A perfect serve is a cut ball: it hooks from kill to kill

Slice is not a tin and not a rack slot. It is what a perfect serve DOES —
the toss ritual's 45 ms window, or a pull that stops inside perfectBand.
Every other weapon is handed to you; this one is a technique, and it hands
the plain ball a real route to the DOUBLE/TRIPLE KILL ladder that until now
only a bomb or a lucky line-up could reach. Banking your specials stops
meaning playing worse in the meantime.

Only a kill hooks, so a wound ends the chain and no brute, steward or boss
ever extends one. It is a crowd skill shot, which is the half of the arsenal
the tins do not cover.

The pull had to learn a third state to say this. Quality SATURATES at
pullFull, so an overpull and a perfect pull drew an identical band: the game
was asking you to hit a window it never showed you. The band now goes chalk
white inside it and the mark on the target grows a second ring — the fill
says where the ball lands, the ring says it will not stop there.

The chain path is deliberately NOT previewed. It is a scallop laid over the
exact patch of court you need to read, it solves the shot before you take
it, and the bodies walk — any chain drawn at pull time is a lie by the time
the ball arrives, which is the one thing the band exists not to be.

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

config.js

@@ -237,6 +237,18 @@ export const TUNE = {
   meleeCrowdR: 3.4, // m — the radius that counts as "on top of you" for that scaling (> meleeRange,
                     // so the swish speeds up as they close in, not only once they are already on you)
   zPierce: 0.75,    // pace a ball keeps after a splatter — hot balls plow through lined-up pairs
+  // ---- SLICE. Not a tin and not a rack slot: it is what a PERFECT serve DOES. Cut the ball and it
+  // hooks off each body it kills onto the next one instead of plowing straight on. Every other
+  // weapon is something you are handed; this one is a technique, which is why it is earned on the
+  // timing window (the toss ritual's 45 ms, or a pull that STOPS inside perfectBand) rather than
+  // won out of a barrel. Only a KILL hooks — a wound ends the chain — so it is a crowd skill shot
+  // that does nothing to a brute, a steward or a boss, and it hands the plain ball a real route to
+  // the DOUBLE/TRIPLE KILL ladder that until now only a bomb or a lucky line-up could reach.
+  sliceHops: 2,     // extra bodies one perfect serve hooks to. 2 => TRIPLE KILL is the ceiling
+  sliceR: 6.5,      // m the hook reaches for the next body. Wider reads as the game aiming for you;
+                    // much narrower and a spread-out crowd never chains at all
+  sliceTurn: 11,    // rad/s the ball swings onto the next one, and THE knob for how it looks: past
+                    // ~30 it snaps like a ricochet, under ~6 it sails wide before finishing the turn
   // The schedule calls the DUEL, not the tin: weapons are only ever won, but a duel comes round
   // on its own so there is always a chance at one. Fires off the next hand-cleared wave.
   duelFirst: 2,     // game after which the first scheduled sudden-death duel is called

gameplay.js

@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ function doHit(ch, quality, aim) {
   ball.pow = quality; // carried pace: zombies splatter only above zSplatQ
   ball.kills = 0;     // fresh shot: multi-kill streak restarts
   ball.bomb = false; ball.flame = false; ball.wid = 'ball'; // only a consuming serve arms these; any other hit clears them
+  ball.chain = 0; ball.hook = null; // ...and the slice dies with the shot that earned it
   ball.praise = null; // a re-hit is a new shot: a stale armed word must not pop on ITS impact
   if (ch.side === 'P') { // shot marker: where this will land — red means it's going out
     // TENNIS ONLY. It answers "did that land in?", and splatter does not ask: `out` could never be
@@ -262,15 +263,20 @@ export function previewServe(aim) {
   const st = splatServeTarget(P, aim, s, c.x, c.z);
   if (!st) return null;
   const { v, g } = serveArc(c.x, c.y, c.z, st.tx, st.tz, q, st.ty);
-  return shotBand(c.x, c.y, c.z, v, g, st.tx, st.tz, st.ty, !!st.ft.zt, q);
+  // ...and WHETHER THIS ONE SLICES. The perfect window was invisible until now: quality saturates
+  // at pullFull, so an overpull and a perfect pull drew an identical band and you were being asked
+  // to hit a target the game never showed you. Now the band goes chalk-white inside it. Plain balls
+  // only, because only a plain ball hooks (see hitServe).
+  return shotBand(c.x, c.y, c.z, v, g, st.tx, st.tz, st.ty, !!st.ft.zt, q,
+    pullPerfect(aim.mag) && G.weapon === 0 && !G.temp);
 }
 
