Most of this has been hashed over extensively in the few days since I've read the forum. I'd just like to throw out one thing:

>You would have a front line,
>and a rear line, but that would take into account weapon
>sizes. Medium and short weapons would be in the front rank,
>polearms and spears would be in the rear rank...etc. It would
>also make a protection of sort, being that you can't hit the
>rear rank from combat. As front rank people die, the rear
>ranks would filter into their positions. Anyways, this is a
>radical change and would need lots of discussion.

I saw something very like this done elsewhere once upon a time, and the ultimate results on gameplay weren't at all what I would have expected. Like you, I would have thought it would hinder ganging, but it actually drastically empowered ganging, precisely because of that protection factor. Groups naturally evolved to where front ranks would contain melee supertank characters and rear ranks would contain ranged/reach fighters or spellcasters. Sure, you couldn't (to cast it in CF terms) haphazardly throw six axe warriors or six offensive shifters in a group and expect them to do as well, but that never really happened... groups would be constructed in such a way as to put out as much or just about as much damage on the guy they were ganging, while simultaneously protecting all their weak characters.

I don't know if you've ever been, say, the lone paladin in a big raiding group with no healers, but it burns your mana out fast to have to sanc all those guys. Imagine if you only had to really worry about sancing the front rank. Or, think about the times you've clashed with a gang or larger group and managed to pick off one or two of the more fragile characters before having to run for it, enabling you to come back at a weaker/smaller group a few minutes later. That's not going to be possible if they get to pick who you can fight. The necromancer will be way back where you have to wade through all his zombies to get at him, etc. Think about fights you've turned around by getting one key character out of the mix right away (blackjack/sleep/pull/etc.), and then think about that not being possible.

Ultimately, you can try to do a lot of different things to combat all of this, but I think you not only make for a very different game, but you also probably create as many problems as you solve as you go.