Make the down-flick the soft ball: a short one drops, a long one lobs

Step 3 of the rally rework, Oliver's pick: in rally modes the down-flick
is soft, always, and its length is how far — a dying drop just over the
net at one end, an attacking lob over a net man at the other. One gesture,
one meaning; not the context-armed lob that was cut.

Ballistics from the cut lob (pace derived from the apex); backspin lives
on ball.spin and every bounce planner reads it, netplay sends it. Against
the CPU it was returned ~100% until the real-tennis reasons went in: soft
balls are read late (disguise), a net man reacts to a pass and backpedals
from a lob, and a lobbed or dug-out reply is a weak block. Four new tests;
v363.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

PROJECT.md

@@ -5286,6 +5286,43 @@ bekommen."* Two real defects, measured, and neither of them was a balance value:
   the rig guard (`> 7 m/s`) moved, to `> legKnee*0.8`. Rungs 1-7 are unchanged: the Steward (6) already
   ran 5.6. Ball PACE is untouched; it is at full pace times the league tier from rung 5.
 
+### Step 3: THE SOFT BALL (2026-10-14, v363)
+**In rally modes the down-flick is SOFT, and its length is HOW FAR**: a flick of `flickMin` is a drop
+(`dropNet` 2 m past the net, low arc), a flick of `flickFull` or more is an attacking lob (`lobDeep` 1.6 m
+inside his line, `lobApex` 5.5 m), with a continuum of floaters in between. It is one gesture with one
+meaning everywhere, which is why it does not repeat the 2026-08-22 cut. Lateral sway still comes from
+the swipe's x. Keys take the lob. `aim.soft` (0..1) lets a caller without a swipe ask for one, which is
+the hook for step 2's opponent.
+- **Ballistics** are the cut lob's (4f4534e). The pace is derived from the apex, so the arc is the same
+  from anywhere. There is no topspin. From the baseline the net-clearance loop lofts a drop to ~2.8 m,
+  which is correct (a 2 m arc from there clips the tape).
+- **Mistiming pulls the target toward `softSitter`** (5.5 m, the service line): a drop that sits up, a
+  lob that falls short. It never goes out by depth.
+- **Backspin: `ball.spin`.** A drop keeps `dropSpin` 0.3 of its pace through the bounce and (`spinLow`)
+  half that loss in height too, so it dies. `bXZ()`/`bY()` are the ONE bounce rule. The physics,
+  `intercept`, `bounceContact` and `matchOutOfReachFlight` all read them; a planner rolling the court
+  numbers would predict a ball that is not there. Netplay sends `spin` with the shot, so both phones
+  bounce it alike (an old build reads 1).
+- **What makes it WIN, measured against the CPU** (a well-timed bot, q >= 0.75). It was ~100% returned
+  until four things went in, each of them real tennis:
+  1. `softRead` 0.35 s: any opponent stands reading a soft ball, because it is disguised until contact.
+  2. `netReact` 0.22 s: a net man reads every pass before moving. Without it nothing could pass him.
+  3. `lobTurn` 0.6: a lobbed net man backpedals.
+  4. Weak replies. A lobbed net man who runs it down (`rx.lob`) and a drop dug out below `scoopY`
+     0.45 m (backspin balls only) are capped at `lowVolleyQ`.
+
+  A first cut capped EVERY low contact. Since contact fires on the first frame in reach, that turned
+  every rally ball into a sitter and parked the player at the net, so it was reverted at once.
+- **Result:** a drop played from inside the court wins outright against the slower half of the ladder.
+  Against the rest, a drop or a lob draws a defensive ball back (CPU reply q ~0.40-0.45 against 0.65
+  after a drive) for the player to put away. Rally shape unchanged. A deep lob's high bounce is taken
+  on the RISE when its fall would land past `rallyBehind` (`bounceContact`), otherwise it was unplayable.
+- Tests: drop/lob shape and the lob clearing a net man's racket by 0.5 m, mistimed toward the sitter,
+  the disguise, the lobbed reply cap. 155, fuzzed over 8 seeds. Verified with real touch events in the
+  pane: a short down-swipe is a drop with spin 0.38, a long one a spinless lob.
+- **Not done:** a lesson for the gesture (the ghost hand only teaches the side flick), and a "LOB"/"DROP"
+  word at contact. The arc says it. Add one if the phone test shows nobody finds it.
+
 # OPEN — leftovers, in rough priority order
 
 Nothing here is broken; these are known gaps and unverified risks.