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

[NTGSruler]

Putting my (1/3) tinfoil/critical thinking/Marty McFly hat on....



This game from the beginning always felt like a long term release from the second known delay. At least to me.

my hypothesis was further conceptualized from that first major Fubar update when Kaz came out and asked the community to view GT7 from a longer view perspective... or something like that*. Not sure if it was the same Fubar update or not, but I know he also responded to the criticism of no endurance races - and he said something more or less to the extent of... "They're coming".


Me thinks that the aforementioned thesis of Jordan's article is what Kaz had in mind at the time of his comment; but like most things in videgameland....it gets delayed a few times, and was a tad overzealous to begin with.


Reflecting back on preceding recent events in post-modern Gran Truismo. IIRC, the first online Gran Turismo Sport even was before the actual release of GTS. Next, the launch of Sophy was before the release of GT7 (which no doubt means that PD had been working on Sophy for a long time before that).

Endurance races in GT7 could be very easily implemented if PD wanted to pursue that route. But my hunch is that was never Kai's vision. And if GT7 is in fact the long release that Kaz said it would be, a Sophy/B-spec/🌶AI/single player manifestation is probably what GT7 Endurance Races would look like...in Kaz's vision. What remains to be seen however, is if past history once again proves itself - and a Sophy/B-Spec GTWS showcase, is just a precursor for the franchise's next iteration.... or if we'll see it in the near future.

The only thing that comes to mind is this: If Kaz is saving all of this for the next iteration in the franchise, then what is left for the coming years for GT7? A couple new cars and maybe a track or 2 for the rest of GT7's lifecycle? That prospect doesn't sound too promising.
They could perfectly implement endurance races if they wanted. Without a B-Spec mode.
Reading the article it sounds that B-Spec indeed is not going to be for GT7, although.. You never know.

 

[furryboy96]

This is the discussion thread for an article on GTPlanet:

Gran Turismo Sophy Learns Tire Management and Fuel Consumption, Surprising the Sony AI Team​

A new, experimental version of the Gran Turismo Sophy AI system was just revealed at the GT World Series finals in Amsterdam, and we had the chance to sit down with the Sony AI research team to learn more about what’s new and how it works...

One step closer to the AI revolution lol

 

[Eggstor]

I hope we get to enjoy Sophy before she is recruited by Scuderia Ferrari.

Or Penske (take your pick on the IndyCar, NASCAR or IMSA operation).

 

[equalitus]

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.

In GT4 we didn't call it grinding, [boring grinding] because the payouts were so good and many that even when doing the same races a few times only to get credits, it only took a reasonably short amount of time and it also meant progressing faster because we could buy much faster cars..!

 

[ruestchiva]

Custom races with Sophy embeded in them would be incredibly good for this game. I feel that it could help create so much awesome content. Hopefully they'll allow it one day.

 

[snowgt]

There's certainly a lot of possibility for using Sophy to grow GT as a game.

On the other hand, the biggest short-term improvement for Sophy would be, if she wouldn't think the other cars were the size of a Fiat 500 and side-swipe you on every occasion.

 

[crooky369]

Or Penske (take your pick on the IndyCar, NASCAR or IMSA operation).

Does it know how to use Push to Pass then?

 

[suomi1]

That's all well and good. But in my opinion they should concentrate on fixing the main game AI first.

Fix the rubber banding on custom races, the pre race gaps between cars when choosing rolling status is bugged if you try to change it from the default and reverts to 5 metres, the erratic pitstop behaviour with changing weather etc.

I couldn't agree more with this.

Probably an impopular opinion, but here is my take on AI Sophy. It wasn't developed by Polyphony Digital for GT7 to start with, sometimes it feels when I read some posts that Sophy is treated as a due. No it isn't, that is just a bonus feature to please players who asked for it.

An IMO, Sophy is actually holding back GT7's potential and a lot of QOL elements that GT7 could benefit from. Like the ones quoted above. I wouldn't be surprised too if B-Spec mode and endurance races are greatly delayed precisely because of this.

Pepper races already shows that Polyphony's AI can be effective when they want it to be.