diff --git a/HANDOFF.md b/HANDOFF.md
index 50fe4a9..ee2eabd 100644
--- a/HANDOFF.md
+++ b/HANDOFF.md
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ everything they specified is shipped, and what still matters from them is record
long history, `~/.claude/projects/.../memory/splatter-tennis-history.md` is auto-loaded; for the
detail of any individual change, read the git log.
-Last updated 2026-07-30, after Oliver's THIRD playtest round (the readability pass). All playtest
+Last updated 2026-07-30, after Oliver's FOURTH playtest round (viewport, horde survivability). All playtest
rounds are closed at the bottom. Step 6 (crowd turning, ball-boy catcher) stays PARKED by his
decision. **Awaiting his next phone playtest.**
@@ -166,6 +166,22 @@ zombie (now an occasional opponent, `TUNE.racketEvery`, not the every-game fixtu
"too much and not situation aware.. they seem random". Each line is now tied to the thing that
justifies it — a new variant appearing, the court filling up, one crossing your baseline, a game lost,
a tin delivered, a horde, a changeover, a machine, a boss, the trainer, taking a hit.
+- **The portrait viewport ADAPTS to the device, and `TUNE.horizon` must ride with it.** `fitViewport`
+ picks `h = 270 * clamp(innerHeight/innerWidth, 1.6, 2.3)` — a fixed 270x480 is 9:16 while a modern
+ iPhone is ~0.46, so width bound the fit and ~150 CSS px of screen went unused. `proj()` places the
+ court in ABSOLUTE logical px off `horizon`, and the rack/meter hang off `H - ...`, so extra height
+ lands entirely in the apron between them: leaving `horizon` fixed just grew a dead green band.
+ It is computed as `45 + (h - 480) * 0.72` for that reason. `RES` is 4 (was 3) so an iPhone's ~1125
+ device px across is nearly 1:1 with our 1080 — **`RES` is the first knob to turn down if the phone
+ ever stutters**, it is the whole fill-rate budget.
+ Note `#hint` (the desktop key legend) is already `display:none` on `pointer: coarse`; it only
+ overlaps the rack in the desktop test pane, which is not a real bug.
+- **The swish cooldown scales with how swarmed you are** (`meleeCooldown()` in gameplay.js):
+ `meleeCool / (1 + (near-1) * meleeCrowd)`, floored at `meleeCoolMin`, counting bodies within
+ `meleeCrowdR`. 1 body 1.00 s, 4 → 0.47, 8 → 0.27, 14+ → 0.22. Oliver died on every game-20 horde
+ because the wave grows with `hordeGrow` while the panic button was a flat 1 s; he chose scaling the
+ melee over shrinking the horde. **Measure the crowd BEFORE calling `meleeSwipe`** — it kills
+ everything in reach, so counting after counts the survivors and the cooldown barely moves.
- **`UI` in config.js is the accent palette** (hot/warm/pick/cream/dim/bad/ball). Every HUD colour
goes through it. Gore reds are deliberately NOT in it — the splatter stays loud.
- **`F(size, bold)` in render.js builds every canvas font string.** Bare `monospace` resolves to
@@ -329,6 +345,37 @@ Known generator quirks, all still true:
---
+# CLOSED — Oliver's fourth playtest (2026-07-30)
+
+### The game did not use the full height of his iPhone
+Fixed by making the portrait logical height adaptive and letting `horizon` ride with it — see the
+invariant above. On a 375x812 pane: logical 270x585 (was 270x480), canvas CSS 375x812, **100% of both
+axes**. `RES` 3 -> 4 for the "extra pixels" he asked about.
+
+### Dying on every game-20 horde
+The swish cooldown now scales with crowding — see the invariant. Note the ordering trap recorded
+there; the first implementation measured the crowd after the swipe had already killed it, so the
+cooldown only moved once ~14 bodies were present.
+
+### The weapon message was lost when the heal popup fired
+`showModal` deliberately never clobbers an open modal, so winning a duel while wounded opened the
+heal modal and the weapon modal was silently dropped. `deliverTin(healLine)` now folds the trainer
+into the WEAPON popup as an extra line, so there is one popup carrying both. An unwounded duel win
+still shows the plain weapon popup.
+
+### The mop boy walked out with nothing to mop
+`sendBoy` now returns early when `mop` is set and no stain passes the same test `mopRound` uses to
+pick a target (`a >= 0.15 && z >= COURT.netZ - 2`) — he was walking on, finding nothing reachable,
+and walking straight off. This needs `state.js` to read `gore`, which adds a **third runtime-only
+import cycle** (state <-> zombies) alongside input<->gameplay and zombies<->gameplay; it is safe for
+the same reason, `gore` is only touched inside `sendBoy` at runtime, never during module evaluation.
+
+### Regression net
+30 tapped tennis points = 50 hits / 0 whiffs. 45-game soak: no exceptions, all four chapters,
+`mgT` drains, gore 40 / piles 30 / bodies capped at 34.
+
+---
+
# CLOSED — Oliver's third playtest: audio, hit timing, readability (2026-07-30)
### The umpire talked too much and at random
diff --git a/config.js b/config.js
index 05f3074..cb93afb 100644
--- a/config.js
+++ b/config.js
@@ -163,6 +163,13 @@ export const TUNE = {
backstopKeep: 0.55, // pace a ball keeps after the rebound — still lethal, slower
backstopPop: 1.8, // m/s of lift off the fence, so the rebound travels back instead of dying at the net posts
meleeCool: 1.0, // s between racket swishes — melee is the panic button, not the default
+ meleeCrowd: 0.38, // ...but the panic button PANICS. The cooldown shortens with how many bodies are
+ // actually on top of you, so a late horde stops outrunning your only close-range
+ // answer: cool = meleeCool / (1 + (near-1)*meleeCrowd), floored at meleeCoolMin.
