Formations and Shield Interlocking

I think that doing interlocking formations would be a great idea. A member of TN mentioned this and he asked me to post something here about it. (Name, st. petertherock) where if you hit a button next to someone with a shield, it snaps you to a position right next to them (Whichever side you're closer to, or which ever side is open) this could allow for proper interlocking formations and doing things like pseudo formations and of that sort. It also would make things easier when walking in a formation as well! 

My secondary thoughts where not only implementing this idea to shielders, but to formations in general! So lets say you have 7 guys in a battle and you need to get into a formation quickly. Someone initiates a Wedge formation and it highlights areas on the ground around the player (Where if you walk close enough to it and press a button it will snap you to the position via walking or something like that, where you're still attackable when doing that to make sure it's not exploitable) and they all are able to see that there's places on the ground they can walk up to and (pressing a button) be placed into. The other idea I had was being able to MAKE formations using different type weapons as the tile placing type. (Explained everything later)

My idea in a little more organised of an area.

Creation of Formations:

A GUI in the Main Menu that allows you to place "Tiles" that players can snap to in a formation, that also allows you to save them to use later in battle as a selection slot (Similar to how shouts and emotes work now, you'd press a button and come up with 9 slots that you can save and rename with the name you choose for the formation).

Iterating more on the tile placement of things, You'll be given infinite placeable tiles for each given weapon type, so you'll have "Shield" tiles (which allows anyone with a shield to be moved to that position) "Polearm", "2 Handed", "1 Handed" (without shield, or make it so 1h can be used with or without shields), etc. for each DEFINED weapon type in game. You will also be given 1 special tile type, which is the "Commander" tile. This tile is where the formation starts/is anchored to when you initiate the formation.

For game limitations only allow a 7 x 7 grid to build a formation on. Each tile represents 50-60 CM. 

Usage of Formations:

After creating (or using premade formations) You are able to use the formations in battle using the N key (Or any unused key) and will have the option of 1-9 number keys to select which formation you want to initiate. (Set it like the emotes so you can only have a few formations per side) Once the selected formation is initiated and the formation is created with visuals on the ground around the player. For instance a "Shield Wall" that has 1h in front will appear blue for the 1h to go to, and have archers behind them appearing as yellow to signal this placement is for archers.

Once a player has been initiated to the formation they will auto walk to a certain point (probably fairly easy to do this actually, rotate the players character to the location in the world and have the character auto walk until it reaches it's destination). The character must be within 5-7 meters of the location to get into the formation though, for purposes of trolls breaking the game and all. As the "Commander" moves, the formation will move. If the commander wants the formation to rotate they must hit < or > to rotate the formation.

The formation should only be valid if the size of the formation fits inside of the location it's trying to be activated/moved into. If the formation is a 7x3 shield wall with polearms/archers then it obviously can't be activated in a corridor that's only the size of 3 tiles wide. (Or be moved into it, might bring up some problems)

How the people move if the formations move:

So this one is a little Iffy. My idea would be that the player will automatically walk to the location they're "Assigned" to, however I don't know how well that would work. Meaning they can jump and such, but that means they can't go forward or backward and travel at the same speed as everyone if they're in the formation, if they're not in the formation they attempt to sprint to the location. The player must jump if required unless there's a way to auto jump when needed too.

If the commander dies?

multiple "Commander" tiles should be placed, however if no "Commanders" are present, then a player has the ability to leave the formation (By pressing the same key as entering, or by pressing a differing one, depending on feedback) and going to the commander position (Possibly until the original commander comes back) 

Can any player create/use a formation?

Hopefully, yes. If a random player wants to initiate a formation then they can, if there is another attempt at a formation and it's full/nearly full then the player with 1-3 people in their formation is disbanded to follow the "Main Formation". 

How many formations should be allowed in a battle at once?

I think that a maximum of 3 formations per side is a reasonable number, maybe have it scale with the number of players as well. 

What kind of modes should this be allowed in?

I think that any mode should have it, but just Field Battles/raids would be great on it's own.

I know this is a litteral wall of text, but I really like this idea and I hope many of you do too. If you have a question about it please mention me in OKAM discord @Ross the Great#8525