OK, I got an idea and started the implementation. Thanks for all (most
) of the posts, it was helpful. I will post again once I tested it.
One idea for courtiers might be to set up Ministries (Trade, propaganda, military, navy, personnel, etc) within the imperial court. You would assign a leader of each ministry, and assign courtiers to each as underlings, and the courtiers would grant bonuses to that segment of the empire, add bonuses in relevant decisions, and potentially foment intrigue/storylines as they attempt to rise in their ministry's internal hierarchies. You might have ranks for the courtiers in each ministry so that the courtiers are constantly jockeying for position. Courtiers at the top might give higher percentages of their stats as bonuses, while courtiers at the bottom contribute almost nothing. You might even have courtiers who are bad at their jobs and decrease productivity, but must be left in place for political reasons.
Let's now pursure the official's management. Yeah, it could be in the form of ministries. Let's forge out details how it could work.
Points to take into account:
* interface wise it's best if there were 5 or 6 ministries; each ministry ideally if made of 12 people (but could be more if necessary but then it would require scrolling, so 12 is prefered), they would be displayed in two rows (6x2) just like the audience picture in the first post
* it does not have to be connected to audiences (but that would be a plus) since I have these (probably) solved
* I'm willing to get rid of the "Court" tab if needed. So don't feel limited by that one (actually if there were ministries all people there could be considered courtiers).
* I tend to favour a solution where courtiers are preassigned to a ministry and can't move between ministries (easier for the player to grasp the situation).
You can also check this wiki link to get into the mood
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_%28government_department%29