This mode is really similar to Greed Link to the forum. And i think greed is easy to implement, instead of "treasure hunters" because you does not need to change all the maps.

this sounds like ctf or teamplay, the only difference is you need something like an entinity that will reappear at the place where the 1st itempicker died.
i think sauerbraten isnt that far for such things yet. maybe you should try to ask on quakelive forums for such thing, because they do already got that there.
suggestion for the name of this mode: "super mario" just because of the coins that would appear after killing an opponent :P.

hmmm.... lol ... i cant explain what i really mean.
These coins were just an example , i think they should be different for all maps ( they should fit the theme )
Maybe for hallo stones or anything

A few questions:

Q1 What would happen to items that fell off the map, or in a spot that is imposible, or nearly imposible to get to?

Q2 What Item would you use for an item in this mode?

Q3 What would be the spawn time, 5 sec (ctf) or no time (protection)?

Q4 How would the items come out of the dead player? (Keep in mind that all physics is on the user end).

Q5 How many items would you expect to see on the map? (MAX, MIN, Average)

Q6 How would you keep ppl from running to the far corners of the map, or to spots that are imposible to get to? (You need to keep ppl central)

Q7 Would you know how many coins some one has? If so then how?

Q8 Would there be a nav point for everyone that has coins? (like CTF, the person that has the flag).

Q9 How would you find the ppl with the coins? Would it be by the way above or another way?

Q10 How would you cater to the camping game play type? (if everyone is grabing coins and running to there fav hiding spot).

Q11 Would you be able to drop your coins, or give them to some one else some how? (without getting team killed).

Q12 Will you spawned from team spots or from normal playerstarts? (you might of answered this but i could not tell if you did).

Q13 How would you stop cheating? (If you mod a map and made a lil spot in the land were no one could get to you? (Cheater clear a server faster than a master kicking everyone).

Im going to answer may own questions:

A1 I think the best solution to this would be have a 10 or 15 sec respond time on the items. Then respond them in a "Freebie Area". This would force a team to control an area, and keep ppl from hiding.

A2 I think that the skull that was suggested in the cube forum would be fine.

A3 I think that a 5 sec spawn time would be better than none. This would stop mobbing

A4 I think they would drop strait down, and you would run over it and pick up all of them.

A5 A map like halo i think sould have about 20 - 30 items, some were between this would be about the average on all the maps.

A6 The Freebie zone would be on place, also i think that ppl with x amout of coins should come up on the nav screen. X = about 5 or more.

A7 I think that it should show up like the hb bonus, a +10 next to there name, this would be a problem if you allow hb on these maps.

A8 Ppl with 5 or more coins.

A9 By nav points.

A10 This would be solved by the "Freebie Zone". Campers could camp here and kill ppl after they collect the items.

A11 I think that "R" like ctf or protection would work.

A12 I think team spots would allow for more fair and balance at the start of the game, this way it would stop a team spawning at all the "Good spots".

A13 Simple the freebie zone, this would draw ppl to the middle. else a monater would just kill the cheater, by specing him. Then all the coins would come to the middle and would let the game stay balanced.

wow , chasester its nice for me to see that you think of all things which are getting posted here, but is it possible to make it more ..... short O.o ? xD

They are only simple details that need answered before this can ever be implemented.

well, after hearing this idea i can now proudly suggest that the new sauer health system will be based on Sonic rings! they will be scattered around the map and you lose all of them when you take damage. one can pick them up again! you are doomed if someone gets a gatling, but oh well! you'll get used to it once we spam all the maps with gatling ammo and have it fire like 3000 bullets a minute with extreme precision and no recoil :P

This is like Rush Hour: Gold Hunt kind of gameplay, and i don't think collecting random laying about the map coins will be pretty interesting. On the other hand, Skull Greed can actually be both team and non-team now that i think of it.

In non team you can frag someone, but have to go at the place you fragged him to pick up his skull. One can steal the skull from his body if you are too late. you add the skull to your score once you pick it up. teamkills remove a point from your score and you drop a skull that you cannot pick up. if you die after that you still drop the default skull.
In team you can frag an enemy and have him drop all the skulls he carries, including his own. If one teamkills, he loses all the skulls in his possession and cannot pick them up to remove them from the field. only the one who got fragged can pick them up and add them to his own until they are either gathered by the enemy or a teammate clears them from the field. Both teams must deposit skulls to their flags to earn points for their teams.

This was just an idea Not the finished solution !!!

Bleh. Too much too read. But heres how I see this game type being done; pardon me for taking 90% of it from UT3's GREED.. But I love that gamemode.

When you kill somebody, they drop one skull by default. You pick it up.
If the person you kill has several skulls then they are all dropped plus one counting for his own death. If the person killed has over twenty skulls, then only those being carried would be dropped. ( No +1 for his life if he has that many )
After you have enough collected you can run to your base and deposit them into your Collector-O-Matic, then run back out and continue collecting.

^^ More on the Collector-O-Matic: In each base where the CTF Flag would be, resides a collector of sorts. When a player reaches the collector all his skulls are deposited and added to his points/team points. Weapons are also lost, as the player would be forcefully re-spawned.

This re-spawn helps balance out the game-play by removing the guns and armor of the dominate players after they score. If it is insta then this is irrelevant, they would still re-spawn though.

When a player is killed, his skulls would be shot out in various directions and bounce around a bit before settling- Like a grenade that doesn't explode. All the better for sliding off ledges. ( Assuming a ledge happens to be handy at the time. ) This brings me to the next point.

If a skull is dropped and nobody picks it up, it will disappear in 10 seconds.

Skulls have no team orientation. They are neutral and either team can have them regardless of who dropped them.

Each player would have points. Individual points for each skull, and each team would hold the sum of all the players' points.

If a person collects twenty skulls then their weapon damage would double, if they get thirty then they would have quad damage. For every increment of ten after that their quad damage timer would restart granting more slaughter time.

^^ These numbers are fairly high because you need to keep in mind that other people are also collecting skulls, therefore you could very well have 30 in two kills. The numbers could be changed..

I think that more or less fills in all the holes of how it COULD work.