Gran Turismo Sophy Demonstration Reveals a Potential Return of B-Spec

[Famine]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Gran Turismo Sophy Demonstration Reveals a Potential Return of B-Spec​

A special demonstration of Gran Turismo Sophy ahead of the Gran Turismo World Series 2024 World Finals in Amsterdam has revealed a possible return of the fan favorite “B-Spec” mode for Gran Turismo 7...

 

[sumbrownkid]

So do we still refer to this as Sophy, or do we bring back Bob, or do we evolve it to Bobphy?

 

[Rossell2]

In the age of working from home, B-spec would make a welcome return.

 

[suomi1]

“Ideally, if they can predict what’s going to happen, they can use this as a way to test different kinds of strategies in long races that would be much harder to do without this AI.”

There is a world where we get endurance races on PS5 and not PS4...

 

[RPR6143 RPG]

I think this would be a great idea. B Spec appeared in Gran Turismo 5 & Gran Turismo 6 as well.

 

[evldave333]

Im happy for the B-Spec fans (might help ease the grinding burden), cant say I would ever use it at all, I really like to do the driving!

 

[danimac]

cool

 

[Johnny Caisse]

I recall having tried the super credit grinding races and having been penalized to heck for hitting walls. Perhaps Sophy B-Spec could help me out in that kinda situation.

(I checked that Tokyo grinding race and it says no wall collision penalties. Did they finally make it easier?)

 

[NTGSruler]

Curious how they will implement this. You can now only do 3 laps against Sophy, so i wonder what will be possible with B-Spec.
A new mode in the january update or too soon?

 

[Sasek]

With such technology it would be a waste if they didn't make a proper racing manager inside GT game.

 

[jrbabbitt]

So do we still refer to this as Sophy, or do we bring back Bob, or do we evolve it to Bobphy?

Sophy is Bob's neice?

 

[Famine]

Sophy is Bob's neice?

That'd make a certain status-posted fanfic more than a scooch awkward.

 

[Reeneman]

That’s the main issue with GT7 in my opinion. Polyphony is adding some nice stuff while also not really using the full
potential of the game.
Some kind of a roadmap (doesn’t have to include concrete timings) would be so nice for the players. Without any kind of roadmap it’s always between disappointing and some kind of welcome surprises.

 

[Darla Starch]

That'd make a certain status-posted fanfic more than a scooch awkward.

Not unless we retcon Gran Turismo into being A Song of Ice and Fire canon

 

[im2fst4u]

Kaz said he wanted to add endurance races right? Not just our current driving missions? Maybe the return of B-spec is what is causing the hold-up here. It'd be epic to have driver swaps again.

Sounds like a return to the GT5 days with leveling up your drivers too!

 

[Coquico]

I literally burned my fat ps3 with b spec....

 

[suomi1]

I literally burned my fat ps3 with b spec....

My Slim stays fresh after 14 years of B-Spec and endurance racing.

 

[Haitauer]

And remember - not just ANY B-Spec, but an online pvp B-Spec. That would make a very nice hang-out game. 😁

 

[Talon16]

Honest question here: What is the point of B spec? Like you play the game to not play the game? Maybe I am ignorant as to what exactly one does while using B spec mode. And I did own the GT that had it, I just never used it as it seemed kinda pointless to me.

 

[05XR8]

And remember - not just ANY B-Spec, but an online pvp B-Spec. That would make a very nice hang-out game. 😁

That's where the Cafe, which I thought Cafe would be what the "Paddock" is, would come in handy with B-Spec.

However, Paddock, I feel, should be a place where players can swap cars and have a test drive.

 

[Haitauer]

Honest question here: What is the point of B spec? Like you play the game to not play the game? Maybe I am ignorant as to what exactly one does while using B spec mode. And I did own the GT that had it, I just never used it as it seemed kinda pointless to me.

Its a different game on its own. You are managing the tactics of the race and trying to maximize the speed of the ai driver over the whole race without pushing it over the limit.

 

[Johnny Caisse]

My Slim stays fresh after 14 years of B-Spec and endurance racing.

Got a disk-drive Semi-Slim since 2010 after I learned that shutting down my 2005 PS3 Superfat the wrong way was what caused the Red Screen Of Death on it.

It's running sweet and nice with a cooling unit.

Quick addendum: The superfat had a PS2 disk area which I would mis-handle all the time, my CD's wouldn't last long. Now I got both a GT5 CD and a GT6 CD that gets taken inside from the front and I've never broken a CD since.

