Beginning of Day 5

Yesterday, it took a few hours to get the firewall spell fully working, with consumable "arcane fuel" on the tiles, burning NPCs that it hits, making them avoid walking into it, etc.  After that, I put some thought into the design - specifically how to make interesting/fun strategic choices.

I've been thinking that traditional roguelike gameplay focuses on making each encounter tense/dangerous, which isn't an option for a last-stand against a horde - it's sort of just one long encounter.  So I have to come up with something that produces variable tension, I guess. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure yet which way to go.

I implemented a couple more spells: paralyse and petrify.  They're pretty similar, the difference will come out in the damage/mana system (you're a life wreaker, so you get mana from inflicting suffering on your enemies.)  So paralyse is better for recharge since stone creatures don't feel pain.  This also required implementing logic for NPCs to attack each other, so they can clear the blockage you create.

I also solved the scoring system - rather than making you fail if e.g. 10 NPCs get past you, it reduces the amount your score increases per turn.  This avoids the silliness of "9 NPCs getting by is OK, but 10 is failure", or "if even 1 NPC gets past you lose".

I might still change my mind and implement a "win" state, e.g. casting a spell that blows you up and collapses the tunnel or something like that.