Posted November 10, 2025 by 9to5ninja
#Update
Today was status effects day.
Got burn and stun working. Fixed everything I broke in the process.
Burn & Stun Status Effects (Working)
Added two new combat status effects:
Why stun was a pain in the ass: Last time I implemented it, it was simpler. Now with multi-attack combat, contribution tracking, and delayed display callbacks, everything's more complex.
The 6-hour debugging marathon: Combat was freezing after stun application. Root cause was KeyError in delayed callback (handler accessing dictionary keys before checking if they existed). Fixed by reordering handler checks.
But they work now. Burn ticks. Stun prevents actions. Combat doesn't hang.
Stat Scaling Rebalance
Fixed early stat caps (240/200/400 → 900 targets):
Late game progression no longer capped.
Onboarding Fix
Broke the guide again. First interaction (getting a coin from Guide NPC) wasn't working. New players couldn't start the tutorial.
Fixed.
Warehouse Equipment Bug
Found a bizarre bug: Storing equipment in warehouse was removing status effects from items.
Like... what? How does that even happen?
Fixed. Stored items retain their properties now.
Look/Scout Enhancement
Added outgoing damage estimates:
Attack Power: 266 (~1 damage to you) [WEAK] Your Attack Power: 850 (~690 damage to enemy)
Now shows both incoming and outgoing damage for better combat assessment.
It's never just one thing.
I wanted to add burn and stun. That meant:
Ship one feature, fix four other things.
Immediate priority: Finish remaining status effects
Then: Boss behaviors
Pattern: Build foundation → Add complexity → Fix what breaks → Finally add the cool feature
Stun was way more of a pain than last time. Everything's more complex now with multi-player support.
But burn and stun work. Onboarding works. Warehouse works. Stats scale properly.
Net positive day, even if it felt like debugging hell.
Play: https://thewaitinggame.one Version: v2.13.5 - "Burn & Stun Status Effects" Current Players: Still just me Status Effects Working: 2/7 (burn, stun) Time Spent Debugging: 6 hours
Building in public, fixing everything that breaks along the way. 🔥