I don’t think that’ll be easy, would need all new procedural system to get transitions between biomes natural, or it’ll be like in No Man’s Sky with little biome variety.
They have to take up the challenge. They're not a tiny team like No man's Sky devs, and those are now doing an entire planet the size of the earth with different biomes with their next game, so Bethesda, the once pioneer in open world games, should lead the way. They have Xbox behind them, they have absolutely no excuses.
There are a few fairly lush biomes already, trees and bushes everywhere, but could be better for sure.
Problem is, the more dense the vegetation is the more annoying it’ll be to traverse, especially with a vehicle. It’ll be interesting to see how Bethesda solves that. Hello Games made vehicles break much of the vegetation, which can look quite weird but they aren’t going for realism so it’s alright I think.
I think Bethesda should add some Star Wars like hover jet bike, something where you don’t have to worry about uneven ground at least and small enough so you can go between trees and rocks easily. A car is great but not always optimal. I hope they don’t stop there.
What I meant is, even in those supposed lush biomes, it was sparse.
The fact that you can't traverse some biomes by vehicles because they're lush, IS the way to do it. I don't see anybody traverse the deep amazonian jungle by vehicle, do you ? That's the difficulty behind those biomes, and it will add a layer of preparation/difficulty to the gameplay of those biomes instead of those just being beautiful to look at compared to barren biomes.
This is why the vehicle only as an update is not enough. There's much more to do with it, and Honestly, a vehicle for 20 km² is useless. That's why they have to overhaul the whole procedural generation. No Man's Sky also revised their formula of procedural planet generation multiple times, why couldn't they? Are they constrained by Series S ? I really wonder because, while obviously not doing the same thing as NMS, which is running on far weaker consoles (even on Switch lol), the 20km² limit feels completely idiotic. There's obviously a limit to the engine, but they have to work on it because their planets feel dull. At least they have to find a work around like loading zones, but zones with no ties to each other and no link ? No sir, that didn't cut it.
Hover would be cool, but I think it's not excatly what they envision for their universe, they want it more grounded. Also, exploration should come with its terrain difficulties. Would be interesting imo if they could design the terrain in a way that you have to look around to find your way to traverse.