Towns versus Outposts... difference?

[bk3000]

As the title says, what's the actual difference as far as the game is concerned? I'd imagine is mostly comes down to how NPCs treat it, but I have no idea what difference that would make.

I've seen this is FCS and wondered for a long time, but this isn't a mod exclusive question since it probably affects vanilla game play... hence why I didn't post this question in the mod forum.

[swillo]

As far as I can tell its just the size of the settlement.
Outposts/waystations are smaller, only have one or maybe two buildings, and no citizen populations.
Towns have several shops, civilians, guards ect...

And you missed Villages which are some place in between, with civilians and only one or two shops.

[bk3000]

Ah yes I missed TOWN_VILLAGE besides TOWN_OUTPOST and TOWN_TOWN. But there is also the /misc/"is outpost" boolean attribute. It has to do something, right?

"Your Outpost" is set as an outpost. Most your NPC towns are not. Seems to be more military places that are outposts.

And interestingly some towns completely lack the /misc/"is outpost" boolean attribute and even /misc/ at all. I'm not sure what to make of that. Depreciated?

[Rambler]

Maybe town status makes a city appear on the mini map permanently. Reading a map makes larger towns like Bad Teeth and Stack permanently visible but the holy farms disappear after a while. It also seems like most of the places where you can buy a building in town also appear on the mini map, although there was a swamp village where my team bought a building. Certain locations, such as way stations and swamp villages, can be difficult to find even if you've been there before.