+ // 1 body 1.00s, 4 bodies 0.47s, 8 bodies 0.28s.
+ meleeCoolMin: 0.22,
+ 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
// 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.
diff --git a/gameplay.js b/gameplay.js
index f6ac929..ed35331 100644
--- a/gameplay.js
+++ b/gameplay.js
@@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ const WDESC = { // what the tin you just won actually does — one line, shown o
FIRE: ['KILLS ON ANY TOUCH', 'AND SETS THE OTHERS ALIGHT'],
GUN: ['HOLD THE LINE AND SPRAY', 'A BURST, NOT A SERVE'],
};
-export function deliverTin() {
+export function deliverTin(healLine = null) {
const w = G.deliveries++ % 4, add = k => Math.min(TUNE.wCap, k);
if (w === 0) G.bombs = add(G.bombs + TUNE.bombMax);
else if (w === 1) G.triples = add(G.triples + TUNE.tinTriples);
@@ -422,8 +422,11 @@ export function deliverTin() {
aside('ump_new_balls_dark', 2.0); // "...and a new opponent, apparently."
const name = SLOTS[w + 1];
- showModal({ title: name, body: WDESC[name], icon: ['w_bomb', 'w_triple', 'w_fire', 'w_gun'][w],
- iconH: 40, color: UI.warm });
+ // healLine folds the trainer's visit INTO this popup. `showModal` deliberately never clobbers an
+ // open modal (a kill cascade can try to open two in one frame), so when both happened the heal
+ // modal opened first and the weapon one was lost entirely — Oliver: "the weapon message is lost".
+ showModal({ title: name, body: healLine ? [...WDESC[name], '', healLine] : WDESC[name],
+ icon: ['w_bomb', 'w_triple', 'w_fire', 'w_gun'][w], iconH: 40, color: UI.warm });
}
// ---- the interlude: order is restored, one sudden-death point vs the racket zombie.
@@ -496,17 +499,14 @@ export function resolveInterlude(side) {
cheer(3, 0.7);
// winning the duel patches you up. THE reason to want a duel rather than merely tolerate it —
// it is the only healing in the game, and blood is the only thing you cannot buy back otherwise.
+ let healLine = null;
if (G.hp < G.hpMax) {
const before = G.hp;
G.hp = Math.min(G.hpMax, G.hp + TUNE.healPerDuel);
- // a real popup, not a flash: getting patched up is the only way blood comes back, so it deserves
- // to stop the world for a beat and say so plainly. The trainer came on. It's still tennis.
voice('ump_trainer', 0.2, 0.95);
- showModal({ title: 'WOUNDS TREATED', color: UI.pick, icon: 'x_cross', iconH: 34,
- body: ['THE TRAINER PATCHED YOU UP',
- (G.hp - before) + ' OF ' + G.hpMax + ' BACK · NOW ' + G.hp + '/' + G.hpMax] });
+ healLine = '+ WOUNDS TREATED · NOW ' + G.hp + '/' + G.hpMax;
}
- deliverTin(); // win the point, win the next tin — on the spot
+ deliverTin(healLine); // win the point, win the next tin — and the trainer, in ONE popup
} else {
voice('game_opponent', 0.4); aww(0.85); // lost the sudden-death duel
score.games[1]++; G.runGames++; // it goes on the scoreboard
@@ -793,12 +793,26 @@ export function dragServe(aim) {
hitServe(P, pullQuality(aim.mag), aim); // a full pull is quality 1.0 — PERFECT, hitstop and all
}
+// The swish cooldown, scaled by how crowded you are. Oliver died on every game-20 horde: the wave
+// grows with hordeGrow but the panic button was a flat 1 s, so past a certain density it simply could
+// not keep up. He picked "melee fires more frequently with horde density" over shrinking the horde.
+function meleeCooldown() {
+ let near = 0;
+ for (const zb of zombies) if (zb && Math.hypot(zb.x - P.x, zb.z - P.z) < TUNE.meleeCrowdR) near++;
+ return Math.max(TUNE.meleeCoolMin, TUNE.meleeCool / (1 + Math.max(0, near - 1) * TUNE.meleeCrowd));
+}
+
export function keyPressed(code) {
if (code !== 'Space') return;
audio(); // unlock on first gesture
// a swish cleaves adjacent shamblers — but it's on a cooldown now: the panic button, not the
// default attack. A whiff costs nothing (nothing was in range), a connect locks it for meleeCool.
- if (G.mode === 'splatter' && G.meleeT <= 0 && meleeSwipe(P.x, P.z, TUNE.meleeRange)) G.meleeT = TUNE.meleeCool;
+ if (G.mode === 'splatter' && G.meleeT <= 0) {
+ // measure the crowd BEFORE the swipe — it kills everything in reach, so counting afterwards
+ // counts the SURVIVORS and the cooldown barely moved no matter how swarmed you were
+ const cool = meleeCooldown();
+ if (meleeSwipe(P.x, P.z, TUNE.meleeRange)) G.meleeT = cool;
+ }
// AN INCOMING SHOT OWNS THE TAP. The parry used to live behind the `phase === 'rally'` branch at the
// bottom of this function — and in splatter you are in `pretoss` almost all of the time, so a tap
// aimed at a machine's shot tossed the serve ball instead and the return was, in practice,
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index 0011e2b..49bcd1b 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -60,6 +60,6 @@
TAP TO START
-
+