The match plays fair: deeper pool, no regicide, serves from the line

"the player is too weak in this mode. also the killing by smashing occurs too
often. i cant really control it. maybe obsolete? also the serving after the
first serve does not happen from behind the groundline".

matchPlayerHp 8 — the match brings its own pool. The gore mode's 4 was an
inheritance, not a decision, and a real game has rallies you deserve to lose
without the run ending.

Regicide is out of the match (kept in the duel, where any-weapon-counts is
the point of sudden death). In a full game every hard serve that happened to
meet the body was a free kill nobody aimed. A match ball never damages the
opponent — it passes through like a soft ball and racketAI plays it — so the
wound stages are exactly the scoreboard. That also made hp-per-opponent
meaningless, so the ladder escalates in racketAI instead: +12% speed per body
felled, whiff chance x0.82 per rung.

And serving resets to behind the baseline with real deuce/ad mirroring:
setupPoint's "serve from wherever you're standing" branch now excludes the
match, which falls through to the tennis positioning. Verified live: second
serve from z 24.3, x mirrored to the ad side, opponent unwounded by anything
but the score.

38 tests, 15 seeds clean.

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

PROJECT.md

@@ -853,6 +853,23 @@ because the deepest system in the repo (swings, volleys, lanes, the AI) was alre
 **The drill stays in the back room beside it** — triage is a decent idea that failed the
 grasp-in-five-seconds test, and the match is now the lead candidate for the middle mode.
 
+**FOURTEENTH PASS — the match plays fair.** Oliver: *"the player is too weak in this mode. also the
+killing by smashing occurs too often. i cant really control it. maybe obsolete? also the serving
+after the first serve does not happen from behind the groundline"*.
+- **`matchPlayerHp` 8** — the match brings its own pool. The gore mode's 4 was never a decision
+  here, just an inheritance, and a real game has rallies you deserve to lose without the run ending.
+- **REGICIDE IS OUT OF THE MATCH** (kept in the duel, where "any weapon counts" is the point of a
+  sudden-death). In a full game, every hard serve that happened to meet the body was a free kill
+  nobody aimed. A match ball NEVER damages the opponent now — it passes through like a soft ball and
+  racketAI plays it — so the wound stages are exactly the scoreboard with no side-channel smearing
+  them. This also deleted the hp-per-opponent escalation (a deeper pool changes nothing when the
+  body is pure scoreboard): **the ladder escalates in racketAI instead** — `matchSpeedPer` (+12%
+  speed per body felled) and `matchFlubKeep` (whiff chance × 0.82 per rung).
+- **Serving resets to BEHIND THE BASELINE with real deuce/ad mirroring** — `setupPoint`'s splatter
+  branch ("serve from wherever you're standing") now excludes the match, which falls through to the
+  tennis branch. Serving from mid-court where the last rally left you read as a bug because it was
+  one. Verified: second serve from z 24.3, x mirrored to the ad side.
+
 **Open, and every one of them is Oliver's call after he plays it:**
 1. ~~**A ball that carries through the lane can complete two steps at once.**~~ Largely CLOSED by
    the slice removal (seventh pass) — a cut ball picking its own next victim was the main way this

index.html

@@ -400,6 +400,6 @@
     </div>
   </div>
 </div>
-<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=165"></script>
+<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=166"></script>
 </body>
 </html>

src/beats.js

@@ -219,6 +219,9 @@ export function watchdog(dt) {
 export function startMatch() {
   if (G.interlude || G.horde || G.bossFight || G.drill || G.match) return false;
   G.match = { opp: 1, ending: false };
+  G.hp = G.hpMax = TUNE.matchPlayerHp;  // a real match is longer than four mistakes — the gore
+                                        // mode's 4 was "too weak" here, felt not calculated
+  score.server = 'P';                   // you serve every point (the corpse never learned to toss)
   G.weapon = 0; G.mgT = 0; endBurst(); pellets.length = 0; extras.length = 0; shots.length = 0;
   zombies.length = 0;
   G.boy = null;
@@ -239,7 +242,10 @@ function matchOpponent() {
   spawnRacketZombie();
   const zb = zombies.find(z => z.variant === 'r');
   zb.dueled = true;                                   // wakes racketAI, same as a fresh duel
-  zb.hp = zb.hpMax = TUNE.matchOppHp + (G.match.opp - 1) * TUNE.matchOppHpPer;
+  zb.hp = zb.hpMax = TUNE.matchOppHp;   // a FLAT pool: with regicide gone the body is pure
+                                        // scoreboard (a quarter per point), so a deeper pool would
+                                        // change nothing — the ladder escalates in racketAI instead
+                                        // (matchSpeedPer / matchFlubKeep)
   G.interlude = { introT: 1.6 };                      // the duel machinery IS the match machinery
 }
 

