splatter-tennis/PLAN.md

PLAN — Zombie mode expansion (for implementation by a follow-up session)

Read HANDOFF.md FIRST (module map, verify recipes, gotchas — especially the stale-module cache one and "always Read current file state before editing"). This plan is ordered so every phase is independently shippable: implement → verify → commit → push (push = deploy, Oliver tests on his phone). Do NOT start a phase before the previous one is pushed.

Ground rules for the implementer:

• Zero dependencies, no build step, vanilla ES modules. Match the existing code style (compact, commented for intent, TUNE knobs for anything Oliver might want to tune).
• The tennis benchmarks in HANDOFF ("Tennis feel — CONFIRMED GOOD") MUST keep holding after every phase. Run them via window.T (Browser pane, RAF paused, T.step manual).
• New TUNE knobs go in config.js TUNE so they appear in the live T panel.
• Mobile portrait one-handed is the primary target. Every new interaction must work with one thumb: tap, flick, drag. No new buttons.
• Sounds: synth sfx live in audio.js; umpire lines are recorded m4a in assets/audio/ (macOS say -v Daniel). Generation commands are given in Phase 2.

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Phase 1 — Tighten the shooting loop (serve-again latency, "missing balls")

Problem (diagnosed): two independent causes.

1. Input swallowed: taps/flicks during G.phase === 'over' (even the short 0.25s splatter one) hit keyPressed and match NO branch — the tap is lost and a stored flick expires. The player feels "I flicked and nothing came".
2. Spent balls die slowly: a staggered ball (lastHit === 'X') or a shot that missed everything stays alive until it physically rolls out (|vy| < 0.8 after bounces), which can take seconds when it flies long. Only then does the 0.25s over-timer even start.

Changes (gameplay.js unless noted):

• keyPressed: in splatter mode, treat phase === 'over' like pretoss — first force the reset inline (ball.active = false; setupPoint();) then fall through to the existing pretoss serve logic (flick → quick serve, tap → toss). The finger is now the only cadence limit.
• Ball physics block: in splatter mode kill spent/hopeless balls early: lastHit === 'X' && ball.bounces >= 1 OR out of bounds (z < -2 || z > 25.5 || |x| > 7.5) → ball.active = false; G.phase = 'over'; G.overT = TUNE.splatterOverT.
• New TUNE knob: splatterOverT: 0.1 (replace the hardcoded 0.25 in the dead-ball branch).

Verify (Browser pane, force splatter via 3 synthetic umpire taps — see HANDOFF):

• Flick during 'over' fires a serve the same frame (phase goes rally, ball active).
• Spent ball dies within ~10 frames of its first post-stagger bounce.
• Serve→serve cycle with immediate flicks ≤ 20 frames.
• Tennis regression: 'over' handling in tennis mode UNCHANGED (points still pause 2.2s).

Phase 2 — Multi-kill applause + umpire appreciation

Mechanic: one ball (or bomb, Phase 4) that splatters ≥ 2 zombies gets escalating fanfare.

• state.js ball: add kills: 0. Reset to 0 in doHit and hitServe (any new shot).
• zombies.js splatter(): ball.kills++. After the existing splatPoint call: kills === 2 → G.flash = {text:'DOUBLE KILL', t:0.9}; cheer(1.6, 0.45); voice('double_kill', 0.4) kills === 3 → 'TRIPLE KILL', cheer(2.2, 0.6), voice('triple_kill', 0.4) kills >= 4 → MASSACRE ×${kills}, cheer(2.8, 0.7), voice('unbelievable', 0.4) (cheer/voice are imported from gameplay/audio already; check zombies.js imports.)
• Make natural pierce-doubles possible: splatter() currently halves pace (ball.vx *= 0.5; ball.vz *= 0.5). Change 0.5 → TUNE.zPierce (new knob, 0.75), so a hot ball can plow through a lined-up pair.
• New umpire lines (record on this Mac, same voice as existing files — inspect audio.js first for the exact name→file mapping): say -v Daniel "Double kill. Quiet, please." -o /tmp/dk.aiff && afconvert -f m4af -d aac /tmp/dk.aiff assets/audio/double_kill.m4a say -v Daniel "Triple kill. Remarkable." -o /tmp/tk.aiff && afconvert -f m4af -d aac /tmp/tk.aiff assets/audio/triple_kill.m4a say -v Daniel "Unbelievable." -o /tmp/ub.aiff && afconvert -f m4af -d aac /tmp/ub.aiff assets/audio/unbelievable.m4a Listen-check the files (afplay) before committing.

