Seven verdicts from the test group

- opening CPU beatable in a game or two (softer cap, more whiffs, rubber band)
- modals are for calm courts only; live-court news is a card now
- the transition howto is gone: a ghost hand teaches the pull, the toss,
  the apex and the swing, each on the exact struggle it answers
- a shot barrel keeps your weapon and glows its slot instead
- switching weapons clicks, the live tile is unmistakable
- barrels come faster the deeper the run goes
- the umpire triple-tap cheat is deleted

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

config.js

@@ -24,7 +24,13 @@ export const TUNE = {
                     // Heavy topspin lets it leave flat and DIVE, which is what a smash actually is.
   aimError: 2.4,           // m of scatter at quality 0
   perfectMs: 45,           // |offset from window center| for PERFECT
-  aiQualityMin: 0.45, aiQualityMax: 0.85, aiFlub: 0.09,
+  // The tennis CPU only exists in the OPENING match (after the transition, tennis never comes
+  // back — duels use racket* dials), so these three are the "how long until the first game is won"
+  // knobs. Testers needed several games to get past him: softer cap, twice the whiffs, and
+  // aiFlubLoss rubber-bands him — every game HE takes adds that much flub, so a struggling player
+  // faces an opponent that visibly starts falling apart rather than a wall.
+  aiQualityMin: 0.45, aiQualityMax: 0.72, aiFlub: 0.18,
+  aiFlubLoss: 0.08,
   aiReaction: 0.45,        // s before the CPU reads your shot — well-aimed corners are winners
   autoAssist: matchMedia('(pointer: coarse)').matches ? 1.15 : 0, // auto-run speed factor (mobile)
   // ---- THE SIDESTEP. Free walking stays 'rally'-only (see the movement block in gameplay), which
@@ -298,6 +304,10 @@ export const TUNE = {
                     // DELETED by it (see fireBeam); bosses "must suffer severely" but survive.
   // ---- the weapon barrel: the only way to get the four weapons that are not on the duel ladder
   barrelEvery: 3,   // games between barrels being rolled on (like the ball machine's machEvery)
+  barrelRamp: 8,    // ...and the gap SHRINKS by one for every this many games finished, floored at
+                    // every game (g8 every 2, g16+ every game). Late runs live on the barrels: past
+                    // the point where every tin is capped, fast tapping was the only way left to
+                    // keep up, and "more inventory for strategic use" is the answer to that.
   barrelRoll: 2.6,  // m/s it trundles across the far court — fast enough to have to be led
   barrelHp: 1,      // anything pops it: ball, pellet, bomb, flame, swish. It is a target, not a body
   barrelH: 1.15,    // drawn height (a body is 1.8)