Biomes & Nature Buildings in the Sky

[Big Sammich]

One of my favorite things in Terraria is the sky island. I love these in all fictions and medias they appear in, from One Piece to Laputa. The idea of finding land in the sky and discovering nature and treasure that exists nowhere else is very compelling. However, the sky islands in Terraria have grown a bit plain. Don't get me wrong, I like skyware blocks and the lakes are pretty, but I recently found myself wishing there was just a bit more variety. So if you'll bear with me for a bit, I will give some suggestions for more structures we could find in the sky.

I want to clarify first and foremost that I am not suggesting any new items, enemies, or anything that would require a new sprite. What I am asking for is more variety in the layout of sky islands. As it is now, there are only two types of island: houses and lakes, and these basically always look the same. I think it would be really interesting if the houses and lakes could look different. Of course, this wouldn't have an impact on the treasure found in these places; every new "house" would always have a skyware chest, and every lake would be fishable. The idea here is that each time you find a new sky island, it could have one of several structures on it. I've got a long list of possibilities for both, and when I have the time I'll sit down in the game and construct models of what each of these could look like, which I will then add to this post.

Spoiler: Houses and Buildings

1. The regular house, except with a second story. The second floor would have stairs going up to it at the back of the house, and the room would be about half the size of the first floor, with a door that opens out onto the roof of the first floor, like a balcony. There would be more furniture in this house, such as a bed and Skyware clock on the second floor, as well as maybe a placed Sky painting.
   
   
2. Another two-story house, except this one has the second floor be in the ground underneath the first. This basement would have stairs leading down into it, and a Skyware sofa, as well as some of the broken box background items. The chest would be down here too.
   
   
3. A more vertical house that resembles a tower. It would have glass blocks in the outer walls, implying windows on all sides, and multiple platform floors. The chest would be on the top floor.
   
   
4. Similar to the previous suggestion, except the top floor is open on the top, making it resemble a battlement. It would also have fewer windows.
   
   
5. A house that looks like a regular one, except the floor of the building is made of active stone blocks, as are all the dirt blocks directly underneath the floor. The chest is, of course, trapped, and opening it will activate the stone blocks, dropping the player out of the island. This can be avoided by standing right in front of the chest, as the blocks supporting it would naturally not change. An easily spotted trap, but I imagine it would get someone who isn't paying attention.
   
   
6. A house in a state of disrepair. It would have no door, only one chair, a couple missing walls, a hole in the ceiling, and many cobwebs.
7. A house that's completely ruined. It would have no ceiling, holes in the floor, very few walls, no furniture, and the outer sides of it would be fallen in. The chest is still there, though, because chests with items in them are indestructible.
8. A house with no glass walls, making it very dark. Inside would be many mannequins/womannequins and no other furniture, except for the chest.
9. Two smaller houses, with the doors facing each other. Each house would have one table and one chair, but only one would have a chest.
10. A house made of marble instead of Sunplate blocks, complete with marble furniture. The chest would also be a marble chest, although it would still have Sky loot in it.
11. An open courtyard made of stone bricks, with a fountain in the middle. It would have bushes and flower walls around, and maybe some potted trees. The chest would be under the ground, beneath the fountain.
12. An island with a huge pit in the middle, dropping straight through out of the island. The chest would be placed in the center of the pit, suspended in the air on Sunplate platforms.
13. A graveyard, with 5-8 graves in it. The chest would be in the ground underneath one of the graves.
14. An island with a tiny shack on it, made of wood. Outside of the shack would be a small pond, not big enough to fish in, although deep enough for cattails to generate. The chest would be inside the shack and replaced with a barrel, although it would still have Sky loot in it.
15. Another island with a tiny shack on it, also made of regular wood, except this one has no pond, and instead the shack has a toilet in it. A placed Angel statue could be found outside the shack. There would also be a basement level, only reachable by digging, which was made of stone slab blocks and full of poo. The chest would be in the basement.
16. An island with a small hut made of Dynasty wood. The hut would have a Dynasty table and chair inside, with a candle on it. The trees would be Sakura trees. The chest would be outside, on the other side of the island, on a small raised Dynasty wood platform. It would be a Dynasty chest, although it would still have Sky loot in it.
17. An island with a castle on it made of stone bricks. It would have small spires tipped in red bricks, and inside there would be two thrones. The chest would be between the thrones.
18. An island with mud instead of bricks, and mushroom grass instead of regular grass. The house would be made of mushroom bricks, and the furniture inside would be mushroom furniture.
19. An island whose geography exactly mirrors the geography of the land below it.
20. A building made of rainbow bricks instead of Sunplate blocks, with rainbow brick walls.
21. (Rare) A wrecked building with a hole in the floor. At the bottom of the floor could be a chunk of meteorite, or a lump of Martian Conduit Plating if we don't want to break progression. The chest, of course, remains unharmed. (I kind of like Martian Conduit Plating because if a new player found this in pre-Hardmode, they'd spend a long time wondering about where it came from, and then Martian Madness would happen and they'd have a fun little moment about it)
22. (Rare) A regular building, but with many more banners inside than usual (15-20 instead of 4). The banners would all be completely random banners, including enemy banners from any enemy in the game. The chest would still have regular Sky loot.
23. (Rare) A building made of Dungeon Brick. Inside would be a few Gothic chairs, all pointing the same direction, and towards the back there would be a Gothic table with a water candle on it. Above it, the painting Remnants of Devotion could be found on the wall. The chest would be buried underground, beneath where the table is.
24. (Rare) An island with a living tree on it, its roots poking out through the bottom of the island. Ideally it would be a special living tree, unique to this island, but honestly a regular one is fine too. The chest would be inside the tree.
25. (Rare) A very long house, the length of the whole island. The door would be on one side. The house would have no glass walls, and the blocks forming the outer walls would be extra thick, so it would be very dark inside. Just inside, next to the door, would be an orange pressure plate. Stepping on it would activate two Skyware Lamps in the center of the house, and between them is the Waldo painting. The chest is on the far side, against the wall. Nothing else is in the house.

