State machines
An enemy keeps switching between chasing and walking away at the edge of its range
When one single distance decides between chasing and patrolling, a player standing near that line makes the enemy twitch back and forth. This entry shows the small change that makes the enemy decide once and stick with it.
An army locked in battle cannot simply walk away, and should pay for retreating once
In turn-based war games the order to move out of a battle must mean something. Free exits make fighting pointless, while repeated retreat orders can bleed an army to nothing. This entry shows the rule that makes a retreat a decision and a mistake only once.
Food runs out in a town: hunger first, deaths later, never negative stock
A food shortage should feel like a warning with time to react, not an instant massacre, and the numbers must never go below zero. This entry shows the three steps between a full granary and dying citizens, and why the clock must restart when food comes back.
A fire that burns down the whole town in a single tick
Fire, flood and plague spread from cell to cell, and the first version nearly always races across the whole map the moment it starts. The reason is subtle, and so is the fix that also makes the outcome repeatable. This entry shows it with a small burning town.
Fog of war that remembers what you saw, but not what changed since
A map with fog needs more than seen and unseen. Players expect to see the old camp they scouted, and they should not learn that it burned down from a distance. This entry shows what the map has to keep, and what it must never reveal.
Five units run into a tower with room for four
A tower, a transport or a barracks has limited room, and units arrive over time. If room is counted only on arrival, two units march across the map for the last place and one of them stands outside confused. This entry shows when to count a place as taken.
A shared story choice ends in a tie, or one silent player blocks everyone
When a group of players decides together which way the story goes, someone does not answer, two are for one option and two for another, or someone leaves in the middle. This entry gives a clear rule for every one of those cases.
Players are kicked for a lag spike, or ghosts stay in the game for minutes
A fixed timeout is either too short, and a hiccup throws someone out, or too long, and a player who closed the lid stays in the game as a frozen figure. This entry shows a middle stage and a timeout that adapts to the connection.
The host leaves and nobody knows who is in charge now
When the player who runs the game quits, two others may both decide they are the new boss, or the old host's last messages still push the game around. This entry shows how everyone agrees on one successor without arguing.
A player's game says they can sprint while stunned, and the host believes it
When each player's own game reports what state their character is in, a bug or a cheater can claim anything. This entry shows how the host checks every claimed change against the rules and what it answers when the claim is wrong.
The player comes back after hours: finish the build queue and fill the stores fairly
A city that keeps growing while the player is away must work out hours of events in one go. Done carelessly, it loses leftover time between jobs, lets stores overflow or rewards leaving the game open for days. This entry shows the calculation and where to put the limits.
Shots that clearly hit on my screen count as misses
By the time your shot reaches the host, the target has already moved on. The fix is to look at where the target was when you pulled the trigger, but too much of this lets players with a poor connection hit people who are safely behind a wall.