Record the agreed story mode plan

Five acts, one per league and court: the league cup, the beaten finalist
growing into the act boss and running off, then a ten-game gore chapter
with a mid-boss checkpoint. No duel in the story, healing and restock
after the mid-boss, the act as the saved unit with three checkpoints,
help after the third failed attempt, arcade limited to unlocked modes,
metal in gore only (track pending). Nothing built yet; the storyboard
link and the open questions are in PROJECT.md. v378 (docs only).

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

PROJECT.md

@@ -491,6 +491,82 @@ zombie (now an occasional opponent, `TUNE.racketEvery`, not the every-game fixtu
   `RETURNED`, `DOUBLE KILL`) is a footnote to something you already watched happen. Sharing the loud
   FACE with the milestone cards is right; sharing their SIZE made every footnote read as a milestone.
 
+## THE STORY — the modes become one storyline (2026-10-15, AGREED in discussion; NOTHING BUILT YET)
+
+Oliver: *"wie wäre es, wenn wir beide verbinden und eine Hauptstory daraus spinnen … eine Spielprogression,
+die die Modi abwechselt"*. Storyboard (private artifact, v2):
+https://claude.ai/artifact/4BVqWW89PLMcymYkuRAxv2. **This supersedes THE SEASON's decision 1 and 3 and the
+LEAGUES rule "nothing playable today gets locked"** (Oliver: "jupp"). The Season's screens (front door,
+record, promotion screen) are the material the story is built from.
+
+### What the code actually had on 2026-10-15
+- The tennis-to-zombie transition (`startTransition`, ~8 s) is dead code in normal play. Since
+  2026-08-15 gore opens straight in the gore (`startGore`); only `forceZombies` still plays it.
+- Gore has **10 boss designs**: 9 in rotation, plus THE CHAMPION every 10th chapter (game 100, three
+  phases). After that it runs endless.
+- Every boss is a ladder body made big: KEEPER → THE GROUNDSKEEPER, MASCOT → THE SPONSOR MASCOT, COACH →
+  THE HEAD COACH, and so on (sprites checked side by side).
+- Cup rounds walk the league band bottom up (`cupRoundsFor`), so the final is the band's top rung.
+
+### Decisions, settled with Oliver 2026-10-15
+1. **THE STORY REPLACES THE MAIN PATH.** Five acts = five leagues = five courts. Each act is:
+   1. the league cup (zombie tennis), then
+   2. THE TRANSFORMATION, then
+   3. a gore chapter of **10 games**, then
+   4. the act card.
+
+   The testteam starts from zero, so that the whole story gets played.
+2. **One chapter per act, with a MID-BOSS at game 5** (option A). The ten bosses:
+
+   | act | court / league | mid-boss (game 5) | boss (game 10) | cup final |
+   |---|---|---|---|---|
+   | I | Terre Rouge / Graveyard Shift | Strawberry Seller | Groundskeeper | Keeper |
+   | II | The Slab / Club Staff | Stringer | Sponsor Mascot | Mascot (*) |
+   | III | Centre Court / Officials | Line Judge | Chair Umpire | Umpire |
+   | IV | Night Court / Coaching Staff | Physio | Head Coach | Coach (*) |
+   | V | Members' Ground / Honours Board | Director | THE CHAMPION | Champion |
+
+   (*) **The cup final is always the act boss's body.** In acts II and IV the story cup reorders the band
+   for that (Runner and Club Pro play earlier rounds). The ladder itself is not reordered: the ramp test
+   and the Climb depend on it.
+3. **THE TRANSFORMATION (Oliver's idea):** at match point of the final the beaten finalist grows into the
+   much bigger act boss (same character, boss sprite), and runs out of the frame. The crowd floods the
+   court and game 1 begins **without a cut**. Built on `startTransition`'s timeline (hitstop, flash,
+   zoom). The boss's name slams with "GAME 10". In gore it is the rematch.
+4. **NO DUEL IN THE STORY.**
+   - Weapons: the starting stock is the cup's loot, the barrels supply more, and the rack refills after
+     the mid-boss.
+   - Healing (the duel was the ONLY heal for `G.hp`): after the mid-boss, and full at every act start.
+   - Open: what the racket zombie is in story chapters.
+5. **SECTION = ACT, with checkpoints inside** ("Akt als Rahmen mit Speicherpunkt").
+   - The act is the unit that is saved between sessions.
+   - Death or elimination restarts from the last of three checkpoints: the cup start, the chapter start
+     (after the transformation), or after the mid-boss.
+   - No permadeath in the story.
+6. **HELP WHEN STUCK:** from the 3rd failed attempt at the same checkpoint, one assist tier is offered,
+   at most two. It is said openly on the death screen, and the player may decline it. Tennis gets the
+   peer-gift shape (legs, window). Gore gets +1 heart and a slower horde until the next checkpoint.
+7. **SCREENS, NOT VHS:** in-game animated interstitials.
+   - The act title card.
+   - The cup-won/loot screen: "You cleared the court … and gained these for the hordes to come".
+     Stats count up, the weapons drop into the rack one by one, and the chapter preview keeps game 10
+     as "???" until the transformation.
+   - The checkpoint banner: RESTOCKED, FULL HEALTH.
+   - The death screen with the retry point.
+   - The act card (the promotion screen's pattern).
+   - A silent build: no narrator.
+8. **ARCADE** shows only modes the story has unlocked, possibly premium-only. THE CLIMB stays as an
+   arcade mode. The proposed unlock order is in the storyboard (not yet agreed).
+9. **METAL IN GORE ONLY.** The existing beds do not fit. Oliver is researching a track; parked until he
+   brings one. Entry point: the transformation.
+
+### Still open
+- A prologue: one classic match against a living opponent with the old transformation, once at the start?
+- The racket zombie in story chapters.
+- Endless arcade gore keeping its duel economy unchanged (proposed: yes).
+- The arcade unlock order.
+- Then the phase plan (to be written before any gameplay changes).
+
 ## Session log: THE SEASON, PHASES 1-4 — the front door, the record, the rooms, the season beat (2026-08-31, STAGING ONLY)
 
 All four phases of the plan below, plus the overlay consolidation Oliver asked for in the same
@@ -5762,7 +5838,10 @@ stance the old recovery still takes him back.
 
 Nothing here is broken; these are known gaps and unverified risks.
 
-0. **THE RALLY GOES FLAT (2026-10-13), the top item.** Every match converged on serve, both at the net,
+0. **THE STORY (2026-10-15) is agreed in discussion and NOT built.** See "THE STORY" above; the phase plan
+   comes next.
+
+00. **THE RALLY GOES FLAT (2026-10-13).** Every match converged on serve, both at the net,
    reflex volleys, won by a wrong-foot. Step 1 (the court gets its length) SHIPPED v361, awaiting the
    phone verdict; the tap timing + leg knee (v362), the soft ball (v363, drop/lob split v364) and the
    opponent styles (v364) followed; the swing-log fixes ran to v371. Step 4: v372 measured why the ladder

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