src/config.js

@@ -383,9 +383,12 @@ export const TUNE = {
   matchOppHp: 4,    // the first opponent's pool. FOUR, deliberately: a quarter comes off per point
                     // won, so a love game walks it through every wound stage and the game point
                     // fells it — the scoreboard and the body agree all the way down
-  matchOppHpPer: 2, // extra pool per opponent felled — later corpses soak more regicide punishment
+  matchPlayerHp: 8, // your pool for the MATCH — richer than the gore mode's 4, because a real game
-  matchHeal: 2,     // hp back for a game won (the duel's healPerDuel rate) — a clean game is how
+                    // has rallies you deserve to lose without the run ending ("the player is too
-                    // you last; their every point costs 1 of your playerHp 4
+                    // weak in this mode"). Their point still costs 1; matchHeal is how you last
+  matchSpeedPer: 0.12, // racketAI speed grows this much per opponent felled...
+  matchFlubKeep: 0.82, // ...and its whiff chance keeps only this much — the ladder now that hp is flat
+  matchHeal: 2,     // hp back for a game won (the duel's healPerDuel rate)
   // The timing windows, DRAWN (the match's whole ask: "what is the possible tap window, what is the
   // sweet spot"). Numbers shared with the mechanics they visualise, so the picture cannot lie:
   matchRingFar: 9,  // m — the approach ring fades in once the incoming ball is this close

src/gameplay.js

@@ -949,7 +949,10 @@ function racketAI(rz, dt) {
   const tz = Math.max(1.5, Math.min(COURT.svcFar, ball.z)); // chase laterally, hold deep on the far court
   const dx = ball.x - rz.x, dz = tz - rz.z, d = Math.hypot(dx, dz);
   if (d > 0.15) {
-    const step = Math.min(TUNE.racketSpeed * dt, d);
+    // THE MATCH LADDER ESCALATES HERE, not in hp: with regicide gone the pool is pure scoreboard,
+    // so a harder opponent is a FASTER one that flubs less — the same knobs, scaled per body felled.
+    const spd = TUNE.racketSpeed * (G.match ? 1 + (G.match.opp - 1) * TUNE.matchSpeedPer : 1);
+    const step = Math.min(spd * dt, d);
     rz.dist = (rz.dist || 0) + step; // ground covered — his walk cycle steps off this, not the clock
     rz.x += dx / d * step; rz.z += dz / d * step; rz.runT += dt;
     if (rz.pose !== 'swing') rz.pose = 'run';
@@ -958,7 +961,8 @@ function racketAI(rz, dt) {
   if (rz.swingCool <= 0 && rz.swingT < 0
       && Math.hypot(ball.x - rz.x, (ball.z - rz.z) * 0.8) < TUNE.aiReach
       && ball.y < CONTACT.maxY && ball.y > CONTACT.minY) {
-    if (Math.random() < TUNE.racketFlub) rz.swingCool = 0.5; // whiff — it hesitates
+    const flub = TUNE.racketFlub * (G.match ? Math.pow(TUNE.matchFlubKeep, G.match.opp - 1) : 1);
+    if (Math.random() < flub) rz.swingCool = 0.5; // whiff — it hesitates (rarer per rung of the ladder)
     else { rz.swingT = TUNE.swingWindup + TUNE.swingWindow / 2; trySwing(rz, true, TUNE.racketQMax); rz.swingT = -1; rz.swingCool = 0.3; }
   }
 }

