forts

[Sandouras]

Perikles, you got carried away there. A LOT!
You are talking so many changes that practically you need a new game.
I agree that more than one castle could exist in a given province, but if that is applied in the game, it will be impossible to conquer anything or the enemies conquering you.
You see, i play the Byzantines and after expanding to Asia Minor and Italy i fix up my economy and make more than 30.000 a year. Much more if i have reached say... Spain! So you see, i can build all the castles i want. I can make 10 castles at the Alps and stop anyone from entering Italy. I could build 15 at the province of Constantinople! How could anyone conquer it then? Besides, after you stand on your feet, no faction besides the Mongols/Timurids poses a real threat. They might capture 1-2 provinces but thats it. No matter how big their army is, they wont do a big campaign to put you in real trouble! They will mostly keep the army scattered and idle and never act clever, say secretly landing a huge army at your capital's gates!
Also, i dont see the logic behind that castle-decays-if-noble-is-absent thing. Imagine conquering Britain with the Byz and a nobleman dying there. How fast can you bring a new one up there? Besides, i never heard of bricks and mortar decaying because a nobleman is not there in real life, have you? Not only is that unrealistic, but it would keep your generals stranded at forts watching over strategic points. You would have to spend time moving them around and not be able to use them in battle or managing cities.
The only idea of yours that i liked is the one about a nobleman who controls a castle rebelling against you or turning to the enemy. Unfortunately (and rather stupidly) there are no civil wars in MTW 2. Anyway, i would love to scatter the traitor's pieces across my empire.

That is all. By the way, when is MTR coming? Is it even coming? Have they considered any ideas posted on these boards? What is taking them so long? In about a year there is a new TW game coming out so they better get it out fast!