Unconventional radar chart

Devlog #2 – URL & State Persistence Fix
📅 Date: 07/01/2026
⏱ Time Spent: 33 minutes
🧠 Focus: State loading, URL parameters, and persistence

✅ What I Worked On

• Diagnosed an issue where URL/state loading always reverted to the first ability/level (Illumination 1.5)
• Investigated interaction between URL params, localStorage, and initialization logic

🔁 Changes & Fixes

• Relaxed option validation in URL and localStorage loaders
• Ensured loaders return explicit booleans to prevent unintended fallbacks
• Fixed race/overwrite issues by preventing populateLevels from auto-calling updateChart during initialization
• Introduced a triggerUpdate flag so URL parameters and saved preferences can set the correct level before updates occur
• Removed temporary debug logging after confirming the fix

🐞 Bug Details

• Issue: State always reset to default ability/level on load
• Cause: Initialization order caused updateChart to overwrite URL/localStorage values
• Status: Fixed

🧪 What I Learned

• Why initialization order matters in state-driven UIs
• How returning explicit booleans can prevent silent fallback logic
• How to debug race conditions in client-side state loading

⏭ Next Steps

• Add basic tests for URL/state loading
• Harden validation logic without breaking persistence

🛠 Tooling Notes

• Used GitHub Copilot prompts extensively to reason through the bug and validate fixes