Spoiler: Lakes

1. A regular-sized lake, with many small clouds above it. These small clouds would have pools of water on them, ideally with flowing water going down into the main lake.
   
   
2. A lake that's much wider than usual, but shallower.
3. A lake that's much deeper than usual, but not as wide.
4. Two small lakes with a small island in the middle. This island would have grass and possibly a tree on it.
5. A lake that's deeper on the edges than it is in the middle. Imagine it being shaped like sunglasses.
6. A lake with a wooden platform going over it, with fences and lamps on the platform, as well as posts (either beams or fences) extending downwards to the bottom of the lake.
7. A lake with a small platform extending only part way over it, with wood at the base of the platform to resemble a fishing dock. It would also have fences and posts, and maybe one lamp.
8. An island that's completely circular and filled with water on the inside.
9. An island that has a small piece of land on it (about 1/3 of the island's length) and water on the rest of it.
10. A lake with a Reef table and chair underwater in the center, with a Coral torch on the table.
11. A lake that's frozen over; the top of the lake is covered with a sheet of thin ice. The rain clouds on this lake are replaced with snow clouds.
12. The same as the above, but the lake has a small shack in the center, over a hole in the ice. There is also a wooden chair in the shack.
13. A lake lined with sand on the bottom, and with seashells, starfish, and coral on the bottom.
14. A very rectangular island, with cogs instead of clouds. (If that breaks progression, we could do tin plating?)
15. (Rare) A lake with bubble blocks instead of cloud blocks and cloud walls on the bottom, meaning that if you can't swim you will fall right out the bottom of the lake.
16. (Rare) A lake that's much larger than usual, roughly twice the size both in depth and width. This lake cannot appear on small worlds.
17. (Rare) A very small lake, roughly a quarter of the size of a regular sky lake, full of shimmer instead of water.
18. (Rare) A regular sky lake, but all cloud blocks are replaced with Echo blocks.

Now obviously these are all rough ideas. My goal was to primarily add visual variety to the islands, rather than impacting gameplay, although I thought it might be fun to put one or two rare items in some of the rarer ones. What do you think of these ideas, or this suggestion as a whole? Please let me know!

 

[Orchamut]

Cool... I actually planned on writing a suggestion on what could be added/changed about the sky islands at some point (with ideas and sprites for sky critters to name one of them), but this suggestion right here-variety in sky island generation along with fixes to tiny lakes and islands that are too low-is a big chunk of it.

