Notes on Maximising A-Spec Points

  • Thread starter Famine
  • 249 comments
  • 113,769 views
Hi there,. This is my first post so go easy.

I'm currently trying to redo the game with all A-spec and want all my races to be as competitive (for for my level of driving) as I can make them. This has thrown up a number of points, most of which have already been covered here (thanks Famine and everyone else)
regarding A-spec points.

The game does seem to use the entire field to calculate A-spec points, i've been running the first race of the 1000 miles event in a stock Ginetta G4 and getting 100 points (with 200kg of ballast!) when the AC Cobra is in the field and not the Fiat 500 but only 20 if the fiat isn't there even though the cobra is (BTW the Ginetta got thrashed repeatedly. Stupid Cobra)

Also I was trying to get a high A-spec rating for the Euro Classic Series and again every time the Fiat is in the line up the points drop to <20. This is despite the lead car being either the Cobra or the Jag E-type which thrash my Alfa Spider Duetto. So far the only way I managed to garner any serious points is with the Alfa on N1 tyres and 200kg of ballast, which gave me 143 points and less than no chance of winning (25 seconds down by Flugplatz).

Grrr. I find it somewhat irritataing that the A-spec points are no use for seeing if a race will be competitive and since they can be "manipulated" in some races (Dodge Ram anyone?) won't even be much use for bragging about. Guess I'll stick to lap times.

Still, fantastic game (Cheers PD worth the wait) and fantastic forum (cheers you lot).
 
route_66
Grrr. I find it somewhat irritataing that the A-spec points are no use for seeing if a race will be competitive and since they can be "manipulated" in some races (Dodge Ram anyone?) won't even be much use for bragging about. Guess I'll stick to lap times.
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At 100% completion total a-spec points will be an indication of skill - not as good as lap times - but a good general indicator.

Lethalchem
I can't agree with you at all on this. Perhaps you're using them incorrectly. I'm not sure how, but you must be, as I find them very helpful, especially with the lower HP cars.
Click to expand...

The two low hp cars I have used close transmission on have worked well at Autumn Ring Mini but as soon as I hit Suzuka East I run out of legs. Close transmissions can only be used on very low hp cars and even then only on courses with the shortest straights - may as spend the extra 5k and get the FR tranny so as not to run the risk of being caught short.
 
If you "retry" a race, then go to your settings and change your suspension setup, you get -10 A-spec points on the retry. Maybe this is why some people are thinking suspension settings change the A-spec points. This only happens when you retry AND change settings, but not parts. I guess its so people don't start a race, and then retry and change tune to exploit a weakness in the opponent's driving.
 
originally posted by Moloch_Horridus:
At 100% completion total a-spec points will be an indication of skill - not as good as lap times - but a good general indicator.


Yeah, I can see what you mean, but it's going to be very general indeed as you can get 200pts for races that are piece of cake (Dodge Ram @ sunday cup) and almost none for races that are extremely difficult (or maybe impossible, I just re-entered the 1000 miles and got offered 7 points to beat the AC and the Buick Special with my 90hp G4. If anyone can prove they won a race like that without cheating then they'll have my eternal respect!)

I'll reserve judgement for now though. At least you'll know that someone who went to the trouble of amassing 80000+ points has at put a lot of time in and not B-specced their way through. Each to their own though and personally I won't be using them for bragging rights
for speed (but maybe for hardcore-ness on my all A-spec playthrough!)
 
More A spec points does not equal better skill.
1 point offered for a drive in a 1000 hp TVR speed twelve requires a lot more skill to win the race than in the 10 points offered for a drive in the Ford GT with 600 hp to win.
The Ford GT has far better traction and is way easier to drive fast.
A Spec points are flawed and should not be used to judge skill.
 
thanks for this. it answers my question perfectly.

as for bragging rights wouldnt it be great to brag that not only did you win the race but you got more points than anyone else on the forum.
maybe it could be incorperated into the weekly races?
 
