I haven’t tried Indie Velo because I use my iPad and I saw a video where Tariq said it only works on Windows and Mac, no mobile devices.
Having said that, one of the interesting things Tariq said was that the Indie Velo guy specifically said he knew he couldn’t beat the existing players so instead he wanted to quickly turn out cool features that people have been asking for that haven’t materialized in other apps (like verification, more realistic dynamics, average pace, etc.). Once he proved those things could be done, he hoped the other players would want to partner with him. Tariq specifically mentioned TR.
In contrast, I have a few professional connections with a Triple-A console and PC game developer who makes several blockbuster games (each title making 100’s of millions), all with massive worlds, highly complex physics and ultra-realistic in-game graphics. Their total headcount is around 350 people.
While Zwift likes to claim it was ‘born of gaming’, their headcount was always perplexing to me from a game development standpoint.
Especially when you compare the quality of their output (e.g. gameplay experience, frequency of game expansion, number of innovations, in-game feature monetization) with serious gaming companies that run with far fewer people.
Part of this is likely down to Zwift trying to do too many things simultaneously. Perhaps it was fueled by a fantasy by investors and some early founders that it would be a valley-style ‘unicorn’.
I use and like Zwift. And I still see great potential, so I have patience. (The patience of someone who remembers spending 3+ hour training sessions on rollers all winter before any of this existed).
I recall that Zwift was based on a program that Jon Mayfield had created to make training more engaging. Perhaps that could be called gamification.
Zwift has 100% been taking the path of every other social platform. Gain users, no matter the cost, get big enough to make competing impossible. What IndieVelo needs is to lure one or more big event promoters from Zwift over. Interestingly, FRR recently had a poll about what participants would think about holding the event on a different platform.
Cool, I’ll look for you next week. I probably have a at least a couple more weeks nursing an injured hand until outside rides are even a possibility. Today was interesting, I had a slow leak in my tire and it was lasting about 30 minutes at a time. That coffee break feature saved my day, felt like I was rolling into the wheel pit every 30 minutes.
I just tried Indie Velo on my MacBook Pro. It’s VERY beta. While setting things up the screen glitched a couple times and I had to hard kill it. Then, when I was finished, I tried to quit and it just went to a black screen that wouldn’t close but left my laptop running hard. Another hard kill. I’d be worried about that happening during my workout and losing the data.
I don’t rinserstand why some people get so bent out of shape about the coffee break….sure, some people use it to get through tough sections w/o getting dropped, but so what?
It is a group ride, not a race…and it is virtual! Do whatever you need to do.
After stepping up to the B’s this week vs the C’s on the BMTR ride, it was also interesting that none of the B’s seemed to care…but jeez, some C’s just get bent out of shape.
I think my training difficulty is like 10% lol. To be fair is basically do 2 types of rides on zwift, workouts in resistance mode and longer endurance or recovery free rides where I don’t want to have to think about shifting for every little roller.
Definitely true. I’m surprised IndieVelo doesn’t just add a ton of bots riding around. Doesn’t need to be 1000s. RGT used to do that but it wasn’t a crazy amount
I don’t really chat with people on Zwift so bots or not makes little difference to me. On Zwift I just like somebody to chase and it doesn’t matter if they’re a bot.
Especially for the 20 minute FTP test, why can’t I have a personal robopacer? Doing the FTP test would be a whole lot better if I could chase a robopacer.
Because this and many other feature desires voiced here are too niche to implement. One of the best ways to release bad software is to lack focus and cram with features very few use.
I agree on the training plans. I wish there was a google calendar output so I can see what workouts are scheduled, and stop this deal where I have 5 workouts available for the week, but no actual “Monday = workout 1, Tuesday = 2, Wednesday = rest) etc.
Pacers at a fixed power or a pacer of one of your previous rides were a thing on the computrainer……in the 90’s. Once they got off of the Nintendo onto the pc you could have up to 5 of them and they would draft off of each other and you if you set “drafting on”. Gotta tell ya, those pacer options were really great!
. Yeah no idea why anyone would care at all lol.