When Firaxis announced it would be revealing a new game at its PAX East panel this weekend, the speculation among those in the know quickly converged on the obvious: Civilization VI. While we did get a new Civilization announcement today, the specific direction was far from expected. Instead, the next entry in the Civilization series is going to outer space with Civilization: Beyond Earth.

As the name implies, the game takes the familiar turn based simulation series to the stars. "Our time on Earth is ending, so we turn our gaze upward, to the stars, and embark on the bravest journey in human history," as an introductory trailer for the game puts it.

Many will no doubt link this announcement to the the well-loved Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri from 1999. While the IP rights to that series belong to a different publisher, "we like to think the heart and soul of that game belongs at Firaxis," lead designer David McDonogh said at a PAX East panel today. "For all the fans out there of Alpha Centauri, this is the game we have made for you."

That heritage, of course, includes designer Sid Meier himself, who serves as creative director for the game. McDonogh called Meier "one of the most humble and productive people I've met in this industry" and noted his "programmers first" hiring mentality in using designers that also know how to code.

The narrative behind Beyond Earth was left intentionally vague, in a way. The panelists made reference to "The Great Mistake" that happens about 25 years in the future and causes a Dark Age of humanitarian crisis for 200 or so years. The game won't really go into detail about what the civilization-destroying mistake was, though, because the game isn't really about where we came from, but about where we're going when we leave the planet to start anew, the panelists said. "I like the idea of a bunch of trash cans at Firaxis filled with historical text books," Emcee Jeff Cannata of the DLC podcast deadpanned. "'We don't need these anymore!'"

Where we're going as a species definitely seems to be a focus of the gameplay as well. Every new game in Beyond Earth is the story of a different expedition to a new planet that will serve as the new home for humanity. "It's not about humans versus aliens, it's about different factions of humans all trying to go to the same place," McDonogh said. That doesn't mean player won't run into alien life, of course, but "it might not be intelligent life" according to lead producer Lena Brenk.

Each game starts with a different nation-based sponsor from Earth providing gameplay bonuses, as well as player-chosen spaceships, cargo, and colonists to start your new civilization. From there, the basic resource management and land-grabbing gameplay will be familiar to anyone who's played Civilization before, but "beyond that, play it like Civ V at your peril," McDonogh said.

The development team talked about three new "affinities" that form the focus of the tech tree and also the different win conditions in the game. Civilizations on the "Harmony" affinity, for instance, try to adapt their very DNA to fit better with a planet they didn't evolve on, taking on more plant-like characteristics to fit in on a planet dominated by flora, for instance. The "Supremacy" affinity sees players researching things like cybernetics, artificial sentience, and synthetic thought to transfer into a pure, resilient machine state that can survive any future cataclysm. The "Purity" affinity rejects both of these ideas, instead trying to keep humanity essentially the same and adapt the planet to its needs through things like extreme terraforming through "extremely heavy munitions."

Your new intra-planetary neighbors may have very different affinities, the developers said, and the eventual victor in any Civ game will be the one who shows the most devotion to their chosen affinity and dominates the direction of humanity's future. Players will also be able to win by being the first to contact an alien race, or simply by killing everyone (always the most direct method, I'd say).

Beyond Earth will also introduce a new semi-randomized quest system that helps introduce an in-game narrative in a somewhat procedural way. These quests will show up at different times in different playthroughs, and give different rewards so that players won't be able to "game" the system to simply maximize benefits from these story-based goals. McDonogh likened the storyline system to that of Magic: The Gathering, where little bits of arcana and history are revealed slowly through flavor text at the bottom of the cards.

Will have more details from the panel and a talk with the creators later in the day.