Unit costs and inflation, explain it to me please!

[Ahriman]

However, Is it possible to influence the level of inflation? Is this national or global? Interdependent? Based on spending? Based on Gold surplus?

No, you can't influence it.
It applies to every faction identically.
Its not based on anything.
Its not "inflation", its just a steady increase in unit maintenance costs.

Has anyone seen the coding/know the formula?

Its in the link provided above (the Number-Crunching Thread).
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=389702

c(t,n) = ((0.5 + 8/1000 t) round(n,2))^(1 + 2/7000 t)

where n = number of units, t = number of turns and the round function is meant to take the next lowest even number if n is odd.

Basic idea:
The cost per unit steadily increases with the number of turns, and is also increasing in the number of units you have.

So; the more units you have on any given day, the higher is the maintenance per unit, but this effect is generally small relative to the difference based on game turn.

 

[Adhesive86]

@Ahriman,

Thanks for a clear, well explained answer.

I had sporadically wondered what I could do to combat inflation (if anything). Good to know I'm not missing a trick.

Cheers.