Potential ideas to bring more variety to biomes and zones

xDrac

I personally feel like many if not most zones in a biome look too visually similar to each other and right now do not provide enough visual variety to differentiate themselves from each other. This resulsts in me feeling like areas or a biome are bland and all look mostly the same, which then discourages me to really go explore because it'll look visually similar anyway.
Now, I realize it's still Alpha and likely to change, but I thought one could brainstorm ideas to potentially change that.

While different leveling zones might all be part of the same biome, and they have to kind of fit in, we could maybe give them some visual uniqueness still. How though? Perhaps zones in the Riverlands could sometimes have more trees, or a dense fog, cracks in the earth? Maybe a zone was razed with fire or a zone is made out of a flowerfield with fitting monsters? I'm no level designer and I'm not sure if any of this is feasible but I'm just throwing out ideas.
In the case of the desert, perhaps there could be an area with... black sand or something? Something to break up the blandness of walking through sand. I'm aware this is already being done to a certain extent but I'd like to see it done even more personally.

I vividly remember nearly all leveling areas in older MMORPGs like Lineage 2, for example. Ruins of Agony, the Cruma Tower with it's marshlands, Death Valley, Lair on Antharas, Tower of Insolence, Forge of the Gods, and I could go on and on. Each of these felt distinctly unique in itself and you'd really feel it when you walk into a new "zone".

I'm not sure if this is strictly a me thing or really an issue to others. Most likely it is a thing that will be worked on more, but I've been wanting to share my two cents on this.

nanfoodle

Good feedback. Good news is we are not at the polish phase and they already been replacing place holders. IS is not done yet