Biomes & Nature Some improvements or small touchups to Hell and Meteor Biomes

[Zahnrad]

Something I've always felt was underwhelming in Terraria is both the Hell/Underworld and Meteor biomes.

The Underworld by comparison is much more fleshed out but it still feels really really generic. Like, once you've seen Black brick and Red brick structures in hell, it feels like you've seen everything. The terrain generation is pretty bland. It covers the same total surface area as...well the surface, but without much variety. There's no sub-biomes or generated structures worth seeking out beyond the two sets of colored brick stuctures that all feel the same. I'd like for there to be more exploration in the Underworld. If it wasn't for the Wall of Flesh fight acting as a sort of timegate with the length of the Underworld I doubt most players would even explore beyond their Hellevator.

But I feel the Meteor Biome is even worse, I get it's meant to be a small sub-biome but I don't think it's ever seen any improvements since it was added. Only housing a single enemy and a single resource it can be completely ignored for the rest of the game once you're done with it. Heck I think it's even possible to skip Meteorite entirely for progression. Not even having any value in a Hard Mode world. Be nice if it could have some visual touchups at least, maybe even a Hardmode Meteor variant. Just something to make it valuable as its own biome.

 

[TechionPrime41 🌳]

The Underworld by comparison is much more fleshed out but it still feels really really generic. Like, once you've seen Black brick and Red brick structures in hell, it feels like you've seen everything. The terrain generation is pretty bland. It covers the same total surface area as...well the surface, but without much variety. There's no sub-biomes or generated structures worth seeking out beyond the two sets of colored brick stuctures that all feel the same. I'd like for there to be more exploration in the Underworld. If it wasn't for the Wall of Flesh fight acting as a sort of timegate with the length of the Underworld I doubt most players would even explore beyond their Hellevator.

While the cave biomes above the underworld do mildly influence the underworld itself(IE: it's possible to fight Deerclops in the underworld if there's an ice biome right above it, a corrupt/crimson cave biome affects underworld housing, etc.), this is valid.

But I feel the Meteor Biome is even worse, I get it's meant to be a small sub-biome but I don't think it's ever seen any improvements since it was added. Only housing a single enemy and a single resource it can be completely ignored for the rest of the game once you're done with it. Heck I think it's even possible to skip Meteorite entirely for progression. Not even having any value in a Hard Mode world. Be nice if it could have some visual touchups at least, maybe even a Hardmode Meteor variant. Just something to make it valuable as its own biome.

This is even more valid, as the meteor biome, having existed long before the shimmer, has fewer creatures than the shimmer itself. Sure, the simmer only has one enemy(shimmer slime), it does impact enemies themselves majorly(usually turning them invisible.) Furthermore, the shimmer actually has a purpose, which is to either decraft a lot of things, or provide a permanent bonus to things(or even for trolling/secret hideouts, by making players phase through the ground if they go in too deep).

Compared to the meteor biome.... well, you've already explained the gist of it. However, the Star Cannon(and by extension, the Super Star Shooter), as well as DCU are a couple good things that only come out of having a meteor biome. Not really any others, though.