One such thing could be drop pods giving you extended shields while you are in range of it to give you a chance of clearing anyone trying to camp you off. Would be like having a super charged shield for like 10 seconds that boosts you to have Heavy grade defenses even with militia gear for that given time.

- Have MCC commanders preselect the DZ's for their team. Delay spawning until four mercs select the same DZ or a time limit is reached. Ta-da, instant back-up if the DZ is hot.

Pros:
- Looks really cool.

- Makes uplinks more useful for defending cannons if you can't just spawn on the objective.

Not sure how this inherently makes uplinks more useful, or what spawning by dropping in from the sky has anything to do with your ability to spawn at objectives - the two aren't mutually exclusive.

- Reduces clustering on ambush maps and allows for easier flanking maneuvers.

The old spawn system did as well. This isn't something only sky spawning can give us.

- Gives CCP more skills for us to sink points into.

Why do I need to spend SP on spawning?

- Easier to escape being red-lined. Just drop with some buddies behind the lines and plant an uplink.

This should never be possible. Sky spawning should never allow you to drop behind defenses or controlled territory if you don't already have an uplink or CRU there.

- Still looks really cool.

- Reduces spawn sniping because of a lack of predefined points to aim at.

More spawn points would fix this. It's not something limited to only dropping in from the sky. In fact, snipers would probably be the ones to more easily see people falling down than be able to guess when someone is going to just materialize on the ground.

- Won't get shotgunned in the back by a scout who silently spawned behind you while you were hacking.

The silent part is the only thing this would fix, assuming dropping in would have accompanying audio. This is more a problem with being able to spawn at objectives rather than how they spawn.