If you play the original HDC you might wonder how Flipside will differ and what will remain the same, so I’ll give a bit of an overview here.
Every card having a second side you can flip it to is the central new thing in Flipside. In it’s most basic and common form this means that you can freely switch a card between two modes, with different keywords, damage etc on each side. Most player units can also be freely flipped after they have been deployed.
Beyond that, there is actually a lot of design space to explore by restricting card flip under certain conditions. Enemies also flip conditionally, allowing for whole new encounter dynamics with enemies that change their behavior under specific conditions. Flip restrictions will be mostly done through flip related keywords. Here are some that are planned or already implemented:
Flip Locked Can not flip. Can create cards that can’t flip back, or require other cards to get flipped.
Auto Flip Flip after executing all action. With a flip-locked B side this can create a card/enemy that can only perform its primary function once. If both sides have auto flip this can create a basic pattern switch enemy or card.
Slow Flip Advances turn when flip. This can create powerful cards that that requiring 2 turns to use, or cards that become slower after their first action if this keyword is on the alternate side. Can also create units that require time to switch their mode.
Hand Flip Can only flip while in hand. Typically used for units, requiring you to make a definitive decision on which mode you want them to deploy in, unless until your retreat them.
Flip Target Flips the card it targets (usable on other hand card). This can circumvent flip restrictions of other cards or even flip enemies to a more advantageous mode. Also allows for powerful flip-locked cards that require other cards to flip them and develop their full potential.
Buff-Flip X/Debuff-Flip X Flips when buffed or debuffed with specified status, no manual flip.
Hit-Flip Flip when hit with damage
Turn Flip Flip after every turn
Redraw-Flip Flip when triggering redraw, typically used for enemies.
Tech-Flip Flip on tech play, typically used for enemies.
Deploy-Flip Flip when enemy unit deploys, typically used for enemies.
Flipside will feature a bunch of new dual use status effects, offering new ways to keep your units alive, deal damage, delay enemies and to control the encounter. Some status effects are now classified as orbit effects, these get applied to the enemy or player orbit sections instead of directly to units. Orbit effect generally affect all units as that remain on the affected orbit. The new jamming effect for example makes units count down slower, but the effect is cleared once they move to an unaffected orbit.
Almost all HDC status effects will also be available in Flipside. Some got reworked into orbit effects. Mines for example no longer follow units around, they are now fixed minefields that protect/threaten all units on an orbit sections.
I see the emergent card builds created by HDCs many upgrade dongles as major factor for creating interesting runs. So I plan to extend this aspect of the game to allow for even more variance in upgrade builds.
To achieve this, upgrades dongles in Flipside will be generated from multiple components. These components then add one or more effects to the dongle’s overall effect. Components can be pulled for randomized lists, allowing for dongles that are partially or totally random. In the end the goal is to still have very specific, carefully curated dongle effects, but with some randomness mixed in. Dongle names will also be generated based on the selected components.
To illustrate this, let’s look at fan favorite Strafe Drive System from HDC:
This dongle provides a strong upside (multistrike and way faster timer), offset by forcing your unit to retreat after finishing its action. The Flipside version of this dongle would preserve its core identity by making the Retreat a fixed components. But the upsides of the dongle would come from randomized components, pulling from pools that could include new upsides like +effect power, +damage, defense bonuses etc.
This system will diversify the more complex dongles, but will still be able to output bread and butter stuff like +Apply EMP etc.
The new factions will all come with new starting commander cards. These will have flipsides like any card, allowing each commander to add one of two separate bonus to the ship they take charge of. Some commanders from HDC might return as more powerful secondary commanders you can find in a run, with improved or reworked primary effects and new flipside effects.
A bunch of fresh new VFX for ship destruction, small crafts and weapons.
The game now features a lot of UI overlay fluff, like missile tracks, unit action indicators, small craft markers etc.
The way cards are generated has been entirely reworked in a way that allows complex new behaviors like cards that copy all effects of another card or erase all card effects for an encounter.
The Flipside galaxy is weirder.
The game is planned to have 5 player decks again, each focusing on a combination of new and old status effects.
Starting deck selection will be similar in concept.
Overall run structure, length and encounter pacing will stay similar.
Map encounter selection might get slightly more complex. Available system locations will stay similar.
Baseline upgrades and fleet upgrades will return.
Late game difficulty will be similarly structured.
If this sounds interesting to you please wishlist the game here on Steam. And stay tuned for more Flipside news throughout the year.
Cheers
Stefan - Sleeper Games