It looks like nobody anywhere can figure out the pentultimate reason for A-Spec points. Some players want`em & some couldn`t care less. Several days ago, I decided I absolutely had to have every possible A-Spec point no matter what the cost. So now it seems I`m switching cars, starting & running parts of races & then resetting the console constantly. It sucks & I get POed alot but it`s something I feel I must do, no different than eating, breathing, or wankin` off :D .When it`s all finished I`ll have lots of A-Spec points & will be very pleased with myself. :sly:
 
GrandpaLonghair
It looks like nobody anywhere can figure out the pentultimate reason for A-Spec points. Some players want`em & some couldn`t care less. Several days ago, I decided I absolutely had to have every possible A-Spec point no matter what the cost. So now it seems I`m switching cars, starting & running parts of races & then resetting the console constantly. It sucks & I get POed alot but it`s something I feel I must do, no different than eating, breathing, or wankin` off :D .When it`s all finished I`ll have lots of A-Spec points & will be very pleased with myself. :sly:
Click to expand...

I don't bother to reset the console. I decided from the beginning that I wasn't going to be concerned with the win ratio. There have been times when I simply entered a race to see where I am with my Aspec points, then backed out again to tweak the car a bit more for more points. It's the only way to deal with optimum points without going nuts. At least it's the best way I've found. :D
 
GrandpaLonghair
One problem: The girls I like don`t like me & the girls that like me I don`t like. :ouch:
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"If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."
 
So, just to be sure, for the A-Spec points, the thing that matters the most is the Weight. Then, it's the ratio, then the Power? Is that it?
 
It's the power-to-weight ratio, then the weight. Power is superfluous as a result.

(say you've got a power of 100hp, a weight of 1000kg and a PWR of 100hp/tonne. You can add 10hp to get 110hp/tonne or take off 91kg to have a PWR of 110hp/tonne. The heavier car will get more A-spec points than the lighter one)

It's then modified by "other" factors - to date this covers at the very least the lead AI, your choice of tyres and your downforce.
 
A-spec points sometimes get me nervous... 10pts on the Professional GT World Championship just because of this slug Gillet!!! The opponent cars are not balanced!!!

Another example is winning 200pts running with huge pickup. It has 500hp against 150hp of the opponents and still gives 200pts. Of course it just doesn't move (because of its weight) but it can win the races on the straights.

:crazy:
 
I'm sorry if I missed this info browsing the several pages of this thread, but from what I've read I don't get clearly what are the changes to your car that affect your A-Spec points.

From my experience, these things change A-Spec points:
-The opponents - not just the best car, as Famine initially wrote, but all the grid. I made the Alpine Cup with the same A-Spec points all the time - about 60 - after that I made one single race of that same cup (it was the only I didn't win in the championship and I wanted the gold cup for that race) and I got more A-Spec points. The only change I noticed was that the grid had 4 Alpine A110, instead of the 3 it had in all the races of the Alpine Cup.
- Power - (btw, DON'T CHANGE THE OIL, you'll lose A-Spec points)
- Weight
- PWR (and that explains why some powerful cars get more A -Spec points. Thx Famine!)
- Downforce (last night I started a race with 0 downforce and it gave me 68 A-Spec points. After that I restarted the same race - with the same grid - but with max downforce and the A-Spex points dropped to 11)
- Tyres (If you put race tyres instead of the sports tyres you get with the car, the A-Spec points get reduced. I don't have an example of that because I noticed it a few days ago and I don't remember how much points were lost due to race tyres).

Also from my experience, these don't change A-Spec points (but I'm still a bit unsure about this):
- Clutch and Drivewheel - in slow cars it can make the difference between winning and losing. I won the Daihatsu Midget Cup with these changes to my car.
- Brakes - Same here. I get laptimes much better when I put better brakes.
- LSD


I still have to check if suspension and transmission upgrades affect A-Sepc points.



A bit off topic: One strange thing that happened to me was in the Peugeot 206 cup. I started it with a stock new Peugeot 206 and it gave me 200 points per race. After I checked that my Peugeot (with me driving) wasn't up to the task, I quit and tuned it - I'm sure I did some engine tuning and changed the tyres - thinking "oh well, maybe I'll get 100 points per race, wich isn't bad.