The only specific idea here I've really thought of on my own was the two-story house-- but all these other ideas are great. Except for the Dungeon Brick house, while it sounds interesting it would be really annoying for players who want to build a long skybridge before having the means to destroy dungeon bricks, for whatever reason.

 

[Big Sammich]

Cool... I actually planned on writing a suggestion on what could be added/changed about the sky islands at some point (with ideas and sprites for sky critters to name one of them), but this suggestion right here-variety in sky island generation along with fixes to tiny lakes and islands that are too low-is a big chunk of it.

The only specific idea here I've really thought of on my own was the two-story house-- but all these other ideas are great. Except for the Dungeon Brick house, while it sounds interesting it would be really annoying for players who want to build a long skybridge before having the means to destroy dungeon bricks, for whatever reason.

Dungeon Bricks that are at or above Surface level can always be destroyed, so it's no problem. That house is actually one of my favorites - adds implications about the Lunar Cult long before you'll ever encounter them, and especially up in the sky it's interesting.

 

[Orchamut]

Dungeon Bricks that are at or above Surface level can always be destroyed, so it's no problem. That house is actually one of my favorites - adds implications about the Lunar Cult long before you'll ever encounter them, and especially up in the sky it's interesting.

OH... I actually remember when I learned that now, but it's so niche that I entirely forgot.

 

[Jackiethederg]

One of my favorite things in Terraria is the sky island. I love these in all fictions and medias they appear in, from One Piece to Laputa. The idea of finding land in the sky and discovering nature and treasure that exists nowhere else is very compelling. However, the sky islands in Terraria have grown a bit plain. Don't get me wrong, I like skyware blocks and the lakes are pretty, but I recently found myself wishing there was just a bit more variety. So if you'll bear with me for a bit, I will give some suggestions for more structures we could find in the sky.

I want to clarify first and foremost that I am not suggesting any new items, enemies, or anything that would require a new sprite. What I am asking for is more variety in the layout of sky islands. As it is now, there are only two types of island: houses and lakes, and these basically always look the same. I think it would be really interesting if the houses and lakes could look different. Of course, this wouldn't have an impact on the treasure found in these places; every new "house" would always have a skyware chest, and every lake would be fishable. The idea here is that each time you find a new sky island, it could have one of several structures on it. I've got a long list of possibilities for both, and when I have the time I'll sit down in the game and construct models of what each of these could look like, which I will then add to this post.

