implementing some minor changes this next week and back to Watopia Hilly Reverse to see how it plays out. Looking for a few more power up opportunities than S & S provided :wink:

Event info: