I can agree your your "GAH". I've got the same problems, too many good ideas, not enough time to implement or even try 1/2 of them. Every time I make a change I have a nagging thought that I forgot some other great concept that I really wanted to try. (When you get to my age you become accustomed to that.)

You are right, it is all a matter of preference. A person gets a thought track and likes to follow it. I've got over a dozen mod choices on my "Early" startup menu, but I never go back to old ones, I just keep trying new ones. I hope everyone keeps trying things and posting them so I can "borrow" what I like.

I like your concept of trading for goods. If iron was a resource and a trade good which could then be counted as a resource, then trading would have a real function other than being a cash cow. (CA- HINT, HINT. Probably too complex a change for a expansion, but worth considering for a future game.)

The fort3 idea turns out to help me with adjacent rebels only, and then only in the earliest stages. I find bribing rebels without shipping contact to the king is a sure revolt and sometimes I will bribe a rebel province to put a stonger force in it to oppose the AI. The AI now likes to invade rebel provinces quicker because it doesn't have crusades as a point gaining option. And I'm probably going to make all initial rebel held provinces revolt factor 2 on my next change. The thinking is that I view them as independent kingdoms and they should have an impetus to revolt, so bribing a small garrison will almnost surely bring on a revolt unless you can reinforce immediately because neither I nor the AI can build + happiness buildings quick enough for revolt factor 2 provinces.

As for non-catholic factions, they only have 3 behavior choices, none of which includes a trader option. I did not do anything to limit them, CA did that.

I didn't turn off crusades, I just made it take longer for the AI to initiate them. I'll let you know what happens when it gets to that point, if I get there and don't start new mods. (Don't hold your breath. Hopefully someone else will experiment with various options and report back.) I actually tried it because I don't crusade because I learned it always cuts off major trade options. That is the big secret in the game, money is everything. Once you learn to trade and amass a treasury, some sort of victory is assured. I don't play the conquer the world game, mainly because the turns take too long to accomplish and I want to try a new mod anyway by the time I get there.

By the way, the + happiness building boost takes assassins out of the game, everyone has the second watchtower. I just put an assassin in every province for defensive purposes. Don't know how to change that. It would be nice if stars would help an assassin avoid watchtower death. I think that stars have no effect on avoiding that.

Another option for the Polish fleet is the Fishing Poles. (my surname ends in "ski").