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[Fikilili]

With the future (and I insist on "future") map rewrite "incoming", maybe it is possible that Toady has been thinking of adding new exciting biomes to the game or, more likely, expand on those we have right now. I do not possess a particular suggestion as of now, but I thought of opening a conversation regarding the current state of biomes, or lack of certain biomes.
Which ones should be updated? What kind of enviornmental hazards/elements would you wish to see? How should the world generator handle the placement of said biomes? With the removal of good and evil biomes, what could be used as a perfect replacement? With the "upcoming" myth and magic update, what should become of the circus?

[Eric Blank]

We've already heard of the plans for replacing good and evil biomes; they're going to be replaced by areas influenced by divine/demonic spheres of influence or WG myth effects. So kinda like necromancer towers and demons generate evil regions around them right now, but instead of an area of "evil" it will be permeated by the spheres associated with the demon, or deity from which the necromancers derive their powers, so death, disease and deformity would create a region where things die or are raised as undead, diseases spontaneously erupt and afflict inhabitants, and inhabitants become subject to deformations/mutations. On the contrary, a regions influenced by healing would see wounds heal, or one associated with lust or love may see inhabitants fall in love more easily or something.

I'd really like to see active weather events or tectonics like local earthquakes and volcanic activity become possible. The current open magma pipes will have to be rethought, the tops of volcanic pipes aren't usually wide open. Sandstorm and blizzards, shifting sand dunes and glacial ice moving/cracking/collapsing would be great additions. I tried making locust swarms as an environmental effect as part of a mod once, they were a green vapor cloud that would cross the landscape and leave painful blistered and bleeding skin on victims caught in them. It works, but an actual giant vermin swarm that can damage crops and stockpiles would be even better.

I always thought biomes animal populations need to be rethought. Not all creatures wander around the way roaming pops do now. And biomes don't have as much animal diversity within them as they ought to.

[NW_Kohaku]

There have been a lot of suggestion threads regarding spheres and the kinds of biomes they would be able to create, since this particular change has been "incoming" for the better part of a decade at this point.  Still, most of these threads were "throwing stuff at the wall" suggestion threads, so feel free to go down the list of spheres, and try to add onto the lists of suggested possible quirks that sphere magic would have when added onto a "normal" biome.

Here's a few from the first page of a search (the search was being glitchy and returning blanks trying to go past page one or refresh, so... I'll have to try again later.)

Hapchazzard wrote up a megathread collecting a lot of suggestions here.
Tooting my own horn, but Xenosynthesis was specifically about farming magic plants based upon spheres.
Sky-streamer's thread on sphere-based plants.
Spoiler area biome diversity.

[SQman]

I think mountains need a big overhaul - at lower altituded there should be coniferous montane forests or cloud forests, depending if temperate or tropical; higher up there would be alpine tundra, basically how mountains are now, maybe with dwarf pines and some smaller vegetation; the highest should be the snow zone or alpine glacier, mostly devoid of life.

Dry mountains are also absent from DF. I suppose they would be very similar to rocky wastelands or badlands, or maybe badlands are supposed to represent that?

Also cold steppes could be a thing - colder and drier than temperate grassland, with very few trees or other useful vegetation, pretty much perfectly flat, covered with grass, and with herding animals such as horses, two-humped camels, and saiga antelopes (if The Toad ever decides to add more animals).

[SixOfSpades]

"Biomes aplenty" = an abundant number of (types of) biomes.
"Biomes o' plenty" = Biomes demonstrating, conducive to, or associated with, abundance (traditionally, an abundance of foodstuffs).

The second deserves an explicit mention in this thread, as a type of biome that is exceptionally productive (whether that be in crops, game animals, children, minerals, craftworks, etc., is up to Toady) would essentially allow the game to have an "Easy" mode without feeling anywhere near as artificial and gamey as actually having the player select an "Easy" mode. If this effect is tied to a specific sphere, the spheres of Life, Plants, Animals, Food, Agriculture, Wealth, and especially Hospitality (as in, the land is particularly hospitable to a new fortress / new player) would be excellent candidates.