Have Seasonal Events Made A-Spec Pointless?

[Enzo_P1_GTR]

Title ?

I personality believe it has . Other then just getting to 100% why would you waste your time with A-Spec?

When seasonals offer So Much More Money and Experience .?

I for one haven't raced in A-Spec for atleast 3 Months ..

 

[R.S]

Yes,
The thing is also that A-spec was somewhat useless anyway except for grinding for cash. There was never any incentive to complete it or move past the race that gave you the most money. Actually I looked forward to the images on my homescreen changing when I leveled up.

The completion or progress through A-spec was also no challenge or feat in itself like previous games.
Far too few interesting varying events and interesting prizes.

To get those cool race cars we used to(previous GT's) have to complete the many many events hoping that would be the prize, instead we just grind indy/ or now the seasonals (which are getting more interesting) for cash.

 

[BarronGeddon]

other than completion rating/trophies, yeh they are extremely limited compared to the seasonals

 

[SLW-SVT]

if you aren't interested in beating the game then maybe

 

[m8h3r]

I got my copy of GT5 in December so this was before the seasonals therefor I was level 25ish when they came out anyway, so I had completed the majority of a spec and have only got the 2 24H races left. Although I do have 2 PSN accounts and if I was to play the game on my other account I doubt I would near the a spec, I would be more likely to put a 458 online and grind the Ferrari seasonal.

 

[scy544845]

Title ?

I personality believe it has . Other then just getting to 100% why would you waste your time with A-Spec?

When seasonals offer So Much More Money and Experience .?

I for one haven't raced in A-Spec for atleast 3 Months ..

At least you don't have to prestige GT fifteen times.

For me, completing GT5 is very rewarding (Not as much as GT4 but I couldn't quite finish). I look forward to getting my Platinum trophy.

 

[shepzki]

Title ?

I personally believe it has . Other then just getting to 100% why would you waste your time with A-Spec?

When seasonals offer So Much More Money and Experience .?

I for one haven't raced in A-Spec for atleast 3 Months ..

Honestly, the only advantage the seasonal events have over A-Spec is for grinders. The races themselves are not really that much different, A-Spec can be just as challenging and fun as seasonal events, people don't bother because the rewards are not as large. Any race can be a serious challenge if you choose it to be, although I am sure most people just blasted straight through it (myself included) just to get it done.

 

[ashes619]

It doesn't IMO. New comers will look at this as a way to gain heaps of money early on but generally they will still aim to complete the career and do all the licenses and special events.

I believe seasonal events were added so we had more races to create some depth in this game and so it got rid of the unnecessary amount of xp and money grinding we needed to do.

 

[sid_chiclana]

I personally think they are all challenging, obviously, if you want them to be.
I have completed all A-Spec (apart from some Enduros), but I still keep coming to them, trying different things and using very limited cars compared to the opposition.
Having said that, I also do that with the Seasonals, like beating all GT's in the World Circuits Tour with my Matte Black Enzo, far more rewarding coming first than earning a few bucks

 

[Tempo0010]

If A Spec is useless, imagine B Spec XD

 

[RazorsEdge]

A-spec is currently useless.

 

[ashes619]

If A Spec is useless, imagine B Spec XD

I can imagine how useless B-Spec is for many. On the other hand though, lots of people do use it. If PD just work on it a bit more, I am sure many more will use it in GT6.

A-spec is currently useless.

Where are your facts, thoughts or beliefs to support this. I would really like to know why you think this way about A-Spec.

 

[SLW-SVT]

A-spec is currently useless.

that's your opinion but I guess its useless to me too since all the races have been completed

 

[ucwepn]

yes I never play A spec anymore except for golding licences. All thats left in A spec is a poor selection of races with little to no xp and Cr rewards and slow AI cars which are boring to race against, no high end races that feature cars I want to use (sick of dtm and jgtc). At least the seaonals are a surprise (somewhat) in that you don't know what its going to be and you can dig out a very unloved vehicle from your fleet to complete it. They better bring back drift trial and time trial shame on them.

 

[VTiRoj]

A-Spec is only useless if you've completed it already. It's still worth doing for the cars and tickets if you haven't.

If it gave out more than one prize car per event, it probably would be more worth it.

 

[GraphiteGB]

There are still free cars in A-spec and B-spec.
<4hr endurance races are very do able with a pause/break in the middle.
Free 20 million jag for the Indy 500.
Formula GT championship took longer to complete due to the rain.

While the X3 bonus is on yes the seasonals are GOOD.

When the X3 turns off they will be Rubbish again.
It will then take 120 races to get to 20 million credits again.
The Nascar seasonal event might soften the blow off them Turning X3 off.

