I'm a JS, phaser3 and Socket.io newbie and I really want to learn.

Code Context:

• Phaser3
• Socket.io
• Loading state of game room before socket connects
• Generating the NPC's and players
• fails when there's an attempt to access NPC's (mass) sprite in the same callback it was created

Issue:

• Cannot access the sprite property, and in general seems like the object wasn't created in the first place

I have the socket listening in Phaser3's "create()" function for "universeState" after it has connected to the socket server. index.js:

this.socket.on('universeState',(universe)=>
    {
        console.log(`mass? ${JSON.stringify(universe.sys.mass[1].id)}`)
        for(let i = 0;i < universe.sys.mass.length; i++)
        {
            console.log(universe.sys.mass[i].id,universe.sys.mass[i].x,universe.sys.mass[i].y,universe.sys.mass[i].asset);
            this.utils.genMass(universe.sys.mass[i].id,universe.sys.mass[i].x,universe.sys.mass[i].y,universe.sys.mass[i].asset);
            console.log(`check: 3 ${JSON.stringify(this.state.state.mass)}`);
            this.state.state.mass[universe.sys.mass[i].id].sprite.setScale(0.5,0.5); //issue here
            console.log('check: 4');

            this.physics.add.collider(this.state.state.mass[universe.sys.mass[i].id].sprite, this.state.state.playerMass[this.state.id].sprite, function(mass, player) {
                mass.destroy();
                player.setScale(player.scaleX + 0.03);
                let camera = this.cameras.main;
                camera.zoomTo(camera.zoom * 0.975);
            }, null, this);
        }

function used to create the "mass" in utils.js:

genMass(id,x,y,tex)
{
    console.log(`creating sprite with operands: ${id},${x},${y},${tex}`);
    let sprite = this.scene.physics.add.sprite(50,50,tex)//needs to be a physics object
    if(id.substring(0,5)=='mass:')
    {
        console.log(`is equal`)
    }
    id.substring(0,4)=='mass:'?
    this.scene.state.state.mass[id] = {id:id,sprite:sprite,x:x,y:y}:
    this.scene.state.state.playerMass[id] = {id:id,sprite:sprite,x:x,y:y}; //generate an extra parameter argument for quantified mass
    console.log('check: 0');
    id.substring(0,4)=='mass:'?
    this.scene.physics.world.enable(this.scene.state.state.mass[id].sprite):
    this.scene.physics.world.enable(this.scene.state.state.playerMass[id].sprite); 
    console.log('check: 1');
    id.substring(0,4)=='mass:'?
    this.scene.state.state.mass[id].sprite.body.collideWorldBounds = true:
    this.scene.state.state.playerMass[id].sprite.body.collideWorldBounds = true;
    console.log('check: 2');

}

everything first appears wrong in the first code snippet where it's commented "issue here". Since I am using webpack, the bundled files are little help. console:

Player ID returned:null
bundle.min.js:1 connected to game
bundle.min.js:1 mass? "mass:3961482"
bundle.min.js:1 mass:7107097 19134 14999 arc_purple
bundle.min.js:1 creating sprite with operands: mass:7107097,19134,14999,arc_purple
bundle.min.js:1 is equal
bundle.min.js:1 check: 0
bundle.min.js:1 check: 1
bundle.min.js:1 check: 2
bundle.min.js:1 check: 3 {}
bundle.min.js:1 Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'sprite')
    at Q.<anonymous> (bundle.min.js:1:978636)
    at Q.i.emit (bundle.min.js:1:40837)
    at Q.emitEvent (bundle.min.js:1:969227)
    at Q.onevent (bundle.min.js:1:969030)
    at Q.onpacket (bundle.min.js:1:968708)
    at et.i.emit (bundle.min.js:1:40837)
    at et.ondecoded (bundle.min.js:1:973286)
    at q.i.emit (bundle.min.js:1:40837)
    at q.add (bundle.min.js:1:964368)
    at et.ondata (bundle.min.js:1:973261)

Questions:

Why is the object I created empty when logging it? How can I successfully create the object and access it?

Notes:

I have suspicions that it's some sort of callback behavior that you can't initialize something and access it in the same callback. I'm relatively new and I want to learn thanks.