Quote Originally Posted by Bob the Insane
I don't know...

I am not sure I want that much depth... I mean it is Total War not Total Architecture...
Actually, it can work very well. The Amiga version of Lords of the Realm II had a castle editor which was fun to use, and it certainly didn't detract at all from the overall gameplay. It was just there if you wanted to muck around with it.

In practice, you didn't need to use it much because once you'd hit on a basic affordable little castle design that could house a reasonable number of troops and store enough food for them to last a few turns, you didn't need to do any more. And like many games, once you had the finances to really expand your castles, you were already the dominant faction so there was no point in going for better defences.

All the same, I found it enjoyable to add little knickknacks to my castles as time went on, like moats and stuff. I think it would have been even more fun if those extras had played a more important role in the game, but regardless, it really isn't the sort of subgame that has to get in the way of overall gameplay. As long as they provided a standard set of castle designs for you to choose from in addition to the design-your-own option, you wouldn't need to spend any time on it at all if you weren't interested in it.