Serving
The serve is a minigame, not a button. It runs in stages, and Backspace always steps back one. The serve clock (serveSeconds, 15 by default) is the only thing rushing you.
Stage 1: Line up
Press E at the line to open the serve picker. You are railed to the serve line while it is up, so you can slide along it but not wander off.
| Key | |
|---|---|
| W / S | Choose your serve type |
| A / D | Slide sideways along the serve line |
| E | Confirm and go to Aim |
| Backspace | Drop to free-look and walk around. E lines you back up |
The panel prices every serve. Each row carries what that serve takes out of your stamina bar, in the same word the bar itself wears, and a row you cannot afford right now is locked. Stamina regenerates while the panel is open, so a locked row can unlock with no keypress at all.
| Serve | ||
|---|---|---|
| Power serve | High power, straight over the net | the expensive one |
| Float serve | Unpredictable trajectory | the middle option |
| Lob serve | Safe and high: always in play | always available |
Serving reads the bar and never spends it. Being gassed costs you the big serve, never the ability to put the ball in play: the Lob is always affordable, so a rally can never stall on an exhausted server. The type you send is an input: the server re-decides it against its own copy of your bar and walks an unaffordable pick down the chain, so lying about it buys nothing.
Stage 2: Aim
The camera lifts into an angled broadcast view looking down the court, and a target circle appears on the opponent's half.
| Key | |
|---|---|
| Mouse | Move the target |
| E | Confirm |
| Backspace | Back to the line |
This is a real target, not a direction hint: a perfect serve lands on the circle.
Stage 3: Power
The camera drops back to your player view and a power bar sweeps across.
| Key | |
|---|---|
| E on the green | A perfect serve that lands on your target |
| E off the green | A weaker serve: short, or into the net |
| Backspace | Re-aim |
Your ped holds the serving idle through every stage, so the rest of the court can see you are about to serve.
The swing
Which swing you play, the standing overhand or the jump serve, follows from the serve type you picked; there is no second key for it. The jump serve is a full approach: the ball is tossed high and forward, the server runs in, plants, jumps off two feet and strikes well inside the court rather than above where they were standing. The script knows where that contact happens and starts the approach far enough back that the strike still lands on the line.
What the server does with your serve
Your position, type, target and power all arrive as an offer. The server re-solves the arc from its own copy of where you are standing, re-checks the type against its own stamina bar, and plays its own answer.
It also dates the ball's launch to the exact frame the hand meets it in the animation, rather than to your keypress. That is why the ball sits on the serving hand and leaves in sync on every screen, instead of popping late for players on higher pings. The AI serves down the same path: it walks to the line, plays the full clip, and the rally starts at contact.