The toss is the server's ball — the real death loop

"still when I lost a single point and try to serve again every further tap
does hurt me more until I am dead". Reproduced tap-for-tap this time, and the
serveNum fix was a red herring — a real bug, but not this one.

tossBall never stamped ball.lastHit. After any rally the zombie touched last,
the freshly tossed ball still said lastHit 'O' — and the previous pass moved
the server behind the baseline, past the passing-shot line. So the moment the
toss went up, the game saw an opponent ball beyond your baseline: "its
passing shot ends the duel", point to them, blood. Every tap = a toss = an
instant lost point, faster the more he panicked. Two fixes composed into a
death loop; the stale field was harmless while serving happened inside the
court.

One stamp in tossBall — ball.lastHit = sv.side — fixes every caller. The duel
and the gore mode carried the same latent bug for anyone tossing deep behind
the line after a racket-zombie touch.

Verified with the exact field shape: lose a rally the zombie touched last,
then eight badly-timed panic taps — one honestly lost point, zero
toss-bleeds. Before the fix every single toss bled.

41 tests, 15 seeds clean.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

PROJECT.md

@@ -889,6 +889,29 @@ again and again until i die"*.
   seven straight games: **it now loses the match** (2-3, then blooded out in game two). That may
   even be too hot — `matchSpeedBase`/`matchFlub` are the two dials, and Oliver's thumb is the judge.
 
+**SIXTEENTH PASS — the REAL death loop, and my serveNum fix was a red herring.** Oliver, again:
+*"still when I lost a single point and try to serve again every further tap does hurt me more until
+I am dead"*. Reproduced tap-for-tap this time before touching anything, and the previous diagnosis
+was wrong — serveNum was A bug, but not THE bug.
+
+**`tossBall` never stamped `ball.lastHit`.** After any rally the zombie touched last, the freshly
+tossed ball still said `lastHit: 'O'` — and the fourteenth pass moved the server BEHIND the baseline
+(z 24.3, past the passing-shot line at COURT.L + 0.3). So the moment the toss went up, the game saw
+"an opponent ball beyond your baseline": *its passing shot ends the duel* -> point to them -> blood.
+Every tap = a toss = an instant lost point, faster the more he panicked. Two of my fixes composed
+into a death loop: the stale field was harmless while serving happened INSIDE the court.
+
+One stamp in `tossBall` (`ball.lastHit = sv.side` — the toss is the server's ball) fixes every
+caller. **The duel and the gore mode carried the same latent bug** for anyone tossing from deep
+behind the line after a racket-zombie touch; it never fired only because splatter serving used to
+happen from inside the court. Verified in the browser with the exact field shape: lose a rally the
+zombie touched last, then eight badly-timed panic taps — one honestly lost point, zero toss-bleeds.
+
+**The lesson for this file: when a report survives a fix, the fix was wrong — reproduce before
+re-diagnosing.** The serveNum reset was real and stays, but it was found by reading code, not by
+reproducing the report, and the actual loop needed the exact field conditions (a zombie touch, the
+new serve position, panic-speed taps) to show itself.
+
 **Open, and every one of them is Oliver's call after he plays it:**
 1. ~~**A ball that carries through the lane can complete two steps at once.**~~ Largely CLOSED by
    the slice removal (seventh pass) — a cut ball picking its own next victim was the main way this

index.html

@@ -400,6 +400,6 @@
     </div>
   </div>
 </div>
-<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=167"></script>
+<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=168"></script>
 </body>
 </html>

src/gameplay.js

@@ -192,6 +192,15 @@ function tossBall(sv) {
   // keeps the reach he was drawn with.
   ball.x = sv.x + (sv.side === 'P' ? 0.12 : -0.35); ball.z = sv.z; ball.y = TOSS.y0;
   ball.vx = 0; ball.vz = 0; ball.vy = TOSS.vy; ball.g = TUNE.gravity;
+  // THE TOSS IS THE SERVER'S BALL. lastHit was left stale from the previous rally, and if the
+  // OPPONENT had touched it last, the freshly tossed ball read as *their* ball in flight — which
+  // armed every rule that judges an opponent ball, most fatally the passing-shot test: the match
+  // serves from BEHIND the baseline (z 24.3 > the test's 24.07), so the moment you tossed after any
+  // rally they had touched, "its passing shot ends the duel" fired, the point went to them and drew
+  // blood. That was Oliver's death loop: every tap = a toss = an instant lost point, faster the
+  // more he panicked. One stamp here fixes every caller — the duel and the gore mode carried the
+  // same latent bug for anyone tossing from deep behind the line.
+  ball.lastHit = sv.side;
   G.phase = 'toss';
 }
 export function serveApexY() { return TOSS.y0 + TOSS.vy * TOSS.vy / (2 * TUNE.gravity); } // ~2.95

test.js

@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ globalThis.getComputedStyle = () => ({ paddingTop: '0' });
 
 // ---- game modules (real code) ----------------------------------------------
 const { G, P, O, score, ball, setupPoint } = await import('./src/state.js');
-const { update, forceZombies, splatPoint, restartRun, flickTarget } = await import('./src/gameplay.js');
+const { update, forceZombies, splatPoint, restartRun, flickTarget, keyPressed } = await import('./src/gameplay.js');
 const { startDuel, resolveInterlude, startBossFight, endBossFight, startDrill: _startDrill, endDrill, startMatch: _startMatch, endMatch } = await import('./src/beats.js');
 // the drill's first-sight modal freezes the world (that is what modals do) — dismiss it the way a
 // player would, so the tests step a live court
@@ -570,6 +570,24 @@ test('THE DEATH LOOP: a fault before a lost point must not arm second-serve fore
   assert.equal(G.serveNum, 1, '...whoever won it');
 });
 
+test('THE REAL DEATH LOOP: a toss after their rally touch is not their passing shot', () => {
+  // tossBall left ball.lastHit stale. After any rally the zombie touched last, the fresh toss still
+  // said lastHit 'O' — and the match serves from BEHIND the baseline (z 24.3), past the passing-shot
+  // line (COURT.L + 0.3), so the moment the toss went up the game scored "its passing shot ends the
+  // duel": a point and blood per TAP. serveNum was a red herring; this was the loop Oliver hit twice.
+  startMatch();
+  for (let i = 0; i < 2.0 * 60; i++) update(DT); // ride out the intro beat — it blocks serving
+  const hp0 = G.hp, pts0 = score.pts.slice();
+  ball.lastHit = 'O'; ball.active = false;      // the zombie touched the last rally ball
+  assert.ok(P.z > COURT.L + 0.3, 'setup: the server stands behind the passing-shot line');
+  keyPressed('Space');                           // the toss goes up
+  assert.equal(G.phase, 'toss', 'the toss is up');
+  for (let i = 0; i < 40; i++) update(DT);       // two thirds of a second of flight
+  assert.equal(G.hp, hp0, 'no blood for tossing a ball');
+  assert.deepEqual(score.pts, pts0, 'and no point changes hands');
+  assert.equal(ball.lastHit, 'P', 'the toss is the server\'s ball');
+});
+
 test('every point starts with the receiver on its mark', () => {
   startMatch();
   const rz = oppOf();