GENTLEMEN wall of text ahead
Let us go into weird, stupid shit territory that is not Frontier or saying FU was difficult for good reasons and think of new types of areas that could be in the next game.
youtu.be/KNEEqUQMyrU?t=39m24s
I was replaying this game called Xardion and this section got me thinking.
We already have dimensional traveling monsters, why not create a monster that's so large, that it buried itself into the planet in an attempt to assimilate and merge with it, which makes this monster the largest threat in the series, since the larger it gets, the more of the planet it makes uninhabitable since it attacks whatever tries to travel or live on it. But how would a giant protect itself from tiny hunters and people not notice it?
Well, the monster is an entire map and on the surface, looks like your average, peaceful grassy area. but anything and everything you think is a harvest node turns into monsters which try to kill you.
>Ore
The clam shaped rock nodes from arctic maps? The crystals are in its mouth and they shoot them at you.
>Mushrooms
They fly up and down in the air and can rain various powders on you, both beneficial: stamina and health. Or harmful: poison, paralyze, and every blight.
>Plants and trees
They all crawl or jump around trying to pin or knock you over.
You could create variations from all the items you can harvest. Plus you could have parts of the scenery and ground just come to life and attack you too.
When you find a hole to go inside the monster and those are areas of the map as well where you fight all sorts of giant parasites, bacteria creatures and various parts and organs of the monster itself. If you hit sensitive spots of the monster, the whole map shakes and shifts similar to how the Wyvern nest areas in 4U could. Heck, if they add back swimming you could have liquid/blood areas you have to swim through and could take one way routes via the arteries/veins of the monster.