src/state.js

@@ -161,7 +161,11 @@ export const deuceSide = () => (score.pts[0] + score.pts[1]) % 2 === 0; // even
 export function setupPoint() {
   G.phase = 'pretoss'; ball.active = false; ball.bounces = 0;
   G.swingSnaps = null; G.rallyNear = null; G.swung = false;
-  if (G.mode === 'splatter') { // always your serve, from wherever you're standing
+  if (G.mode === 'splatter' && !G.match) { // always your serve, from wherever you're standing
+                                           // (the MATCH falls through to the tennis branch below:
+                                           // real tennis serves from behind the baseline, deuce side
+                                           // mirroring and all — serving from mid-court where the
+                                           // last rally left you read as a bug, because it was one)
     score.server = 'P';
     P.pose = 'idle'; P.swingT = -1; P.facing = 1;
     return;

src/zombies.js

@@ -1139,7 +1139,13 @@ export function updateZombies(dt) {
           continue;
         }
         if (isBoss(zb)) { // boss: splat-quality wounds it; soft balls the racket one rallies (racketAI)
-          if ((ball.pow || 0) >= TUNE.zSplatQ) {
+          // NOT IN THE MATCH. Regicide made sense in the duel (one sudden-death point, any weapon
+          // counts) but in a full game every hard serve that happened to meet the body was a free
+          // kill nobody aimed — Oliver: "the killing by smashing occurs too often. i cant really
+          // control it". A match ball NEVER damages the opponent; it passes through like any soft
+          // ball and racketAI plays it. The score is the only way through — which also makes the
+          // wound stages exactly the scoreboard, with no side-channel smearing them.
+          if ((ball.pow || 0) >= TUNE.zSplatQ && !G.match) {
             zb.hitT = TUNE.bossHitCool; // belt-and-braces: this ball is spent below, but the cooldown
             const dead = wound(zb, TUNE.dmgBall); // is what stops ANY lingering contact multi-wounding
             pock(0.6, 300);

test.js

@@ -531,23 +531,39 @@ test('a point won tears a wound stage off the body; only the game point fells it
   assert.ok(!zombies.includes(zb), 'the game-winning point IS the kill');
   const next = oppOf();
   assert.ok(next && next !== zb, 'a fresh opponent shambled on');
-  assert.equal(next.hpMax, TUNE.matchOppHp + TUNE.matchOppHpPer, 'with a deeper pool');
+  assert.equal(next.hpMax, TUNE.matchOppHp, 'same flat pool — the ladder escalates in speed/flub, not hp');
   assert.equal(G.runGames, 1, 'the ladder banked the game');
   assert.deepEqual(score.pts, [0, 0], 'and the points reset');
 });
 
-test('their points draw blood, and the fourth is the run', () => {
+test('their points draw blood from the MATCH pool, and running dry is the run', () => {
   startMatch();
-  G.hp = TUNE.playerHp;
+  assert.equal(G.hp, TUNE.matchPlayerHp, 'the match brings its own, deeper pool');
-  for (let k = 1; k <= 3; k++) {
   resolveInterlude('O');
-    assert.equal(G.hp, TUNE.playerHp - k, 'point ' + k + ' cost a wound');
+  assert.equal(G.hp, TUNE.matchPlayerHp - 1, 'a point costs one');
-    assert.notEqual(G.mode, 'eaten');
+  G.hp = 1;
-  }
   resolveInterlude('O');
   assert.equal(G.mode, 'eaten', 'blood only — and it runs out the way it always does');
 });
 
+test('a match ball never wounds the body: the score is the only way through', () => {
+  startMatch();
+  const zb = oppOf();
+  // a full-power ball straight into the opponent — the regicide path, now closed for matches
+  ball.active = true; ball.lastHit = 'P'; ball.y = 1.2; ball.pow = 1; ball.bounces = 0;
+  ball.x = zb.x; ball.z = zb.z; ball.vx = 0; ball.vy = 0; ball.vz = -1;
+  for (let i = 0; i < 5; i++) update(DT);
+  assert.ok(zombies.includes(zb), 'still standing');
+  assert.equal(zb.hp, zb.hpMax, 'and unwounded — "killing by smashing" is out of the match');
+});
+
+test('the ladder escalates in speed and reliability, not in hp', () => {
+  // pure arithmetic on the knobs racketAI reads — pinned so a future tuning pass cannot silently
+  // flatten the ladder again
+  assert.ok(TUNE.matchSpeedPer > 0, 'each opponent is faster');
+  assert.ok(TUNE.matchFlubKeep < 1, 'and whiffs less');
+});
+
 test('a game won heals, so a clean player can go the distance', () => {
   startMatch();
   G.hp = 1;