 // The drawable form of a shot: everything render needs and nothing that would pin a zombie object
 // alive (`zt` is a flag, not the body — the trail below outlives whatever it was aimed at). `ty` is
 // the arrival height, so the mark render paints sits exactly where the ball is going.
-function shotBand(x0, y0, z0, v, g, tx, tz, ty, zt, q) {
+function shotBand(x0, y0, z0, v, g, tx, tz, ty, zt, q, pf = false) {
   const T = Math.hypot(tx - x0, tz - z0) / (Math.hypot(v.vx, v.vz) || 1); // flight time to target
-  return { x0, y0, z0, v, g, tx, tz, ty, zt, q, f: qualityFrac(q), T, t: 0 };
+  return { x0, y0, z0, v, g, tx, tz, ty, zt, q, pf, f: qualityFrac(q), T, t: 0 };
 }
 
 // `perfect` is passed SEPARATELY from `quality` because the two serves earn it differently: the toss
@@ -295,7 +301,8 @@ function hitServe(sv, quality, aim = null, perfect = quality > 0.999) {
   // strobe — band, gone, band, gone. Instead the arc stays and the ball eats it from behind as it
   // flies, so the aim resolves into the shot rather than blinking out of existence. This is the
   // ACTUAL launch, error included, so the ball tracks the band it is consuming exactly.
-  if (st) G.trail = shotBand(ball.x, ball.y, ball.z, v, g, boxX, tzs, st.ty, !!st.ft.zt, quality);
+  if (st) G.trail = shotBand(ball.x, ball.y, ball.z, v, g, boxX, tzs, st.ty, !!st.ft.zt, quality,
+    perfect && G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude && G.weapon === 0 && !G.temp);
   ball.g = g;
   ball.vx = v.vx; ball.vy = v.vy; ball.vz = v.vz;
   ball.lastHit = sv.side; ball.bounces = 0;
@@ -311,6 +318,11 @@ function hitServe(sv, quality, aim = null, perfect = quality > 0.999) {
   const wsel = G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.interlude ? G.weapon : 0;
   const wid = G.interlude || (wsel === 0 && !G.temp) ? 'ball' : slotId(wsel), armed = slotStock(wsel) > 0;
   ball.wid = armed ? wid : 'ball'; // an unstocked tin throws a plain ball — file the kills that way
+  // THE SLICE. A perfect serve with a PLAIN ball is cut: it hooks body to body (see splatter).
+  // Plain only — a bomb, a flame ball and a laser already have an identity, and stacking a hook
+  // on top of one would read as the tin misbehaving rather than as something you did.
+  ball.chain = perfect && ball.wid === 'ball' ? TUNE.sliceHops : 0;
+  ball.hook = null;
   // THE LASER fires instead of the ball, down the lane this serve was aimed at. Everything else
   // about the gesture is untouched — the pull, the aim, the release — which is the whole point of it.
   if (wid === 'laser' && armed) {
@@ -1561,6 +1573,25 @@ export function update(dt) {
         t: 0.5 + Math.random() * 0.4, smoke: true });
     }
     ball.vy -= (ball.g || TUNE.gravity) * dt;
+    // THE HOOK. splatter() points a sliced ball at its next body; this is the swing onto it, and it
+    // is the whole look of the weapon — a ball that BENDS through a crowd instead of ricocheting off
+    // it at an angle. It flies flat while hooking (a hop of a few metres would otherwise drop half a
+    // metre and pass under the next chest), and it sheds a one-pixel chalk thread so the curve is
+    // still on screen a beat after the ball has gone. The thread is the beacon's `fine` particle:
+    // 1 px, so the ball stays the bright thing and the line reads as the cut, not as a second ball.
+    if (ball.hook) {
+      const dx = ball.hook.x - ball.x, dz = ball.hook.z - ball.z;
+      if (dx * dx + dz * dz < 0.09) ball.hook = null; // arrived (or it moved) — gravity has it back
+      else {
+        const sp = Math.hypot(ball.vx, ball.vz) || 1;
+        const cur = Math.atan2(ball.vx, ball.vz), want = Math.atan2(dx, dz);
+        const da = ((want - cur + Math.PI * 3) % (Math.PI * 2)) - Math.PI; // shortest way round
+        const a = cur + Math.sign(da) * Math.min(Math.abs(da), TUNE.sliceTurn * dt);
+        ball.vx = Math.sin(a) * sp; ball.vz = Math.cos(a) * sp; ball.vy = 0;
+        parts.push({ x: ball.x, y: ball.y, z: ball.z, vx: 0, vy: 0, vz: 0,
+          t: 0.28, fine: true, spark: '#f2f2e6' });
+      }
+    }
     const oldZ = ball.z;
     ball.x += ball.vx * dt; ball.y += ball.vy * dt; ball.z += ball.vz * dt;
     // net: plane at netZ, only during rally flight

