The official Zwift forums enable regular Zwifters like you to ask for features to be added to the game. There’s a whole section dedicated to these “Feature Requests”, where you can ask for new features and vote for suggestions that you like.
Let’s look at a few of the most popular feature requests that haven’t already made it into the game, and how likely they are to happen.
Allow Saves Without Leaving the Game
Picture this.
You’ve chosen a route and entered the game. Checking your badges you realize you’d rather choose a different route. Quit. Restart.
You want to save your race and then cool down as a separate activity so you can upload the race to Strava or TrainingPeaks, but ignore the cooldown. Quit. Restart.
You’re a multi-sport athlete, and want to do a “brick session”. You’ve finished your ride, and it’s time to run. Quit. Restart.
When starting the game can take several minutes, having to quit and restart is a frustrating experience, whatever the reason for it.
For
This would streamline things for anyone who finds themselves having to restart Zwift.
Parts of this are already in the game: you can warm up on Watopia, then be transferred to London for an event. You don’t have to restart the game for this to happen, and both activities are separately uploaded to Zwift.
It’s the most requested feature at the time of writing, so clearly a pain point for many Zwifters.
Against
We’re struggling to think of any reasons not to do this from a user perspective.
Verdict
Given the above, we think it’s very likely this will happen. Zwift have a user interface (UI) update in the works and due very soon. Perhaps this popular feature will be part of that.
Want this feature? Vote for it here: https://forums.zwift.com/t/allow-saves-without-exit/13113
Personal Best Bot, or “Ghost Rider”
A staple feature of racing video games, this would enable you to ride against a “ghost” of a previous ride on the same course or section. It could be yesterday’s ride or your personal best, but the key feature is that you’ll be able to see exactly how you’re doing compared to that previous ride.
For
Knowing your personal record (PR) for a section of a course (e.g. Strava segment) gives you a target to aim for. A benchmark against which you can measure progress. But without a ghost rider, it’s hard to know whether you’re ahead or behind at a given point. This feature would give Zwifters that information.
We could even ride against other Zwifters’ times. Want to know how you’d fare against Eric Min up Alpe du Zwift? Download his ride and set that as the ghost rider.
In the early days of Zwift, there were what we affectionately called “blue guys”. They weren’t real people, but game-controlled riders who’d ride at various speeds, so we expect some of the artwork for this feature has already been done.
Against
Some might fear a world populated by other Zwifters’ ghost riders. That would almost certainly not be the case. You would only see your own ghost rider. Perhaps there would be a special feature where everyone can see the same ghost rider for an event.
Verdict
Eric Min himself has said it’s a feature he’d like. He said this during episode 58 of the Zwiftcast (48:30) when he was asked which feature would magically appear if he could snap his fingers.
That was more than a year ago, and it hasn’t yet made it high enough up the list, but since the boss man wants it we reckon it’s very likely to appear.
Want this feature? Vote for it here: https://forums.zwift.com/t/personal-best-bot/13120
Lower the Minimum Weight Limit
The minimum weight for riders on Zwift is 45kg (100lb/7st 2lb). That’s fine for most adults, but when it comes to children it’s another story. This feature would enable children and light adults to ride at their true weight.
For
Power-to-weight ratio (Watts per kilo, W/kg) is an important number in Zwift. It’s used by the game to calculate a rider’s speed and trainer resistance, particularly when riding uphill. Zwift is free for children under 16, but they are at a disadvantage in the game, often riding at virtual weights more than twice their real weight. This makes them slower up hills and it’s harder to ride and compete with others.
Against
Unscrupulous Zwift racers may cheat by setting their weight much lower than it should be, in order to boost their power-to-weight ratio. However, this does of course already happen and there are various community tools and initiatives to deal with it. In fact, lowering the weight limit could make this easier to detect.
Verdict
This has been confirmed as being worked on by Zwift. While there’s no estimated time for when the feature will arrive, Zwift is very conscious of its need.
Want this feature? Vote for it here: https://forums.zwift.com/t/junior-rider-weight-needs-a-lower-minimum/13119
Share Your Thoughts
Zwift has a huge list of things we’d love them to do to the game, and the trick for them is to work out the relative importance of each one. Sometimes there are technical reasons why a feature is difficult to add to the game, but almost nothing is impossible for programmers.
So if you have something you want, be sure to head over to the official forum and talk about it.
Did your pet feature request make the list? Tell us about it in the comments below!
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