Yeah, I also reckon this would be great.
But it doesn't have to be ingame, have it the same as the Lord of the Rings RTS did.
Build the 'hero' unit outgame, before it starts, give it weapons, resize it, name it, color it, assign different textures etc, choose its looks, base it on a then just add parts like different weapons and things, a hanger bay or w/e so that it can hold fighters etc.
Have a small stats screen on the 'hero designer' (thats what we can call it) that displays its firepower, armor, shields etc.
Then click the next button, and choose abilitys that you are able to pick from ingame, as your ship goes up, so you can give it custom abilitys, but ingame as your ship levels up like all other capitls, you choose one of the custom abilitys that you gave your ship in the designer, to use ingame. (in other words, the abilitys are'nt preset, but done in the designer)
It would be an AWESOME feature, and would fit this game perfectly with its naming of ships and things, people could actually create unique ships for multiplayer etc.
And if in doubt about spamming the units, have a 'hero' cap of 1, so that they are truely unique.
Its more then possible to do, really easy to implement since all the ground work is already done, and could be done in a patch.
It would definently make this game greater!
Heck, id pay to have this added in