Spoiler: Houses and Buildings

1. The regular house, except with a second story. The second floor would have stairs going up to it at the back of the house, and the room would be about half the size of the first floor, with a door that opens out onto the roof of the first floor, like a balcony. There would be more furniture in this house, such as a bed and Skyware clock on the second floor, as well as maybe a placed Sky painting.
2. Another two-story house, except this one has the second floor be in the ground underneath the first. This basement would have stairs leading down into it, and a Skyware sofa, as well as some of the broken box background items. The chest would be down here too.
3. A more vertical house that resembles a tower. It would have glass blocks in the outer walls, implying windows on all sides, and multiple platform floors. The chest would be on the top floor.
4. Similar to the previous suggestion, except the top floor is open on the top, making it resemble a battlement. It would also have fewer windows.
5. A house that looks like a regular one, except the floor of the building is made of active stone blocks, as are all the dirt blocks directly underneath the floor. The chest is, of course, trapped, and opening it will activate the stone blocks, dropping the player out of the island. This can be avoided by standing right in front of the chest, as the blocks supporting it would naturally not change. An easily spotted trap, but I imagine it would get someone who isn't paying attention.
6. A house in a state of disrepair. It would have no door, only one chair, a couple missing walls, a hole in the ceiling, and many cobwebs.
7. A house that's completely ruined. It would have no ceiling, holes in the floor, very few walls, no furniture, and the outer sides of it would be fallen in. The chest is still there, though, because chests with items in them are indestructible.
8. A house with no glass walls, making it very dark. Inside would be many mannequins/womannequins and no other furniture, except for the chest.
9. Two smaller houses, with the doors facing each other. Each house would have one table and one chair, but only one would have a chest.
10. A house made of marble instead of Sunplate blocks, complete with marble furniture. The chest would also be a marble chest, although it would still have Sky loot in it.
11. An open courtyard made of stone bricks, with a fountain in the middle. It would have bushes and flower walls around, and maybe some potted trees. The chest would be under the ground, beneath the fountain.
12. An island with a huge pit in the middle, dropping straight through out of the island. The chest would be placed in the center of the pit, suspended in the air on Sunplate platforms.
13. A graveyard, with 5-8 graves in it. The chest would be in the ground underneath one of the graves.
14. An island with a tiny shack on it, made of wood. Outside of the shack would be a small pond, not big enough to fish in, although deep enough for cattails to generate. The chest would be inside the shack and replaced with a barrel, although it would still have Sky loot in it.
15. Another island with a tiny shack on it, also made of regular wood, except this one has no pond, and instead the shack has a toilet in it. A placed Angel statue could be found outside the shack. There would also be a basement level, only reachable by digging, which was made of stone slab blocks and full of poo. The chest would be in the basement.
16. An island with a small hut made of Dynasty wood. The hut would have a Dynasty table and chair inside, with a candle on it. The trees would be Sakura trees. The chest would be outside, on the other side of the island, on a small raised Dynasty wood platform. It would be a Dynasty chest, although it would still have Sky loot in it.
17. An island with a castle on it made of stone bricks. It would have small spires tipped in red bricks, and inside there would be two thrones. The chest would be between the thrones.
18. An island with mud instead of bricks, and mushroom grass instead of regular grass. The house would be made of mushroom bricks, and the furniture inside would be mushroom furniture.
19. An island whose geography exactly mirrors the geography of the land below it.
20. A building made of rainbow bricks instead of Sunplate blocks, with rainbow brick walls.
21. (Rare) A wrecked building with a hole in the floor. At the bottom of the floor could be a chunk of meteorite, or a lump of Martian Conduit Plating if we don't want to break progression. The chest, of course, remains unharmed. (I kind of like Martian Conduit Plating because if a new player found this in pre-Hardmode, they'd spend a long time wondering about where it came from, and then Martian Madness would happen and they'd have a fun little moment about it)
22. (Rare) A regular building, but with many more banners inside than usual (15-20 instead of 4). The banners would all be completely random banners, including enemy banners from any enemy in the game. The chest would still have regular Sky loot.
23. (Rare) A building made of Dungeon Brick. Inside would be a few Gothic chairs, all pointing the same direction, and towards the back there would be a Gothic table with a water candle on it. Above it, the painting Remnants of Devotion could be found on the wall. The chest would be buried underground, beneath where the table is.
24. (Rare) An island with a living tree on it, its roots poking out through the bottom of the island. Ideally it would be a special living tree, unique to this island, but honestly a regular one is fine too. The chest would be inside the tree.
25. (Rare) A very long house, the length of the whole island. The door would be on one side. The house would have no glass walls, and the blocks forming the outer walls would be extra thick, so it would be very dark inside. Just inside, next to the door, would be an orange pressure plate. Stepping on it would activate two Skyware Lamps in the center of the house, and between them is the Waldo painting. The chest is on the far side, against the wall. Nothing else is in the house.

Spoiler: Lakes

1. A regular-sized lake, with many small clouds above it. These small clouds would have pools of water on them, ideally with flowing water going down into the main lake.
2. A lake that's much wider than usual, but shallower.
3. A lake that's much deeper than usual, but not as wide.
4. Two small lakes with a small island in the middle. This island would have grass and possibly a tree on it.
5. A lake that's deeper on the edges than it is in the middle. Imagine it being shaped like sunglasses.
6. A lake with a wooden platform going over it, with fences and lamps on the platform, as well as posts (either beams or fences) extending downwards to the bottom of the lake.
7. A lake with a small platform extending only part way over it, with wood at the base of the platform to resemble a fishing dock. It would also have fences and posts, and maybe one lamp.
8. An island that's completely circular and filled with water on the inside.
9. An island that has a small piece of land on it (about 1/3 of the island's length) and water on the rest of it.
10. A lake with a Reef table and chair underwater in the center, with a Coral torch on the table.
11. A lake that's frozen over; the top of the lake is covered with a sheet of thin ice. The rain clouds on this lake are replaced with snow clouds.
12. The same as the above, but the lake has a small shack in the center, over a hole in the ice. There is also a wooden chair in the shack.
13. A lake lined with sand on the bottom, and with seashells, starfish, and coral on the bottom.
14. A very rectangular island, with cogs instead of clouds. (If that breaks progression, we could do tin plating?)
15. (Rare) A lake with bubble blocks instead of cloud blocks and cloud walls on the bottom, meaning that if you can't swim you will fall right out the bottom of the lake.
16. (Rare) A lake that's much larger than usual, roughly twice the size both in depth and width. This lake cannot appear on small worlds.
17. (Rare) A very small lake, roughly a quarter of the size of a regular sky lake, full of shimmer instead of water.
18. (Rare) A regular sky lake, but all cloud blocks are replaced with Echo blocks.

