Josh Creek
3fd1c00895
Generation 2's single "unmask" stage (flip vertical/pitch-roll locomotion from grounded-only to full 3D in one step) failed 3 independent 240M-step attempts, landing at a stable 32% / 28% / 31% win rate vs curric-s5-aggression each time -- not noise, and not fixable by more training time (attempts 2-3 each continued the same checkpoint lineage for another full 240M steps with zero improvement). Every attempt shows train/std collapsing from ~0.30 to ~0.13-0.15 within the first ~10% of steps and never recovering: the policy locks the newly-opened axes back down before ever meaningfully exploring them. Replaces the boolean allow_vertical/allow_pitch_roll mask on ShipAIController with float vertical_ramp/pitch_roll_ramp multipliers (0.0-1.0), scaling axis effect in set_action() instead of gating it outright -- the action space never changes shape, so checkpoints stay resumable across ramp values. The single unmask stage in curriculum.py becomes 4: three ungated warmup stages (25%/50%/75% authority, airborne_penalty ramping in step) that train, checkpoint, and always advance with no eval gate, then the measured stage at full authority -- same reference, opponent mode, and 240M budget as the 3 failed attempts, for a direct comparison. Adds a "gated" flag/branch to main()'s loop for the ungated stages. This is generation 3 of the curriculum; generation 2's state is archived to curriculum_state_gen2.json (mirroring the earlier gen1 -> gen2 archival) and curriculum_state.json resets fresh, since its stage 0 no longer means what it used to. See TRAINING.md's "Generation 3" section for the full postmortem, stage table, and the open question about whether scaling action effect in Godot (which PPO's own entropy/exploration math never sees) actually addresses the collapse.
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.