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Zwift adds Volcano expansion to Watopia course

Volcano route expansion added to Zwift's Watopia course

Do you Zwift?  If you do, you’ll be interested/excited to know that the company has issued an expansion for the Watopia course that offers three addition routes all modelled on a volcano. 

The new expansion provides three additional route options, including a 12.5km flat loop and a 4.2km loop around and inside the Volcano. The shorter route can also be ridden in the reverse direction. 

Here are the details of the three new routes the expansion provides:

  • Volcano Flat - an approx 8mi/12.5km flat loop, which includes most of the old flat route minus 'The Esses'
  • Volcano Circuit - a 2.8mi/4.2km lap around, and inside of, the volcano. This one has a built-in lap counter to count the laps as you complete them.  In an organised lap-based event that uses this course the lap counter will count down to the finish.
  • Volcano Circuit CCW - same as above, but reverse direction

Zwift unveiled the expansion yesterday but some people might have had a few issues connecting to Zwift as it’s been dealing with a few outages recently. Have they affected you?

As well as this expansion, Zwift has made some fixes to known bugs, including a bug with the Wahoo Kickr where it occasionally drops all resistance for no apparent reason. It’s also improved load times and added three new achievements. 

- Get started with Zwift and make your home trainer sessions more fun

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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15 comments

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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Yeah.. they spent their resources adding running to Zwift. Though they said map updates will start coming in faster now they have big investor dollars.

 

Thinking to level up to get the S5 then move to Bkool or Trainer Road for half a year until Zwift develops a bit more. Zwift racing is great but I think you can race on those two as well..

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jollygoodvelo replied to tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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unconstituted wrote:

Yeah.. they spent their resources adding running to Zwift. Though they said map updates will start coming in faster now they have big investor dollars.

Having identified that there was a market for runners (probably mostly triathletes) wanting a VR environment, I suspect that adding running did not take much time/resources at all.

 

Can't quite understand why people spend so much time moaning about Zwift - it is what it is, it works (most of the time - though I'm sure they're working on stability at the moment), there's variety, there's a great community.  Yes, it's frustrating when you can't get in but it's so cheap for what you get I'm happy to accept occasional glitches.

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tritecommentbot replied to jollygoodvelo | 7 years ago
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jollygoodvelo wrote:

unconstituted wrote:

Yeah.. they spent their resources adding running to Zwift. Though they said map updates will start coming in faster now they have big investor dollars.

Having identified that there was a market for runners (probably mostly triathletes) wanting a VR environment, I suspect that adding running did not take much time/resources at all.

 

Can't quite understand why people spend so much time moaning about Zwift - it is what it is, it works (most of the time - though I'm sure they're working on stability at the moment), there's variety, there's a great community.  Yes, it's frustrating when you can't get in but it's so cheap for what you get I'm happy to accept occasional glitches.

 

How does identifying a market mean building the software won't use up time or resources. 

That's not even remotely logical. Did your cat run over your keyboard?

 

Anyway. Their CEO specifically said they had limited resources in the Zwift podcast before Christmas, I wasn't just pulling random thoughts out of thin air. It was a reference. They had a budget and chose to spend it on developing running and marketing events, that's why we had the Zwift tour. That's why running is out so soon. That's why there were VR demos (even though VR is 3 years away at least by their own admission due to hardware). This was the best port of call to rally investors. Makes sense. They said they'll get us more maps out now they have lots of cash as they can do multiple things at once, something they couldn't really do until now. 

You have seen the size of their team? Pretty small for such an ambitious project.

You don't need to run around 'suspecting' anything. They're very open about what's happening at Zwift HQ.

So tell us, just how much time do people spend moaning about Zwift. Have you been calculating the hours spent per day?

 

 

 

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CXR94Di2 | 7 years ago
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I would like to join zwift but it's lack of variety puts me off from ditching Bkool or Trainer Road.

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
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They do have pickups, well power-ups that improve your Cdi, weight etc for 60 secs. Using those in races is part of tactics. 

 

Actually hope it does go more game like. We have realistic trainer programs, and well outdoors, so no reason why Zwift shouldn't find its niche and experiment. Games are awesome. Cycling is awesome. Go balls out and throw them all together and see where we end up.

If Zwift stay conservative, I guarantee you some company will come along and do a highly stylised version of it all as soon as the market is ready hardware-wise and there's sufficient saturation. Zwift has proven that investors as of 2016 are convinced that this is the future of indoor cycling.

 

Zwift is great in the sense it's breaking new ground, but it's a bit meh too. Very beige and inoffensive. 

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abusivemonk | 7 years ago
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I think they could turn it into a Mario Kart style game with weapons and pick ups etc.

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Yorky-M | 7 years ago
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only time before you get the' shoot'  button for full space invaders.

 

not cycling.

masturbating cyling

 

but not cycling

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VeloVert | 7 years ago
3 likes

I turned the heating up full, closed the windows, turned the fan off and got the missus to blast me with a hair dryer when I rode past the lava pools, felt real enough to know I don't want to actually try it for real!!

 

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Team EPO | 7 years ago
0 likes

Love Zwift but shame it often crashes after a big update.  For example lots of people coulnd't log in after the Volcano update.

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Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
5 likes

I reckon they should create more of these fantasy courses, you could have sci-fi themes, fantasy stuff or maybe a bit of horror where you chased by Ronnie Pickering.

They should chuck in with one of the driving game companies - Nordscheilfe anyone?

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brooksby replied to Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
2 likes

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

I reckon they should create more of these fantasy courses, you could have sci-fi themes, fantasy stuff or maybe a bit of horror where you chased by Ronnie Pickering.

They should chuck in with one of the driving game companies - Nordscheilfe anyone?

The Death Star trench for a sprint, maybe...?

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bianchimoon replied to Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
1 like

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

I reckon they should create more of these fantasy courses, you could have sci-fi themes, fantasy stuff or maybe a bit of horror where you chased by Ronnie Pickering.

They should chuck in with one of the driving game companies - Nordscheilfe anyone?

Who's Ronnie Pickering

 

 3

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VeloVert replied to Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
1 like

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

I reckon they should create more of these fantasy courses, you could have sci-fi themes, fantasy stuff or maybe a bit of horror where you chased by Ronnie Pickering.

They should chuck in with one of the driving game companies - Nordscheilfe anyone?

 

The Green Hell, yeah, like the idea, get it done already!

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davel | 7 years ago
1 like

Hmmm... each winter I keep expecting to replace my subscription to Trainerroad with one to Zwift or Bkool, and it looks like I'm making it through another one content with watching bars on the screen and the odd text-based peptalk. 

I like the look of this though... Volcano. Ace.

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StraelGuy | 7 years ago
2 likes

Do you have to place an inverted iron under each wheel to simulate the tyre melting effects of the hot lava?

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