Should they merge A+B specs together?

[USARMYCOMBATVET]

Allow us to switch drivers with someone online. Would be a good substitute for B-Spec. If not, I wouldn't mind B-Spec still being around. Just as long as it isn't its own standing career mode, didn't like that much in GT5.

This: 24 hour races with consequences played by you AND your friends. I like the way you're going with this. It would be my recommendation that players only switch drivers with people on their friends list. Personally, I enjoyed winning separate cars for the A-Spec vs B-spec endurance series. If you want this car, well you'll have to race for it. I love the challenge.

 

[steve30x]

B-Spec should be put back to the way it was in GT4. It was perfect that way.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Wouldn't be any loss to me - last time I properly enjoyed any endurance race was GT2, and those were 2 hours max.

Yeah it sorta would, if you are trying to beat the GT life portion of the game and don't have time to race 24 hours on your own much less 12 hours, then b spec is necessary. However, since you seem to not be one that cares about completing GT in full, others actually do care and would like to have the feature instead of purposely having to leave them.

The reason we know people were having trouble with enduro racing is the great out pour for in game saving. Which didn't properly work at first. It may not harm you but people like me that, try to do what the games ask need it

This: 24 hour races with consequences played by you AND your friends. I like the way you're going with this. It would be my recommendation that players only switch drivers with people on their friends list. Personally, I enjoyed winning separate cars for the A-Spec vs B-spec endurance series. If you want this car, well you'll have to race for it. I love the challenge.

I love the challenge too, partially why I just said what I said to shifting gears. Many of us like getting something in return for our efforts, which then can be used in more advance races. This is why many of us want to do the endurance racing because we know the prizes given are worth it.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

I never really saw a "challenge" in the endurance races other than challenging me to keep playing for a very very long time.

I remember when I ran the Lemans race on GT4 I was using the R8 with high milage, no rebuild, dirty oil for 200 spec points and still won by 35 laps. The only challenge was finding a way to fight the boredom.

On GT5 I never actually ran the 24 hour A-Spec races just because of the entry level requirment and that I absolutely did not want to do the 9 hr Tsukuba race. The 4 hr Tsukuba almost put me to sleep.

 

[ShiftingGears]

Yeah it sorta would, if you are trying to beat the GT life portion of the game and don't have time to race 24 hours on your own much less 12 hours, then b spec is necessary. However, since you seem to not be one that cares about completing GT in full, others actually do care and would like to have the feature instead of purposely having to leave them.

When did I say that? I clearly said that taking out endurance racing would not be any loss to me. As in, Polyphony Digital removing them.

AI needs to be sorted first. And a range of events - as it stands there's 15 minute events, then there's the enduros. Ridiculous. Sitting there while my playstation wastes electricity as some mindless bot endlessly circulates a circuit in order to get 100% completion of a game strikes me as poor game design.

I love the challenge too, partially why I just said what I said to shifting gears. Many of us like getting something in return for our efforts, which then can be used in more advance races. This is why many of us want to do the endurance racing because we know the prizes given are worth it.

But they aren't worth it. The seasonals would earn you over 10x the in-game credits in less than half an hour.

 

[Sasek]

I think there should be an option for: Only endurace races.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

When did I say that? I clearly said that taking out endurance racing would not be any loss to me. As in, Polyphony Digital removing them.

AI needs to be sorted first. And a range of events - as it stands there's 15 minute events, then there's the enduros. Ridiculous. Sitting there while my playstation wastes electricity as some mindless bot endlessly circulates a circuit in order to get 100% completion of a game strikes me as poor game design.

Based on the series of back and forth between us, you didn't make a clarification to what exactly "you could live with out" since you were talking bspec (main topic of this thread) it was safe to assume you meant that. However, I would agree that the game is poor in design as far and endurance racing goes, really I always felt I was racing myself and the time, or setting up goals to achieve: how many times I can lap the field, or how many laps I can go on a certain tire. I even went as far as to give myself a handicap to have somewhat a constant race. If attrition, true tire model, and sophisticated AI were there, then I think it'd be more of a race and less of an exercise. So I agree with you on that second portion.

But they aren't worth it. The seasonals would earn you over 10x the in-game credits in less than half an hour.

It took quite sometime for that to be the case, seasonal didn't yield that much for the first half year to a year, and then they had a massive jump, then scaled back. However, the scale back wasn't nearly as bad as it was when first started. Thus one can make several million in a couple weekends with seasonal, but at the peak it was worse. We probably wont get such a dramatic award system in game. And it is safe to say this based on five games we have played over just a fist full of seasonal events.

