Tried... yes. Did it work? Uhhh....
Djinn still needs buff, it's a cool mechanic IMO and not as OP as google feared. Even if it's abused quite a lot, it gives the factory mobility and cool features it needs. I think it should be buffed enough that it's abused a fair bit and is one of the things you seriously fear when you see an Amph fac. Scallop is still one of the best things to make appear in an enemy base, so there is even in-fac synergy.
I'm not against teleport on the Funnel, I'd love the funnel to be a proper support strider to supplement an army rather than a monospam snowballer. Teleport would fit that, but not replacing it's weapons.
I think the question, what are the things needed to support a lategame army, and can the funnel have it? Off the top of my head:
Protection from AoE and artillery. Shield does this well already that prevent raider or skirm balls from being trashed. Potentially it could be given a new kind of (non-charge transfering) shield like a deflection shield, dampening fields etc with meaningfully different behaviour which doesn't have the shield-charge-sharing mechanic. This would prevent Funnel spam stacking shield charge,, and it can even be non-stacking on overlap, though this makes it worse at supporting shieldballs (Do people do this?).
Scouts and intel. Drones do this well, as would radar, a scan, a lot of LoS, etc. Drones also importantly are decloakers, protecting your army mostly from anti-heavy (Making this a good support for other mechs). Drones can perform this function without being a main DPS source.
Distraction and tanking. HP and shields do this well, but drones play an important role. They soak up a lot of shots and some AA. Again, drones can do this without being a DPS source.
Transport. An AT transport that has a lot of HP can get units to new areas and protect them from artillery/AoE (Shield does this too).
Terraform. Full terra, flattening or quake type weapons. This opens up new avenues for attack with a regular army and helps deal with fucked up terrain.
Crowd control. Thunderbird and placeholder are the ultimate support units. Ability to pull or push enemies into/out of range, disable weapons or movement, etc. Slow drones do a bit of this too, but slow is not as interesting in lategame than the harder CC's are.
Repositioning. Ability to teleport your army like with Djinn or to do a small teleport jump forward or back taking ally units with it (This is a bit like an easy, instantaneous transport: The distance can be the shield radius for easy judgement). Maybe even offensive use: Get close to an enemy and then flash backwards, isolating it and bringing it into your army.
Construction capacity. Repair, reclaim, or full constructor status.
So that's the sort of thing I'd put on a support Strider. It's almost there, with AT capacity, shield, and the utility from drones. Problem is the shields and the huge Drone DPS makes it stack better with other funnels than it does with the rest of your army.