render.js

@@ -744,7 +744,12 @@ function drawShotBand(a, u0, flying) {
   // of tapering, so the gesture SHOWS you the wedge before you commit to it. Oliver asked for the
   // band itself to communicate the shape of the shot.
   const beamW = WEAPONS[slotId(G.weapon)]?.beam ? 1 : 0;
+  // CHALK WHITE = this one is SLICED. The band has always had one threshold (kills / only staggers)
+  // and the perfect window sat inside the killing half, invisible: quality saturates at pullFull, so
+  // an overpull drew exactly the band a perfect pull did. White is the third state, and the only
+  // place white appears on the court — nothing else in the palette is near it.
   const hex = beamW ? WEAPONS[slotId(G.weapon)].col
+    : a.pf ? '#f2f2e6'
     : a.q >= TUNE.zSplatQ ? (a.zt ? UI.hot : UI.warm) : '#9db4d0';
   // the slice of arc to draw: everything while aiming, a short streak behind the ball in flight
   const lo = flying ? Math.max(0, u0 - TAIL) : 0;
@@ -965,7 +970,7 @@ function drawBeamCuts(dirX, dirZ, ox, oz, L) {
 function drawAimMark(a, u0, flying) {
   const left = 1 - u0;
   if (left <= 0.01) return;
-  const col = a.q >= TUNE.zSplatQ ? (a.zt ? UI.hot : UI.warm) : '#9db4d0';
+  const col = a.pf ? '#f2f2e6' : a.q >= TUNE.zSplatQ ? (a.zt ? UI.hot : UI.warm) : '#9db4d0';
   const onBody = !!a.zt;
   const m = proj(a.tx, a.ty, a.tz); // a.ty is where the ball ARRIVES — mark and impact are one point
   // NOTHING BEHIND THE CAMERA DRAWS. proj's scale is camF/(camZ - z), so a point at or past the
@@ -982,7 +987,15 @@ function drawAimMark(a, u0, flying) {
   if (onBody) ctx.ellipse(m.x, m.y, m.s * 0.26, m.s * 0.38, 0, 0, 7); // upright, over the torso
   else ctx.ellipse(m.x, m.y, m.s * 0.30, m.s * 0.12, 0, 0, 7);        // flat, lying on the grass
   ctx.fill();
-  ctx.globalAlpha = 1;
+  // ...and a SECOND ring outside it when the shot is sliced: the fill says where the ball lands,
+  // the ring says it will not stop there. Drawn on the mark rather than as a third HUD element
+  // because your eye is already on this body — that is what you are aiming at.
+  if (a.pf && onBody) {
+    ctx.globalAlpha = 0.75 * (flying ? left * left : 1);
+    ctx.strokeStyle = col; ctx.lineWidth = Math.max(1, m.s * 0.02);
+    ctx.beginPath(); ctx.ellipse(m.x, m.y, m.s * 0.36, m.s * 0.50, 0, 0, 7); ctx.stroke();
+  }
+  ctx.globalAlpha = 1; ctx.lineWidth = 1;
 }
 
