A burst fires for its whole window, and the countdown is the tile itself

The gun, beacon, flamer and rocket fell silent the moment they cleared the court:
firing and steering were both gated on phase 'rally', and every beat raised by the
kill that empties the court (a point, a won game, the mop-up) parks the phase in
'over'. A burst is its own control mode for its whole len, like a horde — its own
clock is the only thing that ends it. Not fixed by forcing the phase back to rally:
a parked 'over' beat that never expires is how pendingHorde gets stranded.

The countdown moved off the tile's bottom edge (the rounded frame, and the bottom of
the screen) into the tile: the armed slot's well drains as a gold wash, clipped to
its own rounded path, under the icon and labels.

16 tests.

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

src/gameplay.js

@@ -1236,7 +1236,12 @@ export function update(dt) {
   // and vetoed on feel: you never walk freely during play, so suddenly being able to between points
   // reads as the game breaking, not as a fix. The frozen-changeover complaint is answered by
   // holding the DEAD instead (see updateZombies), and the stuck pose by the reset below.
-  if (G.phase === 'rally') {
+  // ...and a live BURST is the exception, for the same reason the horde forces 'rally': it is an
+  // auto-fire control mode that owns the finger for its whole window, and the beats that fire when
+  // it clears the court (a point, a won game, the mop-up) park the phase in 'over'. Gating the
+  // steer on the phase froze the player mid-burst the moment he was winning. The settled "no
+  // walking between points" rule is untouched — nothing arms a burst except the player.
+  if (G.phase === 'rally' || G.mgT > 0) {
     if (G.mode === 'tennis' && ball.active && ball.lastHit === 'O') { // closest approach, for never-swung passes
       const d = Math.hypot(ball.x - P.x, (ball.z - P.z) * 0.8);
       if (!G.rallyNear || d < G.rallyNear.d) G.rallyNear = { d, y: ball.y, bz: ball.z, px: P.x, pz: P.z };

src/render.js

@@ -1227,6 +1227,19 @@ function drawRack() {
           sel ? '#1c5230' : '#0a2418',            // sunk slot — the live one sits visibly lit
           sel ? UI.pick : '#05160e');             // gold frame when live
     if (sel) ctx.lineWidth = 1;
+    // THE BURST COUNTDOWN IS THE TILE ITSELF. It was a 1.5 px bar along the tile's bottom edge —
+    // which is both the rounded frame AND the very bottom of a phone screen, so it was invisible
+    // ("the progress bar is not visible anymore because of the lower border"). The armed slot's
+    // WELL drains instead: a lit wash across the whole tile, emptying to the left as the window
+    // runs out. Clipped to the tile's own rounded path (panel leaves it current) so it can never
+    // square off the corners, and drawn UNDER the icon and labels, which stay fully readable.
+    if (G.mgT > 0 && slotId(i) === G.gunId) {
+      const frac = Math.min(1, G.mgT / (WEAPONS[G.gunId]?.len || TUNE.mgPickupLen));
+      ctx.save(); ctx.clip();
+      ctx.fillStyle = hexA(UI.pick, 0.34);
+      ctx.fillRect(x + 1.5, y0 + 1.5, (g.tw - 3) * frac, g.h - 3);
+      ctx.restore();
+    }
     // a slot that just came out of a barrel announces itself: a pink pulse for a moment, WITHOUT
     // stealing the selection (grabbing the gun mid-plan was the complaint — see popBarrel)
     if (G.rackGlow && G.rackGlow.slot === i) {
@@ -1253,8 +1266,6 @@ function drawRack() {
     ctx.font = F(6, 0); ctx.fillStyle = sel ? '#f2ead6' : temp ? UI.pink : '#8fa89a';
     ctx.fillText(label, tx, y0 + g.h * 0.72);                               // weapon label, under its count
     ctx.globalAlpha = 1;
-    // the burst countdown belongs to whichever slot is holding the armed weapon now, not to slot 4
-    if (G.mgT > 0 && slotId(i) === G.gunId) { ctx.fillStyle = UI.pick; ctx.fillRect(x + 2, y0 + g.h - 2, (g.tw - 4) * Math.min(1, G.mgT / (WEAPONS[G.gunId]?.len || TUNE.mgPickupLen)), 1.5); }
   }
   ctx.restore();
 }

src/zombies.js

@@ -927,7 +927,12 @@ export function updateZombies(dt) {
       G.mgT -= dt;
       // whichever gun-like weapon is armed sets the rate and the round (see config.WEAPONS). A
       const gw = WEAPONS[G.gunId] || WEAPONS.gun;
-      if (G.phase === 'rally' && gw.rate && (G.mgCool -= dt) <= 0) { firePellet(gw); G.mgCool = 1 / gw.rate; }
+      // NO PHASE GUARD. It used to require 'rally', and the beats that fire the moment a burst
+      // clears the court all park the phase in 'over' (a point, a won game, the mop-up) — so the
+      // weapon fell silent exactly when it had killed everything, which reads as the gun jamming
+      // ("it should just fire on"). A burst is its own control mode for its whole `len`, like a
+      // horde: the clock above is what ends it, never the beat playing behind it.
+      if (gw.rate && (G.mgCool -= dt) <= 0) { firePellet(gw); G.mgCool = 1 / gw.rate; }
       if (G.mgT <= 0) { endBurst(); setupPoint(); } // window over: spend the tin, resume the serve loop
     }
     if (!G.horde && !G.changeover && !G.interlude && !G.clearing && !G.bossFight) { // breathers, duels, the mop-up after a won game AND a boss fight all get a quiet court (no new spawns)