PRINCESSES in the SSHIP

[Jurand of Cracow]

Princesses in the SSHIP

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Horizontal issues
** there are 2 kinds of women in the Med2 engine:
(1) the princesses: agents appearing on the map, they have charm (heart) attribute, can marry and conduct diplomatic missions. When they marry, they provide traits for his husband (then transmitted to the children) depending on their charm (and luck).
(2) noble women (daughters and wives): they appear only in the family tree (not on the map), they provide very few traits for the generals upon marriage, and these traits do not depend on their personalities (as they have no traits).
** the retirement age of any unmarried women in the SSHIP is set to 35 years. After they retire, they empty the slot for a child for a general (so he can get another child if already 4 were taken), and also lower the number of characters in the faction (thus the engine may re-start giving children / offering the spouses).
** the princesses are available for all the factions (unlike in the base SS where the Muslims do not have access to them).
** the number of Princesses in the game is in comparison with the SS high due to (1) special Princess script (see below), (2) lower retirement age.

In the SSHIP 097, the traits of the Princesses are as they were in the SSHIP 092 (so perhaps SS6.4, maybe even vanilla). They should be reviewed and re-moded in the future in respect to:
(1) the list of traits (they should be assessed whether they make sense, they do not double etc.).
(2) the triggers: whether they make sense, whether they do not produce contradictory personalities etc.
(3) eradication of NCB+antitrati bug.

There are three distinct situations when Princesses get into play:
A) the player gets a royal princess : born in the family (present in the family tree), usually having the faction's blood, coming of age as a daughter of FH or FL (only then she would appear as an agent on the map, status of her father at her birth does not matter. She is very valuable as she carry the faction bloodline and relations (ie other bloodlines). A standard use is to marry her off to a very good general who is not in the family tree so that the bloodline is not wasted and that general gets into the family tree. Of course, she can also conduct diplomatic actions what may be crucial given the limited number of the diplomats in the SSHIP.
B) the players gets a lady of the court every ca. 15 years. She is not in the family tree and doesn't have a bloodline (but may have if scripted). A general married to her would get better traits, it also means a bigger control for the player for a superb general to get married (the engine can never offer any marriage to him). A standard use is to marry her to the FL / FH / other family members so that they can get children. She can also conduct diplomatic actions (esp. marriage with another faction to get a stronger alliance), or "steal" a good general from the AI. Having such princesses was one the reasons for having the Royal Ladies of the Court submod for the SS6.4 (the other were to be able to marry a FL/FH at all - the engine sometimes would not give a spouse for them, and the AI princesses were not available). In the SSHIP they are given by the recurring events for each faction. In the future, it can probably by modded to be an interactive event.
C) the player meets an AI princess and can marry a Faction Leader or a Faction Heir. Thanks to the script, the AI factions are likely to have many princesses so that the player may (statistically) meet them often. They have the faction bloodlines to make the game interesting for the player (transmission of the "relations").

Noble Ladies script (in SSHIP 096-7): The script gives each faction a princess (on average) every 30 turns, starting after turn 60. As a result, it is much easier to meet a potential spouse for your Faction Heir so that he can keep the family line, and also to get a foreign blood (and alliance, and better traits for children of FH/FL) through diplomatic deals. As a last resort you may also marry your FH/FL to the Noble Lady that is given to your faction (they're not relatives; some ladies can have 5-6 charm that will profit in the traits of the husband and his children).
Due to the Noble Lady script, their number is significantly higher in the game. In the past, the princesses were extremely rare: after the few initial turns, the player was not able to meet almost any - they would get married away by the AI very soon after coming of age.

For the family management this might be useful info (should be true in the long run, while deviations in the short run occur):

The M2TW engine gives children and spouses and adoptions until the number of generals and princesses (and perhaps children, I don't remember) is roughly equal to the number of provinces. This is not a fixed number, there might be deviations of +/- a few generals.
If you've got more generals than provinces, you will get neither spouses, nor children, nor adoptions. Fertility doesn't have any impact on it. It matters only if that number is correct. So you need either to take more provinces or get some of the generals killed.
The engine also "fixates" at one character. It usually keeps proposing a spouse for a general/a princess/a women in the family tree for several turns, if you keep on declining.
You may recruit new generals as "Bodyguard" units and break the limits. But they won't be in the family tree and the engine won't give you any more characters, for the described reasons.
You may try to marry your princesses to the foreign generals thus "stealing" them. They'll be in the family tree but again, the engine won't give you any more characters.