Dynamic balance (possible mod idea)

The only fundamental rule of game design is there are no rules to game design.

Programming is magic! Dark, evil, black magic! It just so happens I'm a dark and evil person. MUHUhahahaha!

I'm not saying it would be easy to achieve, it would need a lot of thought, testing, trail and error, hence why I said don't ask me what the equations/heuristics would be because I simply haven't spent the time to think about it, implement and test it. If I had this would be a mod launched thread, not an idea thread.

You are correct "The only fundamental rule of game design is there are no rules to game design." but there are generally accepted laws, just like science.

Rise of Nations has a system somewhat like the one described here. Repeated production of a unit type causes the cost of that unit to increase and costs decrease slowly over time. Using cost as your balance lever is probably the safest thing to do because it is fairly linear. Other attributes have weird behaviour which can interact in an interesting way.

This would be amusing to play, not so amusing to build I imagine.