A-spec Mode Structure

[Lain]

So given the universal dislike for GT5's paltry A-spec mode, what kind of structure would you like to see used for GT6's A-spec mode?

Here's one idea I came up with for how A-spec mode could be structured:

A-spec consists of a 55x55 grid of events, totaling 3025. Given the number of track variations, different types of vehicles/themes that events could have, and different weather/time conditions, I think this number of events is totally reasonable.

The player starts off in the middle of the grid, with only the very center event available.

Completing events on the grid unlocks the adjacent events.

The farther away an event is from the center of the grid, the more difficult. The events on the grid will also be broken down into license level rings, which determine what license is needed to participate. The center ring requires none, next ring require B, then A... and so on until the outer ring which requires S.

The player cannot participate in events multiple times (for a cash prize, anyway).

Difficulty setting chosen at start of game determines how much/little prize money you earn.

Vehicle's values are increased by upgrades, to prevent players from getting completely stuck if they idiotically pour buckets of Credits into some POS car that isn't useful for any of the events they currently have available. If somehow the player still manages to end up in a corner they just simply cannot get out of, then perhaps a "bail out" option which clears the player's entire garage in exchange for any one car (that's usable in any of their currently available events) of their choosing, some (re)starting money, and difficulty level decrease.

 

[Samus]

3000 races? With 33 tracks? No that's far too many. I want to see a complete overhaul of A-Spec, not a copy-paste of the same formula from the first five games but i'm not exactly hopeful.

 

[Lain]

3000 races? With 33 tracks? No that's far too many. I want to see a complete overhaul of A-Spec, not a copy-paste of the same formula from the first five games but i'm not exactly hopeful.

Not 33 tracks, 71 track layouts.

71 track layouts * 4 general time-of-days (dawn,day,dusk,night) * 3 weather conditions (dry, light rain, heavy rain) * dozens of different themes event could have with a 1200-vehicle roster at its disposal, we'll go with 15 for this calculation.

That comes out to 12780 unique possible races. With an average of maybe 4 races per event, 3195 events could be created without once presenting a race with the exact same conditions as any other. So I'll have to respectfully disagree with your opinion that 3000 races is far too many.

 

[regnar]

A-spec seemed to be an afterthought, to few races compaired to other games. I expected more creativity, not just single a FR event for example, maybe different ones that have different HP caps, 300hp, 500hp etc, same with turbo. With the number of tracks in the game there should have been more variety, more races within these events, longer laps.

I want to be able to select a car and then easily find a event instead of finding a event then choosing a car.

I think with the number of tracks there are more endurance races of the 30 to 60 lap kind could have been created.

 

[Nomadpt1]

3000 races seems more than okay, with the structure of gt4 gt mode but this time if they launch tracks has dlc's it would be very apreciated that they launch some a-spec events with it.

 

[MeanElf]

Speak for yourself when you say 'universal'...

Your idea is different but at this stage, probably pointless if you wanted to get PD's attention. I think that aspect will have been decided upon by now and pretty much nailed into place - sorry.

 

[Brutaka]

How about they just make an A-spec that can be updated with races like seasonals and make it a voting system in which GT6 users can vote on what the race will consist of.

 

[Feldynn]

The most important part of a good A-Spec structure should be the AI, without that we'll be stuck with nothing more than a series of "chase the rabbit" events again and not a whole lot of proper racing.

That aside I wouldn't mind seeing a return to some of the previous GT games for structure:

Street car races at varying degrees of difficulty (Sunday Cup, Clubman Cup, etc)
Tuning required / tuner car events
Country specific tournaments
Manufacturer and model specific races / tournaments
Cup car / spec races and tournaments
Real race car series style tournaments (Super GT, Formula GT, DTM, GT3, etc)

I'd also like to see a completely separate Career mode too where you have a limited budget and race through seasons at certain levels of skill / classes of cars, perhaps like sports games have calendar interfaces with event days and such. Say you start out with a small budget to buy / upgrade a cheap car for weekend racing, build up your cash and reputation, maybe join a club or gain sponsorship to move up the ranks to different classes / divisions. Win titles and prizes both individually or as part of your sponsorship deal / club.

Maybe even including some sort of B-Spec element where you could build your own racing team, work as a driver yourself and also manage a number of other B-Spec drivers and their cars. Work as a team through race seasons perhaps winning Team or Manufacturer titles, even get your team up to the level where you could even compete in endurance races and actually drive individual stints (so you drive for a period, B-Spec Bob drivers some then hands it over to B-Spec Barry and so on).

I don't really expect a career mode like that at this point, but I can dream .

 

[regnar]

Rally, I would pull it out of Special Events and move it into A-Spec.