To my surprise, the races still gave me 200 points. However, my car was perfectly balanced with the opposition - if not better - and I won all the races and of course the cup. This was the first time I got 200 A-Spec points per race (my best so far was 189 in one other race) and it was much easier than some 20 points races I already struggled with.
 
Back to the tyres thing. Tried the 1st race of Mazda Roadster Cup in a 118HP, 940Kg '89 Miata. On the Sports Medium tyres it arrives with, I was offered 193 A-spec points.
When I put on Sports Soft tyres and entered the same race (no other modifications at all) I was offered 188 points.

No difference in PWR or WPR (whichever is relevant in GT4) and A-spec points vary by tyre choice. :)
 
Great thread! I had not payed any attention to A-spec points and had no idea why some races award only one point and some much more. But now that I do I think they matter, after all it's supposed to be THE definitive score count of this game. One that could not be fooled by b-speccing, repeating races or entering one with a superior car.

Of course it does not really work. There is the Dodge problem (which I learned here) but IMO what really ruins it is that nitrous does not affect the score. I did some testing (very unscientific, just a few races and I'm sure even with those some other driver would get a different result). What I did was to first find a car that just beats the lead car when I don't do any big mistakes and write down the cars bhp and A-spec points awarded. After that I downgraded the car, entered the race again this time using nitrous (in shorter races basicly keeping the nos button down all the time). If I was faster than before I downgraded the car more. The result was that (for me) using nitrous equals about 20-30% of the cars BHP, and between 30 and 70 A-spec points.

Which of course means if I would compare A-spec points with others I would assume they are using NOS and do that myself, or have an honour code saying NOS is not used. Personally I think the whole nitrous thing is pointless and should not be in the game in the first place, and I'm not going to use it even if it means saying goodbye to many (most?) of my A-spec points.

But even with these problems the game makes much more sense with A-spec points since there is now a reason to keep the races competetive. Also it would still make much more sense to compare peoples A-spec points than completion percentage, since with b-spec that tells nothing about anything.
 
Precision use of nitrous is required in many races to get the maximum 200 points.

I cant imagine doing some of these races i've done without it. On tracks where you cant cut off the computer, or do qualifying to get first position, you better have nitrous or youre going to get last..... by a lot.

Even WITH nitrous, some of these races are impossible to get 200 points. You start in 6th and with N1 tires and nitrous, have one hell of a time trying to get into first in only 2 or 3 laps. Especially on rolling starts. I'm pretty sure the designers made it this way on purpose. Nitrous helps in getting points, but it's nowhere near unfair. Considering how underpowered and overweight your car needs to be to qualify for 200 points, nitrous is your only weapon. Otherwise it's just a waste of your time.

And bear in mind that races lasting 10 laps or more mean very little nitrous use, and not much of a useful advantage.
 
Zenkat, I'm sure what you are saying is absolutely correct. No other way to get 200 pts than use nitro in many races. So if that is the goal that's what you need to do, nothing wrong with that. Personally I'm setting a goal for myself to get whatever points I can without using it and be happy with that. It just somehow feels wrong to have nitro installed in a standard family car that's all (or maybe it does happen in real life?). Having slightly better tyres or a bit tuned engine feels more realistic (I know I know, it's a game and all that...) I would have been happier if using nitro would reduce your A-spec points just like every other power up does, and then getting 200 would be a little easier at the same time. It's a bit unlogical now, you can choose if you want to power up by using mufflers, NA tuning, turbo or whatever, but not nitro, that you must use! (Of course the one thing I would not like to use. Just my luck! :crazy: )
 
Thats alright, i understand completely that many people hate the nitrous concept. I'm mostly indifferent, and if thats my only means of battling the competition in really hard races, then i'm going to use it. I know real road racing has rules that prohibit nitrous, and that its place should be at the dragstrip and nowhere else, but a game is a game. I'm questing for high Aspec, and i'll do what it takes to get them.

And good work with those graphs scraps. Some of that is very useful info.
 
