: On the gameplay side, the one thing that seems to be missing that would make
: a huge difference, going off the above about coordination, is unit
: grouping. Even if you could set just two or three unit groups and cycle
: through them like bases the game would shed a lot of the "did you
: build enough of every counter in this death ball" and become a lot
: more strategic.

It would be sort of nice for dropships to be usable on the 'mission' or 'battle' level. Right now, they're usable on the 'point and click' level, but being able to say call in a temporary usable dropship or two (maybe as a special unit, like how you can only have one scarab) would be great for prepping platoons for battle exercises.

You would create your slow, ground forces first then call in these special dropships. They would pick them up very much in the same fashion as they do now. Except that's it, they would continue to wait for your next command (move here, unload there). If you're familiar with Star Craft's medivac dropship, it's much in the same fashion.

Now your ground forces are primed to be deployed anywhere. Once your forces are ready, you select the dropships along with your other units (probably other air and maybe ground vehicles), and tell them to go move or attack a certain position. Since the action was issued to a group of units, they will move and travel at the fastest speed of their slowest unit (lockstep). The dropships won't be able to attack however. Instead, their 'attack' action would be to deploy the units they carry at the target and then fly off as the dropships nowadays do.

The amount of damage they receive would map as input into how long their cooldown is increased before you can call them in again.

With your slow ground units in these dropships, there's less traffic on the ground for the path finding to futz with. Your infantry are also safe from canister shots from mean-and-green tanks (giving you a fighting chance when someone bum rushes you with an unholy tank army)

There could be technology upgrades for the dropships. Eg, you could research "airforce reserves" at the Armory or Airpad which allows loaded infantry to use side turrets. Just as you could in Falcons in Reach. This would essentially be the dropship's "wingman" upgrade, but would only work when a dropship is carrying infantry (air lifting vehicles wouldn't activate these side turrets).

Other technology could be the ability to 'mass unload' the units, allowing a quicker deployment of units, and less chance for the dropship to receive damage (thus, increasing their cooldown)