Commanders should have an army of their own.

McBerns

In my 40 hour experience playing as the commander, I have to say that it just got a whole lot boring than it used to be.

In this game, the comms have to rely mainly on their team mates to be able to win. So aside from the fact that:
- you rage in helplessness at your own team mates not doing any coordination whatsoever,
- you just finished all research, upgrades and built every single structure there is.
- there are fewer players on the server.
- you get bored in the chair real quick while there is nothing else to do.
Both alien and marine comms should get into the fight too by build units (called comm units) that CAN attack, rather than leaving the chair (since the game punishes you for doing so)

On marine side, the ARC is the only commander controlled assault unit there is. Introduce some assault units to the robotics factory for the comm to use that does not have to be built in a ARC factory. Limit to 5 or 10 assault comm units. The MAC acts as a support unit for players and marine comm units alike. Weapons and armor upgrades apply to comm units.

On aliens side, the drifter acts more or so like a support unit to players, and a builder of alien structures. The whip seems to act like a unit, but its a defense structure and it has to be in infestation to be effective at defending. The alien comm can place down eggs near the hive that will hatch as an assault unit of sorts that only the alien commander can control. Same limits as above paragraph. All upgrade structures may apply to alien comm units.

And on both sides, there should be some comm unit upgrades to research, just like upgrading player abilities. I know this might be like PvE, but again, this is for the comm to actually be in the fight, other than leaving the comm chair

Imbaxlax

This is a multiplayer game, not a PvE game.

zeq

If these units were added, all they would do is further the comm/foot soldier divide, as they would only be used in pub games likely at expense of upgrades and generally more beneficial stuff the same way sentries frequently are. They would almost certainly see no competitive play for the same reason hallucinations don't: they require a lot of micromanagement and a large investment res or research-wise. Ideally a good comm will be using his position to support and direct the team, and the team executes his orders. The focus should be improving this mentality, rather than adapting to the lack of said mentality in some pub games. If you want players to listen to you more as a comm, try playing gathers, joining a regular group or clan, or go competitive, these are all more serious places where competent players are generally found. If you look hard enough you can sometimes find pub servers that regularly have players that listen and communicate. Or if you can't enjoy comm without being able to use your own units, don't comm. There are plenty of rts games out there that should better fit that niche, or even a few fps/rts games (Savage 2, I think). NS2 was designed with a fairly specific approach to how the commander works, which quite a bit of us do enjoy, so you can bet it won't change anytime soon.