ok so as you may know i'm making a SF map, with the whole "accumulate X mins, spawn a civ, and choose another unit" thing going on..

the units you can pick are: firebat, vulture, siege tank, ghost, marine, and goliath. i may add more units, but before I can really do anything I need to know how to balance units/upgrades/buildings/etc... etc...

i was thinking... should i just leave everything as is, or triple the stats of everything, and then spend hours and hours testing the map for balancing issues, steal the stats from another popular SF map... or (I can't help thinking about the primary creator...) are there algorithms that can balance these things for me?

The only real way is repeated testing. The more you test the map, the more balanced it'll be.

Legacy, is that how the original SC creators balance Starcraft? Repeated testing?

Pretty much. I mean, you start out looking at what seems like a good balance, and then test it to make it perfect from there. Yes, the original SC creators did balance it through repeated testing, and they still didn't get it right, hence certain patches changing costs of things.

Better yet, if you're unsure, get some testers to toss out their opinion on your stuff.

it also helps to know the units inside and out. You'd be amazed how many times I've had to explain explosive damage vs concussive and normal. So many haven't the slightest idea they even exist. Of course, then they act like they know and presume you mean splash when you said explosive =P. Also, make sure you understand splash relationships, since some units don't hurt yourself but hurt allied, etc. Come to think of it, is there any unit with splash that doesn't hurt allied? I don't think so... But sieged tanks of course hurt everyone.