 function drawRing(x, z, color, k = 1) { // k: radius scale — the landing ring contracts on time-to-touchdown

zombies.js

@@ -630,8 +630,25 @@ export function meleeSwipe(x, z, range) {
 
 function splatter(i, fanfare = true) { // the MAIN ball hit a zombie
   const zx = zombies[i].x, zy = zombieH(zombies[i]) * 0.9, zz = zombies[i].z; // for the pops — killZombie splices
+  const sp0 = Math.hypot(ball.vx, ball.vz); // pace BEFORE the pierce tax, for a slice to keep
   killZombie(i, !!G.horde);
   ball.vx *= TUNE.zPierce; ball.vz *= TUNE.zPierce; // keep enough pace to plow through the next
+  // SLICE: hook off this body onto the next one, at FULL pace. The pierce tax is what a straight
+  // ball pays for plowing through meat, and a cut ball does not plow — it leaves. Only a kill gets
+  // here, so a wound ends the chain on its own and no brute, steward or boss ever extends one.
+  if (ball.chain > 0) {
+    const nx = nearestTo(zx, zz, TUNE.sliceR);
+    if (nx) {
+      ball.chain--;
+      const k = sp0 / (Math.hypot(ball.vx, ball.vz) || 1);
+      ball.vx *= k; ball.vz *= k;
+      ball.hook = { x: nx.x, z: nx.z }; // a POINT, not the body: the hook must not pin a corpse alive
+      G.trail = null;   // the fired band is the parabola this ball has just STOPPED flying — leaving
+                        // it up draws a streak peeling away from the ball, which is the one thing
+                        // the band exists to avoid. From here the chalk thread is the trail.
+      pock(0.5, 1100 + 450 * ball.kills); // the cut, a step higher up the scale per link
+    } else ball.chain = 0;              // nothing in reach: it plows on as a normal ball
+  }
   if (!fanfare) return;           // machine-gun pellets splatter but skip the streak fanfare / bomb meter
   ball.kills++;                   // this shot's running streak
   // splat micro-freeze: every ball kill stutters the world a touch, and the stutter grows with the
@@ -694,6 +711,18 @@ export function firePellet(w = WEAPONS.gun) {
   else if (++mgTick % 2 === 0) pock(0.25, w.ignite ? 300 : 1400);
 }
 const HUES = ['#ff6b6b', '#ffd166', '#7bffa0', '#6bd5ff', '#c08bff', '#ff8bd5'];
+// the next body a slice hooks onto: nearest live thing to the kill it just made, in any direction —
+// a cut ball can come BACK down-court, and the shot that curls round into something behind the body
+// you aimed at is the one worth earning. Furniture and barrels are not bodies and never a target.
+function nearestTo(x, z, maxD) {
+  let best = null, bd = maxD;
+  for (const zb of zombies) {
+    if ('mo'.includes(zb.variant)) continue;
+    const d = Math.hypot(zb.x - x, zb.z - z);
+    if (d < bd) { bd = d; best = zb; }
+  }
+  return best;
+}
 // the best thing up-court to lob at: nearest body ahead of you, ignoring furniture you can walk past
 function nearestAhead() {
   let best = null, bd = 1e9;