 

[TumeK5]

(I checked that Tokyo grinding race and it says no wall collision penalties. Did they finally make it easier?)

A long time ago.

 

[bduddy]

Honest question here: What is the point of B spec? Like you play the game to not play the game? Maybe I am ignorant as to what exactly one does while using B spec mode. And I did own the GT that had it, I just never used it as it seemed kinda pointless to me.

People here don't understand any part of the game other than "number go up" and doing B-Spec is the best way to do that without having to do all that boring driving stuff yourself. I like racing management, there are lots of fun racing management games out there, B-Spec was never one of them.

 

[Johnny Caisse]

People here don't understand any part of the game other than "number go up" and doing B-Spec is the best way to do that without having to do all that boring driving stuff yourself. I like racing management, there are lots of fun racing management games out there, B-Spec was never one of them.

(Message redacted for simplicity) I hope B-Spec Bob if it comes in GT7, would have stats growth like in GT4 and GT5 but also without the superpowers to drive crazy powerful cars from the start or without the capacity to drive relatively okay with some cars despite having no physical or mental strength left.

 

[Talon16]

It seems like B-Spec was a way to grind for credits without having to really do much of anything at all. So it almost seems like PD engineered and coded a whole mode within the game simply to counter the fact they make earning credits tedious and/or boring (and I am not saying within GT7 specifically).

I mean, if you enjoy it more power to you!

 

[Mr. Premium]

Honest question here: What is the point of B spec? Like you play the game to not play the game? Maybe I am ignorant as to what exactly one does while using B spec mode. And I did own the GT that had it, I just never used it as it seemed kinda pointless to me.

There is a more practical reason, at least for older titles: endurance races could literally take 24 hours non-stop. While it's cool that you could try it properly with some friends or something, for many of us, these races aren't feasible normally. Introducing B-Spec now means you can not only cut down on the time, but let the AI do the shift work for you.

There's also a potential for the challenge of team management and so forth, even just the basic B-Spec in GT4 required input. Since GT was always meant to be fairly comprehensive, it makes sense to develop this up a bit. Great excuse to bring back proper endurance races. No shade as I like to do the driving too, but there's definitely value in including it, and potential for it to be nicely fleshed out to boot.

 

[Keef]

Honest question here: What is the point of B spec? Like you play the game to not play the game? Maybe I am ignorant as to what exactly one does while using B spec mode. And I did own the GT that had it, I just never used it as it seemed kinda pointless to me.

Have you ever heard of management games? Like Motorsport Manager, or F1 Manager. The entire point of those games is to manage and make decisions. You never drive a car at all.

The beauty of GT's B-spec was that you can still drive the cars just like any other GT game...but you can also manage when you don't feel like it, or don't have the time. It's literally two games in one.

Back in GT4, I did the 24-hour and other endurance races multiple times, both in A-spec and B-spec. The management aspect of B-spec allows you to multitask. Pretty sure I was doing homework in high school while GT4's B-spec Bob was driving for me. It was a fantastic option, and it seems like the new one they're working on might be fleshed out even more. I actually hope it's not too tedious because that would defeat the purpose of having a management mode.

It seems like B-Spec was a way to grind for credits without having to really do much of anything at all. So it almost seems like PD engineered and coded a whole mode within the game simply to counter the fact they make earning credits tedious and/or boring (and I am not saying within GT7 specifically).

I mean, if you enjoy it more power to you!

As far as I remember, "grinding credits" wasn't a thing back in the GT4 days, like at all. It didn't exist in society. Grinding is a newfangled mental illness coping mechanism that children invented in the late 2010s.

B-spec also had a feature where you could speed up time by a lot. You could cram that 24 hour race into just a few hours if you wanted, only slowing down during tense moments or to adjust your strategy or whatever. It was a huge time saver.

To me it was just like watching a race. If you like watching races on TV then you'd like watching Bob race.

 

[Pilot625]

For the ignorant here what is B-spec?

 

[Famine]

For the ignorant here what is B-spec?

Basically, this:

The demonstration at the event didn’t have the finalists racing against Sophy, as usual, but racing with the AI in an exhibition which is heavily reminiscent of the B-Spec feature originally planned as far back as 2001 but last seen in 2013’s Gran Turismo 6.

In this mode, players could train up AI drivers and directly manage them in a race situation, setting pace and aggressiveness, requesting overtakes, and issuing pit-in commands. That appears to be what has been integrated in the newest version of GT Sophy.