First, the smaller suggestion is one I think I made ages ago, and has probably been echoed by others in one form or another since… We need some “surprise” enemies that can be spawned by opening any container big enough to house a body (because people cram bodies in stuff sometimes) 
Also shallow graves and graveyards that can birth zombies out when you’re nearby… Also an enemy that behaves somewhat stealthily, who doesn’t approach you immediately upon seeing or smelling you, but launches its attack based on proximity, and who also tends to inhabit small closed areas, or dark areas only, and then proceeds to simply wait on you to get within three tiles range or so…
Besides recapping that one, I was just on teh john (where ideas are born!) and had what I think is a decent idea for a new game mode… First question I’d have is: Can/could Cataclysm DDA generate map seeds if a small map type was implemented, or no? Because seeds would create a cool sharing challenge mode from this… The idea is basically really small randomized maps… I’d like the ability to pick a “grid” size, even, starting with 2x2 up to about 8x8 or so, but the point is to keep it fairly small.
If storyline justification is needed:
“You’ve lived your entire life in what amounts to a “gated” maximum-security community/town. Due to growing governmental instability and an increasingly dangerous populace, certain communities decided to take a much safer approach, only allowing citizens and visitors beyond the forty foot tall walls after rigorous background checks. All was well until you spotted your neighbor Carl (who was grilling just ten minutes ago) begin gnawing the face off of his elderly guest Mrs. Mackenroe. Of course, this tragedy struck when all the massive town gates were closed, and worse, a red-alert security lockdown was issued just prior to the apocalypse (and resulting power outage). The gates will never open again. And Carl is still hungry.”
And then survive with what the tiny walled-in map gives you :> Thats it :>
With a tiny-map seed we could issue survival challenges to each other, compare survival times in tiny environments, and most importantly suffer from being trapped with a truly limited amount of resources 
Of course I wouldn’t truly want an entire town/city to be on every map, since that would be a ton of supplies (or at least allow city size, enemy amount, and item rarity code to be used in this mode…) Sounds pretty good to me… Thoughts?
QUICK EDIT: Maybe a mode where the entire map consists of one building you CANNOT leave would be fun too…