Also who is to say they aren't worth it? That's quite subjective, those of us that play them constantly and got what we sought and found them worth the time.

 

[Hyped]

I think there should be an option for: Only endurace races.

I like this idea, since most of the normal races aren't long enough to need B-spec in GT5, it would be nice to see it like this. I like the idea of being able to complete a few hours on my own, and then handing off to a co-driver, who could do the same.

 

[MrYasser]

Yes
but only in endurance racing

 

[niky]

I prefer A-spec over B-spec too, but one playing style isn't better than the other.

This is the nub of the problem. B-Spec is now part of Gran Turismo, for better or for worse, and it adds another dimension of appreciation to the game. GT5's unorthodox driver mood system and drivers' unwillingness to "push" for more than a few minutes at a time before falling asleep were kind of stupid, but it can be fun managing a number of B-Spec team-mates or hires over the course of the game.

-

While I do enjoy a good race, a 12 or 24 hour endurance with a single driver is not realistic, I don't have friends to invite over to play with (well, I do have friends who like to race, but all of us being married with kids, a 24 hour sleepover is out of the question) and doing it over the internet is out, giving the horrible latency of our net connection over here.

Being married, by the way, along with carrying two jobs, is another reason why 12 and 24 hour solo enduros are out.

I play GT to relax, and I find it annoying that people keep telling me I'm "not doing it right" by not being masochistic enough to give up 24 hours of my time (which again, isn't really mine alone) to finish a race all by my lonesome. All because, somehow, this is "realistic".

I've driven 12 hours in real life. Straight. I can't imagine doing that for fun.

-

For people who feel that this "shortcut" somehow debases their "achievements" in finishing GT, A-Spec points are where it's at. Your A-Spec points are already an indicator of how hard you actually worked to finish a series. Whether you simply powered and gripped your way through it, or handicapped yourself for a real challenge.

 

[Wardez]

B-Spec should be its own mode totally. Like in the main menu, in GT5 you had GT Life, IIRC, Arcade, Course creator, and GT TV.

They should split it up as: A-Spec, B-Spec, Arcade, Course creator, Car design (speculation), and GT TV*

Make B-Spec a, from the ground up, motorsports manager, but dumbed down a bit of course. Don't mix B-spec with A-spec whatsoever.

*If they even bother.

 

[Musolini187]

For some reason this thread made me think of the old days of going to vacation with my pops in the 190 evo amg, with my pops driving for over 48 hourse straight with only a few pitstops for taking a piss or getting a quick snack. Most fun was when he let me steer the car on his lap going 250kmh+ (me being a kid obviously).

Even though I'd take a 48 hour drive over a 3 hour flight (sadly, all other far vacations were in a plane), I'll take bob over any endurance race in gt. Driving the same cours in the same car for many hours in a game is not my idea of fun.

 

[Imari]

For some reason this thread made me think of the old days of going to vacation with my pops in the 190 evo amg, with my pops driving for over 48 hourse straight with only a few pitstops for taking a piss or getting a quick snack. Most fun was when he let me steer the car on his lap going 250kmh+ (me being a kid obviously).

What?

 

[dr_slump]

Evo AMG? Your dad was driving a race car on public streets? Because I've never seen a street evo amg...

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

This is the nub of the problem. B-Spec is now part of Gran Turismo, for better or for worse, and it adds another dimension of appreciation to the game. GT5's unorthodox driver mood system and drivers' unwillingness to "push" for more than a few minutes at a time before falling asleep were kind of stupid, but it can be fun managing a number of B-Spec team-mates or hires over the course of the game.

-

While I do enjoy a good race, a 12 or 24 hour endurance with a single driver is not realistic, I don't have friends to invite over to play with (well, I do have friends who like to race, but all of us being married with kids, a 24 hour sleepover is out of the question) and doing it over the internet is out, giving the horrible latency of our net connection over here.

Being married, by the way, along with carrying two jobs, is another reason why 12 and 24 hour solo enduros are out.

I play GT to relax, and I find it annoying that people keep telling me I'm "not doing it right" by not being masochistic enough to give up 24 hours of my time (which again, isn't really mine alone) to finish a race all by my lonesome. All because, somehow, this is "realistic".

I've driven 12 hours in real life. Straight. I can't imagine doing that for fun.