Now obviously these are all rough ideas. My goal was to primarily add visual variety to the islands, rather than impacting gameplay, although I thought it might be fun to put one or two rare items in some of the rarer ones. What do you think of these ideas, or this suggestion as a whole? Please let me know!

could you mind possibly building some of these new islands?

 

[Big Sammich]

could you mind possibly building some of these new islands?

As I mentioned in my post, I plan to! They won't look good, I'm not much of a builder, but I will do it. I'll update the post when I do it, and I'll add at least 6 images each time. Expect the first set some time tomorrow.

 

[zenithspeed]

These are amazing ideas, I have already kind of imagined some of them but I wanna see them built so bad

 

[Big Sammich]

Update 1: I've added six images to the file, being the first five houses, and the first lake too. I'm not a fantastic builder, so don't expect too much in the way of quality, but this is just to give you a visual idea of what I have in mind. I'll add more of these later on, and I'll probably do bigger batches in the future. Eventually I'll have mock-ups for all of the builds.

Also I'm sorry the first two pics were taken at night. I just didn't think to switch to day until the third build. They should still be visible enough, and all the future ones will be daytime images.

 

[Jackiethederg]

Update 1: I've added six images to the file, being the first five houses, and the first lake too. I'm not a fantastic builder, so don't expect too much in the way of quality, but this is just to give you a visual idea of what I have in mind. I'll add more of these later on, and I'll probably do bigger batches in the future. Eventually I'll have mock-ups for all of the builds.

Also I'm sorry the first two pics were taken at night. I just didn't think to switch to day until the third build. They should still be visible enough, and all the future ones will be daytime images.

They look great so far!

 

[OlleWernersson]

I think that the sky islands are the perfect place to bring some more building variety and island variety! As for other places like underground buildings, these structures are harder to generate with more unique designs, as they have to blend in with a more complex environment also.

These would make using the gravity potion for the first time in our playthrough never become stale!

 

[Kubiquity^3 🌳]

Ive been tweaking sky islands (7 in my world) and added 1 … have 2 left to modify. Some have added structures…one is a windmill power station. Thought they would be appreciated here. Some pix…

 

[Big Sammich]

Ive been tweaking sky islands (7 in my world) and added 1 … have 2 left to modify. Some have added structures…one is a windmill power station. Thought they would be appreciated here. Some pix…

These all look great. My personal design philosophy was to try to keep them simple and basic, to better match the design philosophy of the structures that already exist in the game.

 

[Kubiquity^3 🌳]

These all look great. My personal design philosophy was to try to keep them simple and basic, to better match the design philosophy of the structures that already exist in the game.

I understand. I just wanted them more lively so I modified them. Thanks for the compliment. …going for the whole Avatar sky islands look with mine…vines/moss etc.

 

[Big Sammich]

I understand. I just wanted them more lively so I modified them. Thanks for the compliment. …going for the whole Avatar sky islands look with mine…vines/moss etc.

You're a better builder than I. Luckily I don't have to worry about it, since all of my buildings (on this thread, anyway) have strict limitations. I particularly like the windmills you made.

 

[Kubiquity^3 🌳]

You're a better builder than I. Luckily I don't have to worry about it, since all of my buildings (on this thread, anyway) have strict limitations. I particularly like the windmills you made.

Thanks! The sails on them are interactive ie on/off using echo chambers.