Zwift – What Next? This is basically a list of refinements rather than revolution. It’s not blue sky stuff, but in my opinion it would make the product robust prior to further expansion.
Worlds / Roads
No new worlds needed for a while (with Tokyo also ready). Instead focus on:
Expanding existing worlds – Watopia and France are especially open to development, but New York also has half-created roads. Put meat on to the bones of these worlds
Add in mountain bike and gravel tracks that interweave with existing tracks – for multiple additional route options that give reason to use the mountain and gravel bikes
Improve assets and fix graphical errors throughout existing worlds – continuous improvement
*Velodrome would still be an awesome addition, but is reliant on significant other changes
UI
New UI is incoming so won’t list things which will inevitably be fixed, but:
Clearer gradient profile and position on route
Distance left on route
Route builder – design your own route. E.g. I could design a 90km time trial route through Watopia. These could even be shared in the community and the best ones incorporated in to the core game.
Customisable HUD – chose the elements that matter. e.g. Power/speed may not be necessary to you if you use the companion app.
Racing
Additional race formats which are supported by the UI and require no 3rd party service:
Elimination races – cull the lowest X% each lap – show you if you are at risk coming up to the lap banner
Points races – show points totals and highlight where the Primes are
Chase races
Category structure (auto-assigned) – work up through categories. Use the big data of power profiles to make races as fair as possible. Results at the end of a race are valid without relying on 3rd party services
Allow event organisers finer control – e.g. no zPower riders
Post-event all riders should enter a ‘clubhouse’ or coffee shop, where you can analyse the results and chat with the people you rode with, give ride ons etc.
Accuracy – server winner should correlate with visual winner. This looks terrible in pro races when the winner is not the one that everybody saw cross the line first
Physics
Increase the draft to allow for realistic recovery, but reduce speed of larger packs to make realistic
Remove sticky draft
Cornering – slow down through corners like RGT
Downhill – pack speeds are unrealistic and stop attacks over the top being effective. Limit pack speed downhill, and slow through corners. The bigger the pack the slower it should move through tight corners. 80km/h through a hairpin is silly.
Content
Clubs – arrange meetups (which can include race formats). Use a generator for a club kit (clubs above 30 members?)
Wider range of avatars and kit (bikes, helmets) – make it simple for brands to get their kit in game
Levels above 50
More challenges and badges
Companion app – access to everything other than riding. Badges, garage, drop shop etc.
Some good suggestions there. In my opinion, there are three improvements that would make Zwift better for everyone (not just racers)
Badges, garage, etc. should be accessible in three places: from within the companion app; from the landing screen after you login (before you start riding); and when you are riding
The mini-map is terribly inconsistent - sometimes going left to right, and sometimes right to left, sometimes showing no details of the route ahead, sometimes showing hills that aren’t on your route.
There should be a way to show/hide every display element on the game screen
You must be kidding… right? There is a dedicated section called “Bugs and Support” - just browse it … and while you are here, do browse “Feature Requests”, for those high-voted features people are asking for for years - you might want to add some of these to your list.
And how about this for an “immersive” (TM @D_E1) bug-appetizer (… and I’ve installed/re-installed Zwift, checked for the latest version, like a thousand times, and thoroughly checked my Internet link - and such issues still persists):
I’m not say there aren’t any bugs, I’m asking which ones specifically. I hear a lot of ‘fix bugs’. I also think I have covered the majority of the big feature requests in the above list, but please let me know which ones should be added. I did also put ‘fix graphical errors’ in the world’s, your bike going through the tarmac is included.
The #1 bug (in my opinion, also see feature requested below) is activity not uploaded due to “Connectivity issues” or Zwift crashing. This bug - and it’s surrounding artifacts - embodies much of what is unacceptable in Zwift in terms of maintenance and attitude, followed closely by Image Capture functionality being either broken, unreliable, or both.
Also for your convenience, here are the 5 top voted-for feature requests, as they appear in “Feature Request” section, by order of votes (you can find the full list here):
Agree on world expansion, but in all worlds. Yorkshire and Innsbruck could use new roads, or I wonder if they could “consolidate” a Europe world. London, Paris, Innsbruck, and Yorkshire could turn into one giant world. Use underground too travel between just like main London to Surrey hills, and then you dont have to worry about world rotation.