When the servers shut down for maintenance they will be unusable so rubbish again.
A-spec and B-spec have Limited use still.

 

[Raitziger]

Both have races and none of them is pointless.

 

[H0urg1ass]

If you put the money issues aside, then are still two glaring problems with A-Spec in my mind.

1) There aren't enough restrictions. In just about any race that was giving me a headache I could simply pull out the FGT and yawn my way to the finish line. Allowing us to have, in some instances, almost 100 PP more than the top opponent car with no tire restrictions is also fairly game breaking.

2) The AI doesn't try hard enough. You almost always start in the middle of the pack. You'll never see the five guys behind you unless you start lapping people and the five guys in front of you are usually easily overtaken by the first corner or two. Once you overtake the lead car, it's like they just give up.

 

[599GT]

Haven't played A-spec in 4 months, probably more (not including endurance races).
What's the point of A-spec now? In seasonal events we have:
- Better races
- Better variety of races
- Prizes (items)
- Much bigger payouts
- Bigger XP giveouts

What's the point of A-spec again?

 

[C-ZETA]

Everything in Gran Turismo has some point. A-Spec is required to complete the game - money isn't exactly everything you need to win the game. Yes, the payouts are enormous compared to A-Spec now, but A-Spec is much less oddball when you consider starting positions and everything. Plus there's still more in A-Spec than the Seasonals anyway. A seasonal endurance would be good, but it wouldn't be making any difference if, say, it was the same as an event already in A-Spec.

 

[gtnoobie]

I find it great that a spec has no pp or tire restriction. It allows us to use any car fitting the broader guidelines either to completely thrash the Ai or work out a sweat in underpowered vehicles on comfort tires. If so desired, u can match the AI specs and upgrade or downgrade according to your skills. If credits is the same as seasonals, I'll be playing a spec over and over again. Also FGT championship is unique to a spec. I just played it (first try) at one go just now. 120 laps of epic backbreaking drive. Could not gold Monaco and Suzuka tho I won the championship.
I think a spec, seasonal and arcade vary slightly and serve different niche/purpose. Even b spec, photomode has significant value for some. Why discredit any feature just because it is not to one's taste. To cater to collectors, drifters, photographers, racers, casual drivers, drag racers, newcomers alike requires enormous breadth and to some extent compromise.
Have fun in aspects u like and ignore stuff u dun care for. When gt5 reaches it limit of replay value, it is perhaps time to move on than to whine.

 

[hyyperactive]

I think the lack of pp or any sensible limits made the a-spec pretty meaningless anyways. But now with the seasonals and the bigger prizes the leveling system of the a-spec is completely broken. Or what was broken originally (the stupid exp and levelling system) is kind of fixed with it being broken...

Of course the leveling in a-spec was pretty much like an afterthought anyways and did not add anything positive to the gt experience but now it is even more useless. Getting money and buying tons of cars was not really difficult in the beginning of gt5 anyways. The seasonals do help with grinding a lot though. Both exp and credits.

Overall though the seasonals do make gt5 better game than the a-spec ever did imho. I have not really done any a-spec races after I finished them apart from few nordschleife and rain races. There are various reasons why the seasonals are just better races. There is pp, you know what kind of pp cars the ai is using and there are bigger prizes. Plus they are fresh which also helps.

The least pd could do is to add some kind of pp estimation of the ai cars into a-spec just like in the seasonals. It would really help making the a-spec races more fun and challenging. A whole another issue is the total unbalance of the a-spec and the seasonal prizes...

 

[jacnob]

I rather enjoy going back through after beating a race with a much slower car, just to see if I can beat it. It adds some fun and challenge. (OFF TOPIC: I found that the best way to describe GT5 is fun, but flawed.)

 

[Morgoth_666]

If you put the money issues aside, then are still two glaring problems with A-Spec in my mind.

1) There aren't enough restrictions. In just about any race that was giving me a headache I could simply pull out the FGT and yawn my way to the finish line. Allowing us to have, in some instances, almost 100 PP more than the top opponent car with no tire restrictions is also fairly game breaking.

2) The AI doesn't try hard enough. You almost always start in the middle of the pack. You'll never see the five guys behind you unless you start lapping people and the five guys in front of you are usually easily overtaken by the first corner or two. Once you overtake the lead car, it's like they just give up.

1) So don't do that. You're the one who is "breaking" the game, you are never forced to use an overpowered car on superior tires in any event, ever.

2) What does "try" have to do with anything? 90% of them are in pathetic slow cars that make them completely irrelevant, but they [fail to] drive them just as hard as the leaders. Who cares if you never see the bottom 5? They are just as slow and irrelevant in Seasonals, and passing them provides absolutely zero satisfaction. You are only ever racing 1 or 2 cars, the rest are only there to get in the way. The AI races just as hard(with a couple of exceptions), and is just as slow and just as dumb in either A-Spec or Seasonals.


