Hmm?

Something that is original, or something that is done really well (obviously) - traditional infection games, floating bases and racetracks are.. not good choices to pursue.

Personally I swing a bit more towards competitive maps rather than mini games, but either is fun.

 

minigames are great fun with friends, and always work. with competitive games the risk is people will be like "WTf ThAT iZ BULlCrAP!!11" etc, but if you make it really good(like fixing the shotgun camping problem on snowbound or building an entirely new map, which doesnt even look like the original one etc)

 

I've got an idea that I posted in my group at Bungie.net. I can't work on it right now because I have a broken 360. One of my buddies did some preliminary work and he said that it would be difficult to do, but maybe you can come up with something he didn't. Give me a few minutes and I'll edit this or make another post with the full description of the idea.

Rat's Nest CTF Idea
Here's the idea. Basically it’s a CTF game around half of the outside of Rat’s Nest. The middle has been blocked off, as well as the side where the sniper normally spawns, leaving players restricted to the open area near the pelican and the two corners connected to that area.

But here’s the catch, the long stretch of road between bases is divided down the middle by bridges placed on their sides, so that they serve as a barrier. Warthogs and mongooses spawn on one side, and can be driven freely from base to base, but they cannot cross over the bridge barriers into the pedestrian side. If the enemy is controlling the map with a warthog, go to the pedestrian side where you won’t be bothered. If the enemy is camping the middle ground with the shotgun, grab a mongoose and race to his base.

The bridges should be placed with a small gap between them, big enough for a player to walk from one side to the other (in case your driver gets killed and you need to go on foot or in case you come across an anti-vehicle weapon and want to take out that enemy warthog). If they can’t be placed to allow a player but not a mongoose, then maybe put down some crates on both sides for players to get from one side to the other. But be sure that vehicles can’t get to the pedestrian side.

Here’s the layout for this idea in screenshot form.

Now, I think that it is possible to jump over a bridge on its side, but it requires a perfectly executed crouch jump. Therefore, it’s probably possible for the warthog gunner to shoot over the barrier, but the targets will be able to find some cover easily enough.

Imagine this:
You jump in the gunner seat of the hog and your teammate gets behind the wheel. You tear around the bend and head for the enemy base. You spot an enemy on the other side of the barrier, heading toward your base, and target him with the turret. After taking a few hits and losing his shied, the enemy ducks behind some crates. If only the third member of your team was over there to finish him off. “Oh well,� you say to yourself. “We’ll grab his flag and score before he even gets to our base.� Your driver skids into the enemy base, and you hop out for the flag. You grab it and are back in the hog within a couple seconds, and are already heading back to your own base. Halfway there, however, your confidence turns to terror as you spot a thin red beam of light dancing across your view. Right before you die, you see the enemy who you wounded, but didn’t kill. It seems he decided to delay going to your base in favor of grabbing the laser in the center of the map. Bummer.

My buddy's conclusions after early testing:
The bridges on their sides are too high for a player in the warthog turret to shoot over. This can be fixed if the bridges are slanted sideways toward the vehicle side. That way, their profile height would be lower, players could jump over them, but they would still serve as a barrier for vehicles.

I'm not sure if he tested whether or not they will span the entire distance, even with some spacing, and that is still my biggest concern. If it turns out to be impossible, the map could be changed to that it uses the entire outside track. The side with default rockets (view of the pelican) would be the vehicle side and the side with the default sniper would be the pedestrian side. You could add mancannons, teleporters, or mongooses for faster travel. The sides would still need to be separated so vehicles can't get to the pedestrian side. This won't be as fun because pedestrians and vehicles can't interact with each other, but it might still be an interesting twist to multi-flag.

If you like this idea and want to try it out, please do. If you like the idea but don't want to spend time on it, let me know so I can try it when I get my 360 back.

EDIT: I just realized that you're asking for what we like to play, not for specific ideas. I'm gonna leave that idea up in case you like it. Sorry if that's not what you were looking for. I usually like standard, competitive matches, with maybe some small feature to make it a little different. I don't usually go for those really novel, crazy games.

 

i suggest u design a map that can be used for just about any gametype. this means u have to become friendly with the symmetry option. anyway i agree with shock with his "nots".