Hello I'm Knew in this forum, and I don't know if this question is in other post but , What the hell I got to do to rise my B-spect points!!!! im dead in space with 7960 B-spect points and they are in this configuration
86 driving skills
79 circuit sikills
78 battle skills
How can i increase them!! please help me!!
I'm in desespear
 
IMV
Hello I'm Knew in this forum, and I don't know if this question is in other post but , What the hell I got to do to rise my B-spect points!!!! im dead in space with 7960 B-spect points and they are in this configuration
86 driving skills
79 circuit sikills
78 battle skills
How can i increase them!! please help me!!
I'm in desespear
Click to expand...

Very good. Bspec question in an Aspec thread. Sorry to be sarcastic IMV.
Check out this thread about Bspec and how to improve. Click HERE

Edit:
By the way, welcome aboard. Please do use the Search funtion before posting a new thread. You will find 90% of the questions you may wish to ask has been discussed in some shape form or fashion. Although your take on the subject would be greatly appreciated in those threads.

Sorry to clutter your thread Famine, but I looked and he really did just join today. I had to send him in the right direction.
 
gtaddict
Interesting experiment, but i'm not sure if many people really want all the a-spec points (i still can't figure out what they do,) but only use A-SPEC points as a measure of how competitive my race will be. Will always try to get something around 150 or moreish.

Interestingly, i cant remember what race it was for, but it might be the one with the Dodge RAM, where I ahd it tuned up yo yhe max, dominated every race easily, and was still getting awarded 200 points for it!
Click to expand...


Here's a thought I might throw out for A-spec points and what they do, and I don't really know if anyone has brought this up. As I was reading this thread, I noticed a lot of people not knowing what the A-Spec points are for. Bragging rights, and besides that, de nada, zilch, nothing! Well here's my though. When GT4 came out the very first thing that you could do was transfer the first two licenses and 100,000 credits from GT3. So would it be possible to assume that when GT5 comes out, that GT4 A-Spec points could be utilized somehow into GT5. That would be interesting to find out and know for sure. Just a thought. Tell me what you think.
 
It's possible that what you do in GT4 will give you something to start GT5, but I really don't care about that. I didn't transfer the credits/licenses my GT3 and GT4P gamesaves allowed and I will want to start GT5 from scratch.

A-Spec points are IMHO a very interesting concept, considering you can get GT4 up to nearly 100% without even driving, and also that you can do most of the races in GT4 with overpowered cars and you'll get the same money, prize cars and percentage completion.

So, if you want to know how good you were doing the 100% of the game, and if you want to compare yourself with others, A-Apec points is the only way.


However, I don't understand the "nitrous" thing. Never used such a cheap trick and I'll never will. So, when I get to 100% (I'm at 81,6% now), I'll brag about my "Nitrous Free A-Spec points".

GT4 has GT Mode, Arcade Mode and now we're introduced us to the "Bragging Modes" :D
 
Hun200kmh
However, I don't understand the "nitrous" thing. Never used such a cheap trick and I'll never will. So, when I get to 100% (I'm at 81,6% now), I'll brag about my "Nitrous Free A-Spec points".
Click to expand...
You know it was kinda cool when I first bought the game and was in my first couple of % of the game to have a lesser car and use nitrous to help in a series. Actually I think I only installed it on one car. Acura HSC for the JGTC and Tuner car series. Haven't used it again since then.

Edit:
And to again make my post relavent to the thread. Sorry Famine.
The actual benefit of using NOS in a series and loss of Aspec points really isn't worth the loss. You take a fair Aspec hit with NOS, and in my experience in the Tuner series, the HSC was fully tuned making it extremely light (low PWR) and NOS, it was in the low 100 Aspec range. Did the NOS help me win the race? Yes. It was the first week or so after purchase and still getting use to the physics. I returned a week or so ago with the white S2000 tuner (can't remember the name) to get into the mid 100's. The JGTC experience was similar, NOS helped win during the same learning curve, but returned with the Celica JGTC stock except for using R3 tires and tweaking and pushed into the 180-190 Aspec bracket. 200 would have been achievable with stock tires I believe.
 

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