-

For people who feel that this "shortcut" somehow debases their "achievements" in finishing GT, A-Spec points are where it's at. Your A-Spec points are already an indicator of how hard you actually worked to finish a series. Whether you simply powered and gripped your way through it, or handicapped yourself for a real challenge.

This was the heart at what I too was getting at, I guess us Married people should get out of the game. Eh Niky? Kaz and PD must realize that unless they establish a way to pass on the game over the net to international friends or put back bspec the way it was, more people will stop doing endurance races (not like there were a ton to begin with I suppose).

 

[niky]

Us married people don't deserve to play video games, because, hey... we don't need hobbies, right?

-

Gran Turismo is unique amongst widely played console franchises in that it appeals to a wide age and interest demographic. PD has to straddle a fine line between making it "realistic" enough to satisfy the core audience and accessible enough not to turn off casual players, or players with casual playing schedules... not something GT5 was very good at.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Us married people don't deserve to play video games, because, hey... we don't need hobbies, right?

-

Gran Turismo is unique amongst widely played console franchises in that it appeals to a wide age and interest demographic. PD has to straddle a fine line between making it "realistic" enough to satisfy the core audience and accessible enough not to turn off casual players, or players with casual playing schedules... not something GT5 was very good at.

Exactly, most days I'm a casual player, my days off from work, school or when my family wants a day at home those are my hardcore racing days. Clearly there are more casual days. We will see what GT6 provides, but with an aging fan base that is now easily into their adulthood something will change. Hopefully the game, and not the loss of fans that have been around since the mid to late 90s.

 

[Zuku]

For some reason this thread made me think of the old days of going to vacation with my pops in the 190 evo amg, with my pops driving for over 48 hourse straight with only a few pitstops for taking a piss or getting a quick snack. Most fun was when he let me steer the car on his lap going 250kmh+ (me being a kid obviously).

Even though I'd take a 48 hour drive over a 3 hour flight (sadly, all other far vacations were in a plane), I'll take bob over any endurance race in gt. Driving the same cours in the same car for many hours in a game is not my idea of fun.

The end part of what you just said is what I agree with, and also apparently a lot of people on this forum have no life it's one thing to be driving IRL for 24 hours and another sitting in a room for 24 hours doing one race.

I love games, but not that much.

 

[HBR-Roadhog]

The end part of what you just said is what I agree with, and also apparently a lot of people on this forum have no life it's one thing to be driving IRL for 24 hours and another sitting in a room for 24 hours doing one race.

I love games, but not that much.

The 24 hour races are a bit much having the option to swap to Bob at some point is a good thing for sure. That said on GT4 I actually quite looked forward to the 24hr race around the ring and I wanted the 200 A-Spec points so no Bob on that one. I simply jumped in my car and drove until I needed to pit at which point I paused the game and took a break. Whenever I came back I would run until I needed to pit again and pause the game as I enter the pits and come back later.

I ended up running the race over a period of about 5 days and hour here and hour there. It did get a little boring toward the end but I made it. I did worry about the power going out along the way and I made sure the PS was connected to a UPS so that a short power outage would not reset the race.

The only real issue was that once I started the race I could do nothing else on the PS until I completed the race.

Of course that was in the time when all there was was the single player offline mode. With online modes the offline part really does not need these super long races and if they are there it would be nice to allow Bob to either help run them or run them for us.

 

[NFSCARBON1]

I think they should only merge for endurance races. So you can complete A Spec then do the endurance races by yourself if you want, but if you need help then you can use your B Spec drivers as part of a team. Your B Spec drivers would need to be trained up by racing in B Spec races, with lower performance cars giving them more experience (So a Red Bull in the Sunday Cup=1XP, but a Fiat 500 could equal 800XP).

 

[Johnnypenso]

B-spec should be entirely separate IMO but I think it also has huge potential for online racing if done right. If you could actually "train" Bob's to drive like you do, with your racing lines and your lap times, it would be cool to take your trained Bob online and then manage him in races against other Bob's controlled by other GT6'ers.

Not sure how popular it would be but I think it would be kind of fun when you don't want to sit in your cockpit, to pull out a DS3, plop down in your favourite chair and manage your specially trained Bob's in online races, especially if the management aspect of it ie. controlling your tire wear, brake fade, driver fatigue, passing opportunities, risk management, was actually vital to your success.

Adding the ability to "trade" your Bob's for cars or money for example (in game it might be akin to going to a new team) would add a whole new element to the game.