I started this discussion https://forums.elementalgame.com/374935 but wanted to put this idea here.
For a competitive game throughout introduce a concept of a world seeking balance. The idea is that the "world" has a form of conciousness and it wants no winners. For the world, the game must continue. And so what it strives to do is if one player is making achievements towards a victory the other players will find they can do some things easier, like research, casting spells (lessened costs or requirements) or whatever the imagination can supply a believable reason for to give whatever bonus. Military units that fight better? Their axes strike as if possesed, because in a small way they are, by the world which knows that if there is a winner the world ends. The computer game knowing that it will be quitted out of once a winner is declared is cool and cheesy, so its more like once there is a winner the world is tamed, no longer free. Like a wild horse, it fights against becoming tamed.
As with any idea there are two parts, story and gameplay. Gameplaywise what it does to achieve this is give those lacking in achievements that eventually give victory advantages. But here is the key point, the advantages must not be made to feel like cheats to just benefit the AI, they are part of the world and are given to all. They could either be subtle or strong, I don't know. What I picture is a plate like the plate of those spinning plate's on a stick performers. At the start of the game its in harmony, the plate spins perfectly. As the game progresses players pull ahead and the plate starts to wobble. The "world" tries to right the plate by giving something to the weaker players an advantage. The plate then starts to wobble in these players favor so the advantage is taken away or the other players get something. The world seeks stability.
How I imagine this to go is in the early game the advantages are minor, the world see's little danger and so responds sluggishly. In the mid game the advantages are better but still not in any way huge or radical. The end game is where it really happens. When a player is close to victory the world goes "Ah crap!" and starts giving big advantages to other players. But to use the spinning plate analogy,while it tries to give advantages (or remove previous advantages) to return to stability it actually causes the plate to become more unstable in anothers favor. Which in turn causes new advantages/disadvantages to come into play which are more powerful and destabilising.
I would see this as being a solution to making the game interesting all they way through. It would need to be implemented well, allow for early game rushes and such, and probably run on a timer, so huge advantages are only allowed to occur after a certain time, allowing for a rush victory.
