An interesting game idea from a dream:

The core concept is that this is a space RTS where there are two simultaneous modes of play: Strategic and Tactical, split into macroscopic and microscopic UI interfaces respectively.

On the macroscopic view, you see the entire solar system (the map on which the entire game takes place) and all the various different units within your army. You can give orders to these units to move and engage enemies, take over local planets, build infrastructure, and so on... but they will move very slowly, and your enemy can see everything you are doing. No fog of war.

When a unit on the macroscopic view engages an enemy ship, it creates a "Tactical Battle Zone" - a small conflagration that the player can directly oversee. In the Tactical view, the view point is zoomed all the way in to the player's ship(s) that are currently in battle, and the player can directly control that ship's actions to try and out maneuver their opponent. Essentially it turns a small scale fight that the AI would normally hash out for a player in other RTS games into a active dogfight where the player's skill can turn the tide of the battle.

Due to the nature of both views being real time and going on simultaneously, players must juggle their focus between the Strategic layer and all ongoing Battle Zones. If a player becomes over invested in trying to win a single intense dogfight, then that is time that the player isn't paying attention to the Strategic map, commanding their army's logistics, or other concurrent Tactical Battle Zones.

If a Tactical Battle Zone is created and a player doesn't spend much or any time actively commanding them, the game's AI will take over and fight to the best of its ability. This AI could be adjustable on the fly by players before combat to help adjust its actions, either on a unit by unit basis or as general rules for a squadron. For example, a player might set a blanket order that all ships in Group 1 retreat at 30% health and the AI will comply if Group 1 ever finds itself in a Tactical Battle Zone without the player actively interacting and giving overriding orders.

It would be a useful tactic for a player to send a quick strike team to attack an important installation of the enemy's, potentially causing them to react and pay a lot of attention to that one battle to come out on top, while the player maneuvers his main army to flank the enemy's without the enemy noticing. Of course, that may well mean sacrificing that strike team for the overall objective, weakening his army somewhat.

What I'm proposing in effect is not significantly different from your classic Starcraft or Sins of a Solar Empire RTS where players must juggle macro and micro operations. The big difference is in slowing down the macro side to better aid players in the juggle, and offering quality of life features such as pre-programming standing army behavior, and offering different context sensitive UI panes.