How do you get a town or castle as a vassal?

[Beryn]

No matter how many sieges I lead, how many battles I partake in, my standing with the other clans and the influence I have, I never even get a lot in the vote of a castle/town.
My standing is around 100 with 4 clans out of 11, 50 with 4 and around 20 with 3.
I have the third highest influence.
Distance from my castle is not a factor, other clans get castles/towns no where near their settlements.

I have one castle, and the ones getting every town/castle has 5+.
What am I missing?

As of now, there is no reason to join in wars, there is no reward for it.
Game becomes a boring thing where you just trade and deal with bandits because at least that gives you decent earning.

 

[BjornP]

I've joined two kingdoms as vassals (North Empire + Aserai), and both times got nearly instantly awarded either the next or second next fief (both castles, later a town or two). Dunno if they changed this post official release, as I haven't played it after official release, except for a few minutes. What I did, pre-OR, was get the ruler's approval up to at least 40-50 ish. Not sure if that's what does the trick, because I was also clan tier 3 when joining, both times. That could also be a factor.

 

[Ananda_The_Destroyer]

Distance from my castle is not a factor,

It is though, "the game" cares a lot about this for putting you on the ballot or not.

towns no where near their settlements

Yes it's very dum, not sure why it "the game' does this so much.

I have one castle, and the ones getting every town/castle has 5+.
What am I missing?

They have more power, this causes the game to put them on the ballot more, up to a point. Once a clan has 8 fiefs or so it seems to stop putting them on.
It's a very obvious problem when making a faction: AT first everyone is equal and proximity matters most. But then once someone gets a second fief, suddenly the game is always try to put them on the ballot, why: Power, the garrison of that second fief gives them a bump above the other clans. If they get a 3rd it just gets worse.

Solutions
1: Give up fief to be forced onto the ballot for a better fief! Then siege fiefs near your new fief to take advantage of the proximity bonus! Once you have multiples you also start to benefit from more power too!
2: You're a vassal so who cares, just focus on wining battles to raise renown/clan rank and get lots of loot money. I'd still give up fiefs in bad spot though and if you get some better fiefs that's a bonus. Eventually though you'll want to break of on you own anyways and unless you happen to have fief on the edge of the map, you're better off starting fresh in a good location. What I do is use the fief I have form being a vassal to make a kingdom (and army privileges) then just abandon it and go take new fiefs in a good location.