- How can I prevent collapse
Only rulers with the administrator trait are immune to collapse.

- How do I become a pioneer?
If you're a tribal ruler with brave or ambitious trait, have a smaller realm size than five and are going through an expansion phase of high magnitude, you have a small chance of gaining the trait and modifiers. Steppe rulers have a much higher chance than other rulers.

@Emperor: still in idea phase, but got a few ways to implement those. My mod follows a few principles that new features must adhere to:
- good and bad effects are equally likely to happen
- there are fixed cycles, but the consequences of each step is not fully known and are determined in large part by chance
- effects must be balanced with other cycles, and stacking of effects minimized, that means that these cycles shouldn't overlap with sociodemographic and empire cycles effects too much.

With that in mind I'm looking at a few different angles:
- culture cycles based on synthesis of theories from authors like Spengler, Toynbee, Sorokin etc. that spans up to two thousand years - with micro cycles inside the macro cycles. Macro cycles could be spring, summer, autumn and winter of a culture, and micro cycles will be specific to these "seasons". I prioritize gameplay over scientific rigidity, must be believable and proximate to reality. Cultures must therefore have preset cycle status unlike other cycles in the mod.
- in the spenglerian culture cycles, every culture has an "aim". What characterize Faustian or western culture is it's fascination with the infinite; abstraction and universalization. Cultures must be designated an aim in this sense and effects must be somehow meaningful for it to add value to the game.
- hybrid-cultures and divergent cultures must have a chance to escape cycles and return to flourishing beginnings, but could also have opposite effect and cause cultural lassitude.
- cultural pillars and traditions must be affected by cycle status.

Thinking something similar for religions, but must find some literature in religious cycles. Cycles of fervor and inspirations, followed by the opposite. Large macro cycles and smaller generational micro cycles.

For micro cycles, I'm thinking of adding periods of inspirations and stagnation, of war obsession and pacifism. The opposite should often follow, as generations as sons reacts to father's excessiveness in one domain or the other.

That said, it'll be a while before I have the chance to work on these and people are free to steal these ideas.