Personal Babysitter AI for late game

Is this not already going to be a part of the game in a sort of a way? Let me explain:

I think a reasonable amount of automation is necessary to stop a large game from stagnating in micro, but at the same time the AI should not by any means be holding the player's hand. This was done extremely effectively in both TA and SupCom by the inclusion of the Patrol and Assist orders for construction units and factories. In large games I would always have a few construction units patrolling my base, reclaiming wreckage, repairing damaged units and structures etcetera, while I would have a few factories pumping out units which would immediately join those on patrol. As long as these functions are implemented, I believe you have all the automation you require.

The one feature I think might need to be added in this case (depending on whether resources are shared between planets) would be the option to pause production on an entire planet simultaneously.

Skynet

Autoretreat to a designated zone with a nanotower set to repair on it is about all I want for this. Dealing with large numbers of planets at once should be handled simply by having more than one player on a team in such large maps.

This.

Also, more advanced unit commands, and perhaps loose formations (nothing too rigid, just keep themobile arty at range and the tanks in font) would be awesome.

I don't think that's a particularly good idea, forcing solo players to make friends for the sole purpose of stationing them on planets. (<-- This was a joke, in case you couldn't tell.)

I do, however, like the 'QAI' style concept of setting up a rudimentary AI network and giving them actions to follow, such as keeping structures repaired and units built. Some modding to make the AI more advanced would be cool, but I believe there should be some sort of ability to automate a planet's defenses. Perhaps a 'support commander' that costs several arms and legs to build?

There should be an alarm bell system, in any case, one that squawks "Enemy incursion detected on planet 2-A-2, 'Resource Facility 1', automated defenses activated."

Intelligent content and dry humor, a true paragon of RTS players.

Fabbers on Patrol keep things in shape and Factories with repeat Queues keep units rolling off your factories.

Mike

I agree. It sounds like everyone (including the Uber Devs) are in favor of smarter units. so we can focus on the Macro game.
Having an AI "Babysitter" would really mean having an AI teammate, since you share resources with your team. So essentially you would have a teammate that was bullheaded and impossible to communicate with. Since what makes a team effective is good communication this sounds awful. The AI would constantly be countermanding your orders, and building what it wanted instead of working with you.

That said I guess I'm not completely opposed to having the option of AI teammates so long as it is spelled out that way on the game roster before the game is launched.
And We'll have to wait and see how good/bad/mod-able (meaning server side mod or client side mod) the AI is before we can really say if we want this or not.