The Caravel Mod

[gollum]

That's correct. if you play without this setting (or at a lower setting, say 140, 160 etc), the AI gets a lot of rebellions and he melts down with the EXPANSIONIST personalities. I reccomend to play the Caravel Mod (and in fact every other mod and MTW version) at loyalty:180, that makes the AI cautious of not leaving his core lands exposed to rebellions or to jumping like a grasshopper when taking new lands from other factions, because otherwise the ensuing rebellions really hurt him.

Basically, what it means is that the AI factions are far more stable and advance more slowly, more viably and more wholistically (with all their strength), rather than opportunstically. In terms of taxes it ensures that the AI keeps decent garissons and so squeezes viably every possible florin out of his provinces.

Rebellions are caused by loyalty less than 120%