Josh Creek
14698d4ccb
An Opus subagent's adversarial review of Phase 2 found real bugs the smoke tests couldn't catch, since constant-velocity dead reckoning still moves a ship far enough to pass a "moved > 1.0" check: - The interpolator never actually interpolated. NetInterpolator.to_tick() assumes physics_frame * TICK_MS == Time.get_ticks_msec() on the server, which is off by a steady ~45-55ms in practice (real startup work before the first physics step, widened by any dropped tick). Every sample_at() call took the extrapolation branch, 100% of the time, defeating the interpolation buffer entirely. Fixed with a shared, min-filtered rolling bias estimate in networked_match.gd, applied before every to_tick() call. - Goals caused a ~27m visual slide: _reset_gen was bumped before the queued teleport actually landed, so the client's buffer-clear kept exactly the stale in-goal sample and lerped a slide to the next, real one. Fixed by tracking the tick the goal was detected on and only bumping the generation once strictly later ticks confirm the teleport has landed - a naive "next _physics_process" boolean flag doesn't work, since a goal Area's body_entered fires before that same tick's _physics_process runs, not on the next one. - _local_input_sampler (a Node, never added to the tree) was never freed - this was the unexplained "3 resources still in use at exit" warning on every Phase 2 test run. - Ball angular velocity decoded 8x too small (rescale_avel was never called); get_server_time_estimate_ms() was used before the clock had synced; net_sim.gd's delayed-send timer stopped ticking while the tree was paused and didn't check connection status before firing; _broadcast_snapshot's ball index could silently break if a ship were ever despawned; declared-but-unemitted HUD lifecycle signals showed a permanently frozen timer widget. Also confirmed, empirically, several things the review checked and found fine: a hostile client sending malformed input cannot crash the server, skipping GameMode's super() drops nothing load-bearing, deterministic slot assignment is correct with 2 real simultaneous clients, and RPC authority enforcement genuinely rejects a forging client. All fixes verified with real two-process runs (including forcing an actual goal and reading the server's own broadcast stream) and temporary instrumentation, removed once each fix was confirmed. Full Phase 1 + Phase 2 regression suite, including the net-sim-latency milestone gate, re-run clean after every fix.
Cosmic Clash
In "Cosmic Clash," the heart-pounding action takes place in variable gravity environments where vehicles hover just above the ground. In this thrilling spiritual successor to Rocket League, players engage in high-speed, gravity-defying matches set in the far reaches of space. Each pitch is situated in a unique environment or planet, offering breathtaking vistas and challenging terrain. But instead of cars, competitors pilot rocket-powered ships, each equipped with its own set of customisable features and special abilities.
Ships hover just above the ground, defying the laws of physics and adding an extra layer of intensity to the gameplay. With no friction to hold them back, players must master the art of control as they glide effortlessly across the pitch, executing precise manoeuvres and lightning-fast aerial tricks. With precise control and lightning-fast reflexes, players boost, drift, slam and even turn upside down on their way to victory, scoring epic goals against their opponents.
Whether you're soaring through asteroid fields, navigating treacherous alien landscapes, or battling in the depths of cosmic storms, "Cosmic Clash" delivers non-stop action and adrenaline-pumping excitement that's out of this world! Get ready to take your skills to the stars and dominate the galaxy in the ultimate celestial showdown!
Reason for being
Since Epic Games bought Psyonix, Rocket League has never been the same, and rather than releasing an Unreal Engine 5 version of the game, or giving any meaningful updates, instead item trading was removed and 'Rocket Racing' was added to Fortnite. With no one else stepping up to the plate, it falls to the Open Source Community to come up with a spiritual successor, to keep the spirit of the game alive.
Legality
The concept of 'vehicle soccer' cannot be copyrighted, but the original expression of ideas such as the specific code, art, music and narrative of a game can be. So long as all code, assets game design and other elements are made from scratch, this project will remain legal. The use of an alternative game engine, Godot, serves to ensure that this is achieved, as does the move to using space ships instead of cars as the vehicles.
Technical Information
This project is composed of two parts:
- Godot game
- C# backend
Contributing
Eventually there will be contributor guidelines, but for now open a PR and make sure it has been formatted according to the auto-formatting rules.
Gameplay
The core gameplay is still football/soccer but with vehicles, however there are key changes to the format used in Rocket League. The vehicles are now space ships, which hover above the surface of the pitch. This will impact core game mechanics, enabling near-immediate changes in direction (thanks to those spacefaring engines!), the ability to play upside down (which will change the way you interact with the ball in as-yet unknown ways), slamming down at full boost speed, and many more that will be discovered along the way.
Bots
There will be default bots available, trained using reinforcement learning, and it will be possible to train your own using a gym for submission to be included in the game itself. It will NOT be possible to connect bots to the game, and with the community itself ensuring rigorous anti-cheat measures are in place we will aim to keep it that way. Cheaters have no place here.
MVP
The first version of this game will be JUST the game, no server-side functionality at all. It will be a local only game where you can play against bots. Split-screen multiplayer could be added in a version 0.2 if demand is high enough. If there is sufficient interest then the server-side functionality can be added to enable online play, with a system in place to ensure that servers can be paid for (perhaps a cheap monthly subscription model?).
Monetisation
The aim for this project is NOT to monetise it. Rocket League saw terrible changes once the Item Shop was added, and even the costs for crates and keys prevented some members of the community from collecting items and fully enjoying the game. Instead, this game will, if it becomes successful enough to warrant online servers, only use funding to keep itself running, and in the event anyone needs to be employed full time to maintain it with a growing playerbase, to pay them a fair wage for their time. Any additional profit in any given year should be held for maintaining servers in the future should demand fall, or for any future needs of the game such as a large effort to upgrade to a new engine, anti-cheating measures, etc.