The flick shows itself, the width is a dial, the blood stays on

Three asks. The placement ring: an aimed rally hit stamps a gold ring that
fades where the shot is going — flick, watch it bite the corner, learn the
cause. Not stamped for unaimed hits (marking scatter would teach noise), gone
in 0.8s (a permanent ring reads as a target rather than feedback).

The opponent's width is the ladder's third dial. Its returns scatter off
aimError x (1 - quality), which painted lines from game one. matchWideBase
2.1 keeps opponent one inside what an auto-run player can cover — measured,
25 returns all inside +-2.2m — and matchWidePer earns 0.4m per rung, so
line-painting is the late ladder. Speed, reliability, width: three dials.

The blood vignette replaces the temporary border. The old wash flashed 0.3s
and vanished, so between hits the screen said you were fine. A radial
vignette reads G.hp directly now — its depth is your damage fraction,
permanent until healed, hit pulse riding on top. Global: the hp channel is
global. Same no-HP-bar philosophy one layer out; at 1 hp the frame is
properly blood-rimmed and the court centre stays legible.

44 tests, 12 seeds clean.

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

src/gameplay.js

@@ -146,6 +146,20 @@ function doHit(ch, quality, aim) {
     tz = (toFar ? tzBase : COURT.L - tzBase) + err() * 0.8;
   }
   tx = Math.max(-5, Math.min(5, tx));
+  if (G.match) {
+    // THE OPPONENT'S WIDTH IS THE LADDER'S THIRD DIAL. Its returns scatter off aimError x (1 - 0.55
+    // quality), which paints lines an auto-run player cannot reach — "still a LOT of unreachable
+    // balls". Opponent one keeps its returns inside matchWideBase of the centre line; each rung
+    // earns matchWidePer more width, so the line-painting is the LATE ladder, not the opening one.
+    if (ch.side !== 'P') {
+      const wide = TUNE.matchWideBase + (G.match.opp - 1) * TUNE.matchWidePer;
+      tx = Math.max(-wide, Math.min(wide, tx));
+    }
+    // THE PLACEMENT, MADE VISIBLE: your aimed rally hit stamps its landing point, and render draws a
+    // fading ring there — flick, see the ring bite the corner, learn the cause. Only when a flick or
+    // held direction actually aimed it: an unaimed hit marking its scatter would teach noise.
+    else if (aim && (aim.ax || aim.az || aim.fx !== undefined)) G.placeMark = { x: tx, z: tz, t: 0.8 };
+  }
   // topspin: quality shots dive under extra effective gravity, which is what lets real
   // pace arc over the net and still land in — the core tennis trade-off
   const g = TUNE.gravity * (1 + quality * TUNE.spinFactor);
@@ -1235,6 +1249,7 @@ export function update(dt) {
   // died, so the biggest gore burst in the game happened underneath it and nobody ever saw it.
   // BELOW the modal return, like the flash: a card raised in the same beat as a popup used to
   // burn its whole life dimmed-out underneath it — now it holds and plays AFTER the dismissal.
+  if (G.placeMark && (G.placeMark.t -= dt) <= 0) G.placeMark = null; // the placement ring fades
   if (G.card) {
     if (G.card.wait > 0) G.card.wait -= dt;
     else { G.card.t -= dt; if (G.card.t <= 0) G.card = null; }