Verify: T-script — line up 3 zombies on one lane (T.spawnZombie(0, 8/10/12, 'a')), serve a perfect-quality ball down that lane (TUNE.zSplatQ low temporarily), step, expect kills to accumulate, flash text escalating, no crash when the ball dies mid-streak.

Phase 3 — Gore piles (procedural graphics, no sprite pipeline)

Goal: the court gets progressively more disgusting. Stains (existing) + NEW 3D-ish piles that grow when kills happen near each other. Ball boys shave them slowly but net growth wins over a long match.

• zombies.js: new export piles = [] — {x, z, size (1..4 float), seed}. In splatter(): if an existing pile within 0.6m → size = min(4, size + 1) else push new {size: 1, seed: Math.random()*1e4}. Cap 30 piles (shift oldest). Boy mopping loop: overlapping pile → size -= dt * 0.25 (slower than stain mopping); remove pile at size <= 0.3. Keep stains as-is (they're the ground layer).
• render.js: drawGorePile(p) — procedural pixel-art, deterministic from p.seed so piles don't shimmer frame to frame. Algorithm: seeded PRNG (inline mulberry32 is fine); N = 6 + size5 blobs; each blob an ellipse at radius ≤ size0.28m around (x,z), with a vertical lift up to size*0.14m (projected: y offset via proj scale) so the pile has HEIGHT, not just a stain; blob radii 1–3px * proj scale; colors weighted: '#6e1414' '#8c1212' '#4e0e0e' '#7a2a18' + '#cfc9b0' (bone flecks, ~10%). Draw order: with the gore stains (after court, before characters), split far/near of the net like zombies are (a pile at z > netZ must occlude correctly). Sort by z.
• More particles per kill: 14 → 24 in splatter(), and give ~1/3 of them longer life (t up to 1.2) with darker color — check render's parts loop for where color is set.

Verify: force splatter, TUNE.zSplatQ = 0, kill ~10 zombies in one area, screenshot: piles visible, taller/denser where kills clustered, boys visibly shrink them but slower than they grow. Frame time sane (no per-frame allocation in drawGorePile — precompute blob offsets ONCE per pile on creation, store on the pile object, don't re-run the PRNG every frame).

Phase 4 — Bomb balls

Design (decided, but flag to Oliver if it plays badly): ball boys deliver a black bomb ball as a REWARD every TUNE.bombEvery = 8 splatter kills. It's a stock (max TUNE.bombMax = 3), shown on the HUD, and the NEXT serve automatically consumes one (no extra input — one-handed rule). Alternative delivery ideas Oliver floated: umpire throws it, or court pickup — do NOT build those, just note them in the commit message.

• state.js: G.bombs = 0, G.killMeter = 0.
• zombies.js splatter(): G.killMeter++; at bombEvery → reset meter, and if bombs < bombMax: G.bombs++, sendBoy() (the delivery run), voice('new_balls', 0.2)
  • flash 'BOMB BALL'.
• gameplay.js hitServe: in splatter mode, if G.bombs > 0 → G.bombs--, ball.bomb = true (cleared on every other serve/hit).
• zombies.js: explode(x, z) — all zombies with hypot(zx-x, zz-z) < TUNE.bombRadius (2.5) splatter (iterate a COPY or walk the array backwards — splatter() splices; each kill still increments ball.kills so Phase 2 fanfare fires naturally); one big stain (r ~1.4), a pile of size 3, 40 particles, G.hitstop = 0.1, boom sound. Trigger: in the zombie-contact check, ball.bomb → explode at ball pos (regardless of pow), ball.active = false. Also in gameplay's bounce handling: splatter && ball.bomb && first bounce → explode there.
• audio.js: boom() — synth: ~80Hz sine with fast pitch drop + white-noise burst, 0.4s, follow the style of splat()/pock().
• render.js: bomb ball drawn black with a 1px flickering orange fuse pixel on top (drawBall gets a variant flag or check ball.bomb where the match ball is drawn). HUD: when G.bombs > 0, draw that many small black circles right of the YOU score line.

Verify: T-script — set killMeter to 7, kill one → bomb appears on HUD; serve → ball renders black; land it amid 4 clustered zombies → all die, 'MASSACRE ×4' fires, boom plays, big pile + stain remain. Confirm bombs don't leak into tennis mode (mode guard).

