Vassal -stab spirals.

[Wizzington]

The AI's absolute #1 priority when >25% OE is always coring, so I think you're probably just feeding them far more land than they have ADM for. If you actually have a case where the AI sits for years not making a single core, file a bug report with a save game.

 

[Wizzington]

There's no way the AI doesn't have enough ADM to core a province for 30 years when I'm not giving it more OE in that timeframe. When I get home I can probably find at least one save showing the province history of exactly this happening off hand. I'm not exaggerating. The AI will just...not core provinces for decades and there's no way this can possibly be ADM shortage unless they're either ignoring coring or bugging out. The math doesn't add up.

File a bug report and link me it from here.

 

[Wizzington]

If you're trying to support your subjects with money, use Give Subsidies. Jack the amount of time up as high as possible (you can always cancel it) and give them whatever you want. Subsidies seem to work better than lump sums (gifts or loans even if you could do them) because they impact the subject's income, and higher income will open more options for budgeting for them. Of course, if you do have intentions of dropping it, be careful because you could get them to buy armies just to delete them again.

Use gifts if you want them to build buildings or repay loans.

Use subsidies if you want them to maintain larger armies/fleets/more forts.

Something I occasionally like to do at the end of a blobbing campaign is pick a random minor state, give them 200g/month and watch what they do with it.