In A-Spec you can use a car that doesn't immediately blow every other car off the track and so have a bit of a fight with the leaders, in Seasonals you just have to use a slightly faster car to be able to catch first, but then he stands even less of a chance at fighting back. So there is gameplay value to both, but never near as much value as if the game had even mediocre AI that could actually race with you, and if all of the field were in equal cars so every position meant something.

 

[Exorcet]

Title ?

I personality believe it has . Other then just getting to 100% why would you waste your time with A-Spec?

When seasonals offer So Much More Money and Experience .?

I for one haven't raced in A-Spec for atleast 3 Months ..

I do not understand this mentality. Why is making money so important? Playing the game just to increase credits makes no sense at all. You should play the game race.

So no, Seasonals have no impact on A-Spec. The only way that Seasonals would make A-Spec redundant would be if every A-Spec event was a Seasonal.

Yes,
The thing is also that A-spec was somewhat useless anyway except for grinding for cash. There was never any incentive to complete it or move past the race that gave you the most money.

Why do you need an incentive? Shouldn't the incentive be the enjoyment of driving, and not the increase of a % completion counter?

To get those cool race cars we used to(previous GT's) have to complete the many many events hoping that would be the prize, instead we just grind indy/ or now the seasonals (which are getting more interesting) for cash.

GT5 was by far the most tedious and time intensive when it comes to getting cars. The La Festa seasonal is the first thing that approaches GT2's Speed 12 grinding.

If you put the money issues aside, then are still two glaring problems with A-Spec in my mind.

1) There aren't enough restrictions. In just about any race that was giving me a headache I could simply pull out the FGT and yawn my way to the finish line. Allowing us to have, in some instances, almost 100 PP more than the top opponent car with no tire restrictions is also fairly game breaking.

That's your fault. You can't complain about using the FGT to easy win when no one forced you to use the FGT. It's better without restrictions because it allows the largest amount of people to be satisfied.

Suggested restrictions are required though, since it's almost impossible to make the AI challenging.

2) The AI doesn't try hard enough. You almost always start in the middle of the pack. You'll never see the five guys behind you unless you start lapping people and the five guys in front of you are usually easily overtaken by the first corner or two. Once you overtake the lead car, it's like they just give up.

I blame PD. They need a difficulty level. "They want to please casuals" is no excuse. They need qualification so that higher difficulty races are possible to win. They also need more laps because 3 lap racing is a joke.

 

[Nielsen]

Pointless if you only care about money and experience. However, I think making progress towards 100% is reason enough for those who care. They could have done more to make the events more interesting though but some fundamental problems with the game prevent that.

 

[Vince_Fiero]

I do not understand that people assume everyone has a great internet connection.

What if you have a crappy internet connection 56k or Anonymous attacks Sony.
What is the point in seasonals?

 

[VetteZR1]

Since PSN has come back online with huge payoffs in seasonals I have bought every car over 1m. credit just to stay under 20 million. I have revisited A-spec to use cars that are fun to drive on different tracks. Winning isnt as important anymore but the fun factor has been great.

 

[C-ZETA]

What does "try" have to do with anything? Who cares if you never see the bottom 5?

More challenging races are more fun, and if the whole field is chasing you down it's even better. Seasonals sadly can't accomplish this because the AI isn't perfect yet and the whole field is sorted by performance from 1st to last so you can't really make the others catch the others in front of them. Sad truth, I know.

Why is making money so important?

Why do you need an incentive? Shouldn't the incentive be the enjoyment of driving, and not the increase of a % completion counter?

Well supposedly it can lead you to greater success in the game by getting more things. That isn't the whole objective of the game though, you just get money to help you get there...and even without the most money anyone can beat the game.

It really should indeed be how the game plays and not playing the game as an incentive. The driving is how a racing game gets its gold really, not how you can get your way to 100%.

What is the point in seasonals?

Well maybe it does extend the game further. It doesn't do anything to the game itself but it does mean more stuff to do in the game. I don't mind the addition of them now considering that A-Spec is off limits for me now, I've got one championship and about 6 endurances which I can't do cause I can't be bothered to drive for that long, and the save thing doesn't do it for me because quick saving doesn't allow you to do anything else whilst the championship is going on. If the endurance saves come as quick saves I'm still not doing the race because I want something else to do whilst I know I have an endurance going on.

 

[PirateThom]

Yeah, I like Gran Turismo for the collecting and tuning more than the actual driving, so the fact I can get cash easily means I can get more cars and can mess around with tuning and drifting. I, honestly, still haven't even finished A-Spec just because it's about the cash for me and seasonals just give more cash.