Phase 5 — Horde waves + machine-gun racket

Trigger (decided): first horde when the player wins his 2nd splatter GAME, then every game won after. Plus the test/fun cheat: triple-tap the umpire while already in splatter mode → force a horde (main.js umpire listener currently calls forceZombies() which no-ops outside tennis — extend it: in splatter, call startHorde()).

Flow: splatPoint's gameOver branch (splatter) → startHorde():

• G.horde = {t: TUNE.hordeLen (12s), spawnT: 0}. voice('remain_seated', 0.3) + flash 'THEY KEEP COMING'. (Optionally record a dedicated line "They keep coming." → they_keep_coming.m4a, same pipeline as Phase 2.)
• During horde (updateZombies): ignore zMax; spawn every 1/TUNE.hordeRate (2.5/s), from the far baseline AND the sides (x = ±6, z random 0..8). Zombie speed ramp applies.
• Machine gun: while horde active the racket AUTO-FIRES — no taps needed. The thumb DRAG steers the player left/right (existing touchAxis movement; disable auto-assist during horde). Pellets fire straight up-court (-z) with ±4° random spread, every 1/TUNE.mgRate s (6/s).
• Pellets are NOT the match ball — new lightweight array in zombies.js pellets = [] {x, y, z, vx, vz, t}: flat trajectory (no gravity, y fixed ~0.9), speed ~26 m/s, t = 1.2s despawn, kill on zombie contact d < 0.55 (always splatter- quality: gore + pile + splatPoint). Update them in updateZombies, render as 2×2 yellow rects with a tiny ground shadow, drawn with the ball layer.
• Umpire spam control: splatPoint gains an optional quiet param — during horde, point voices are rate-limited (only speak if > 2s since last score line; game-win lines always speak). Keep the score ticking on the HUD regardless.
• Horde end (t ≤ 0): stop auto-fire, existing serve loop resumes (setupPoint), voice('quiet_dark', 0.5, 0.85). Any zombies still alive stay alive — the player mops up by serving. Eaten rule stays ON during hordes (swarms are lethal).
• Match ball during horde: kill it (ball.active = false) at horde start; serve prompt suppressed while G.horde (render gate, same spot as the eaten gate).
• Firing sound: rapid low-vol pock(0.25, 1400) per pellet is fine — verify it doesn't clip; if it does, only sound every 2nd pellet.

Verify: force horde via umpire triple-tap; step 12s: spawn count ≈ 30, pellets stream and kill, piles accumulate, score advances with rate-limited voices, horde ends cleanly back into serve loop, no console errors, eaten still triggers if a zombie reaches you. Then the full ladder: tennis benchmarks + Phase 1–4 verifies still green.

Phase 6 — Racket zombies (NOT in the first cut — design checkpoint first)

STOP: before implementing, show Oliver a one-paragraph design + the generated sprite sheet for approval. Rough shape agreed so far:

• A special zombie (variant 'r', has a racket) takes up residence on the FAR side and RETURNS your shots — the tennis rally skill stays alive inside zombie mode.
• Reuse the existing CPU machinery, don't rebuild it: give the racket zombie the same shape trySwing/doHit need (side:'O', x, z, facing, pose, poseT, swingT) and run a slimmed copy of the tennis-mode AI block for it (slower aiSpeed ~2.8, quality capped ~0.55, flub ~0.2, shambling run). Your non-splat-quality shots it can return; a splat-quality ball that reaches it kills it (existing contact path).
• Its returns are live balls: if one gets past you → splatPoint('O') via the existing baseline rule; you can also RALLY it back (doHit already works in splatter for the player — zombieTarget will need a "prefer the racket zombie when rallying" tweak).
• Sprite: the ONLY sprite-pipeline task in this plan (generate-image skill + scratchpad slice.py — the full pipeline gotchas are in HANDOFF). Idle/run/swing poses, magenta bg.
• Spawn: one per horde survived, or one per N games — decide with Oliver.

New TUNE knobs (summary)

splatterOverT 0.1 · zPierce 0.75 · bombEvery 8 · bombMax 3 · bombRadius 2.5 · mgRate 6 · hordeLen 12 · hordeRate 2.5

Benchmarks that must stay green after EVERY phase (scripts in HANDOFF)

• Tennis: CPU returns ~11/12 serves; human-like tap sim = all hits, no whiffs; feet-bounce tap sweep ≈ 19/30.
• Splatter: serve→serve ≤ 20 frames with immediate flicks (Phase 1 onward); eaten flow (zombie at <0.7m → EATEN overlay → tap restarts).
• No console errors after each phase's full verify run.