Quote Originally Posted by phonicsmonkey
Has anyone ever seen the AI converting castles to cities for the trade income?
Nope, never happens.

@phonicsmonkey,
The general rule is: if u can build a port convert to settlement. Take the Byz as an example. Having Iraklion, Rhodes, Limassol and Famagusta (Cyprus, I´m playing DIV 5.0) generates a total of 1000fl as castles but some 8-15000fl as settlements. In this case I rather go with a castle in the Balkans, Turkey etc all inland provinces.
Since the AI never converts it´s getting seriously hampered. Take France with castles in Bordeux, Toulouse, Angers, Metz and settlements in Rheims, Paris, Marseille and Rennes (close reb settl.m. incl). When I play France I settle for ONE castle - Angers. Same thing with Spain and Hre. As Spain I only have ne castle in Iberia - Badajoz. As HRE I settle for Magdeburg and Innsbruck.
The feature from the Teutonic campaign with small x-tra provinces, sometimes within a region, is something I personally hope will get more implemented in future modifications.