[gameprogrammer] Refining balance in strategy games

Hi all,
Does anyone have any concrete suggestions for refining balance in strategy games? To take SimCity as an example, what process would the authors have gone through to make sure, say, that pollution was produced at such a level that it is controllable? Or that crime doesn't become rampant given the resources the player has? Is it just a case of playing the game a lot and tweaking it over a long period of time, or are there known processes/algorithms to make sure it works? 

Thanks in advance,

Steve

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