Will having ERG mode let me just pick a cadence and pedal?
That's exactly what ERG is!
Whatever gearing and cadence you're using it'll calculate what resistance it needs to apply for you to produce the power required... Within reason. By that I mean you can assist it with big power changes between intervals with a gear change or two (or 3). It can sometimes take too long to 'change' resistance otherwise on short intervals (changes so much per second so it doesn't feel like hitting a wall). The more expensive a trainer you get they are generally better at this, but if big interval changes and accuracy due to training sessions are your primary concern then there's 'better' trainers at is than some others (which are generally better overall trainers).
With all the pro racing going on Zwift currently, I would hope to see improved drafting physics etc and improvements in the racing dynamics to make it more reflective of the real world, be interesting to see the Zwift roadmap for improvements over the next 6 months.
You're talking about the company who can't fix bugs that have been in there for years... Or things like the fence they added, worked well for months and then they broke it with something else then 3 bug fixes later they gave up and pulled it....?
Zwift is like any other game platform that lends itself to eSports. People playing competitively constantly get frustrated at the broken game model/physics but they make up such a tiny percentage of the user base that the devs just ignore it until those players quit and get replaced.
This.
Ne need. Can you imagine if they added steering support (I think they're already working on that?) and collision detection to Zwift? It'd be utter carnage.
Zwift had steering in at the start but it was pulled. Any of the other platforms with it seem to have problems.
As the above was a proper mess I'd been meaning to sort for ages, such as:
If that counts as a mess you should see mine!
Really amazing setup you have there buddy, have always been jealous, even more so now!
Keep pedaling on people!!
You too buddy, some big numbers in there of the wrong kind, but some amazing progress too! I'm still floating around just below my winter weight and just can't seem to trim it, but I think it's the lack of consistency with types of riding. Also our junk bathroom scales. One side of the room I weigh at 79kg, the other side 72kg. I generally try to weigh myself in the same bit of floor and several times to get an average/consistent number. Sometimes that can be 5-6 times!
How they are where they are is baffling because they are one of the most incompetent groups of people I have ever come across in terms of service/product offering.
Because the competition is even worse, or have much smaller setups with much smaller engines and smaller 'load' of riders all demanding so much.
Personally i have moved over to RGT now, for a start its free and personally i find it better than zwift a much cleaner UI and none of the gimmicky mario kart power ups zwift has
PU's have never really bugged me that much, they can give a good edge at the highest levels of racing right at the finish, but for the majority of us they really shouldn't be a reason for dropping off the platform. But they are one of the things easily removed/dropped by ride and race organisers, who seldom do...
so if you can. Keep everything ANT and move trainer to BT.... my friend on the team has done this also and his story is literally a copy/paste of mine and now he has no issues ever with dropouts either.
Really good info and findings. When mine bugs me next time I'll give that a go. I think most of the times I've had problems the last ~8 months on there they've always been in some big rides and usually other people complaining too, so I'd say 50-75% of the dropouts I have are server side/engine problems...
But totally agree on the whole snacks/treats/beers thing. Just so tempting! 
