Quote Originally Posted by Chuffy
'Allied Government/city' = Castle

'Directly controlled Government/city' = City

Or vice versa? ;)
It will be interesting to get hold of the EDB files. If Castles and Cities are completely modable, they will be able to do some interesting things. Firstly, it would be good to get rid of the Castle/City names, and change to something to delineate between a homeland city and a vassal city.

The advantages of a homeland city type are obvious; happiness, law, moral bonuses, more advanced building types etc. Also, the recruitment of good quality militia units, these being the core of most early armies, as opposed to elite units which come from higher level barracks, not 'castles.'

Vassal cities would resemble the current Castles of MTW2 in that they would have limited economies, but without the elite unit capability. It would be good to be able to control the taxation levels, and have some level of economic advancement.

Here is the tricky part. When a city is first captured, it should automatically be converted to a 'Vassal' type city through scripting, along with the destruction of the majority of buildings. If this is possible, then the faction specific barracks would no longer be necessary, since every time a city changes hand the barracks are destroyed. Or, if this handicaps the AI to much, it could only happen when the player takes a city. Or, the consequences are different for the AI and player, with the player loosing most buildings and the city becoming 'Vassel', and the AI just loosing the military buildings and the city becoming Homeland or Vassal depending on how far from the capital it is.

Of note, does the current MTW2 AI ever change a city to a castle or vice versa? This would effect things as well, if the AI is smart enough to do this.