Originally Posted by
Cyprian2
EDIT: oh, and to attempt a very quick answer to your question about generals getting bad traits, it's simply the game-engine's response to your empire's expansion. When your income reaches a certain level, your empire is seen as essentially "decadent" and bad traits accrue to your generals and their loyalty diminishes (especially after the death of a faction leader), thus increasing the possibility for civil war and paving the way for a whole lot of fun! I'm sure there are others here who can give you a more technical explanation (e.g. coding, etc.), but I've always found that to be the case in games where I've expanded disproportionately to the AI.