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TECH NEWS
2021 Zwift Neokyo 4Zwift doubles Makuri Islands world with new neon-lit Neokyo fast-paced city routes
Online fitness platform Zwift doubles the size of the Japanese-themed Makuri Islands world with its first expansion since the Yumezi map release back in May of this year.
> Watch our first ride video of the Yumezi map
Zwift is today opening the virtual roads of Neokyo, which takes inspiration from Japan’s major cities. “Vibrant colours, popping neon lights and glistening fast roads ensure this nighttime city is anything but dark,” says Zwift. With the embargo of this news lifting at 5pm in the UK, it's likely that some of you reading this will have just ridden or are about to ride through a vibrant nighttime city in real life to get home; but thanks to Zwift, now you can jump on the turbo and do it all again virtually.
We've digressed... contrasting the tranquillity of Yumezi, Neokyo is designed to introduce the fast-paced nature of city living to Makuri Islands. “Fast flat roads, towering buildings, eye-popping neon billboards, nighttime revellers and arcade halls make Neokyo a perfect place to test your legs and ride fast,” says Zwift.
> Find out how you can get better at racing on Zwift
The new Neokyo map has eight new routes to explore, bringing the total of routes in Makuri Islands up to 16.
Zwifters will be able to ride between these two contrasting maps, which will be connected by a road through the rice fields.
The shortest route in the new Neokyo map is the 3.7km Rooftop Rendezvous, while the longest is the 32.5km long Temples and Towers which packs in 318m of elevation gain.
From shortest to longest, the new routes are as follows (in Zwift’s own words):
NB: Lead-ins are not included in distances below.
- Rooftop Rendezvous (3.7km/56.3m elevation) - Feel the burn as you climb to the top of Neokyo, scaling rooftops and monorails on the way.
- Railways and Rooftops (6.1km/68.9m elevation) - Take to the upper city where you will race along city railways and rooftops.
- Sleepless City (9.5km/42.3m elevation) - Make your way through the heart of the city as you wind along this fast route.
- Sprinter’s Playground (12.3km/67.4m elevation) - Keep that heart racing as you complete four sprints in a single route.
- Neon Flats (14.7km/71.7m elevation) - Paint the town as you dominate three sprints along this flat route through the city.
- Neokyo All-Nighter (24.3km/167.3m elevation) - Explore everything that Neokyo has to offer including four sprints and a KOM along this challenging route.
- Wandering Flats (25km/145.6m elevation) - This long flatter route will take you from the scenic countryside to the bustling city.
- Temples and Towers (32.5km/318m elevation) - From downtown rooftops to mystical temples, grind to complete three KOM's in a single route.
This is a large release, so Zwift recommends allowing time to update before joining an event.
Anna has been hooked on bikes ever since her youthful beginnings at Hillingdon Cycle Circuit. As an avid road and track racer, she reached the heady heights of a ProCyclingStats profile before leaving for university. Having now completed an MA in Multimedia Journalism, she’s hoping to add some (more successful) results. Although her greatest wish is for the broader acceptance of wearing funky cycling socks over the top of leg warmers.
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17 comments
I love Zwift but there are lots of things that annoy me - firstly why aren't all the places available at one time? Why do I have to ride where they want me to ride?
Also, what is the point of a 3.7km route? Or a 6.1, 9.5, 12.3 or 14.7? Who is going to get all kitted up for a 3.7km ride? Am I missing something. Are they expecting you to repeat the 3.7km route over and over? Who wants to do that?
You don't. There is "hack" available where you alter the config file to ride where you want, or you can just create a meetup with another user (who doesn't even have to show up ... I usually invite my wife, who only runs on Zwift) and you can ride any route in any world you like at any time.
This is the way Zwift have chosen to organise it, and there are many people (me included) who would like to have all the worlds available at once. At this point, they have chosen to leave it as is.
Me.
I don't get kitted up just to ride 3.7km, but I will often pick a short route and ride repeated laps, attempting to go faster with each lap, or use the shorter routes as warmups before longer rides, stage events or races ... a 3.7km route is about the right length for my pre-Crit City race warmup, for example.
I agree they are annoying in the way they won't let you access things you've paid for in the way you want – I'm on level 33 now so have no restrictions but I don't see why my mate who has just joined shouldn't be able to get onto the Alpe without needing me to invite him. My particular peeve is not being able to enter a course wherever I want; sometimes I might just have time for the last 10 bends of the Alpe, why can't I choose to start there?
I do enjoy it a lot though, despite the moaning; just wanted to say that if you want to choose which world you cycle in, there is the config. file hack mentioned by JD below, or even more simply just look at the Zwift World calendar and temporarily change the date on your device to a date when the world you want is on the schedule.
wait, what? courses are available based on what your own device thinks the date is, and not the actual date?
Yes, I wanted to do Ventoux last Wednesday so just reset the date on my Macbook to November 6th, when France was the guest world, and up it comes.
ZwiftPref is your friend.
https://zwifthacks.com/zwiftpref/
As well as country chosing it also enables the Race Only routes like Crit City if you want them.
I think that lies in the creators' background in the games industry. No MMORPG, for example, will allow you just to access every area/weapon/spell in the game right from the start ... you have to earn some or all of it from playing, earning experience and levelling up.
There are (sometimes heated) arguments on both sides about the benefits or otherwise of the gamification within Zwift. It certainly encouraged me to spend more time on it in the early days, when there was stuff that I still had to unlock ... such as the Alpe, as I was only level 7 when it was introduced.
Agreed, it's a valid marketing strategy - like you, I wasn't qualified for the Alpe when it was introduced so worked hard to get there. However, I do know two friends who started with Zwift and after the free trial one moved to FulGaz and the other to Bkool so they could start riding classic routes straight away, so it doesn't work on everyone.
Let's not forget that, at it's core, Zwift is an exercise based computer game. You need to start from scratch in computer games and build up player abilities etc which is effectively the same here really.
Because they want a certain level of cycle traffic on the routes to feel more social, if they made all route available all the time, some would be very empty, it would almost feel like riding solo. And you can ride solo by creating a meetup.
Its funny last time I used Zwift Pref was for Ventoux/top like Rendel. Even then there were a few groups using it for meet ups. It was like an early morning ride simulator.
I like doing short routes sometimes, and going round and round to see if I can beat my last PB over a certain section.
Also you can use the direction buttons to leave the route and virtually cycle off somewhere else if you fancy a change.
"With the embargo of this news lifting at 5pm in the UK, it's likely that some of you reading this will have just rode or are about to ride through a vibrant nighttime city in real life to get home; but thanks to Zwift, now you can jump on the turbo and do it all again virtually."
At the risk of being a swldxr, it's likely that some of us will have just ridden...
It's become ridden with pedants round these parts.
rode is a perfectly cromulent word to use there imo
Well may I offer you my sincerest contrafibulataries for your input.
Outstanding reference.