Combat Tracker quirks

[Seananigans]

So I'm wondering why my campaign's combat tracker insists on doing some odd things with regard to ordering of entries.

First off, if I clean it out, and then simply add all 5 of the PCs into it, they'll always be ordered the same, and it's not alphabetical. What's the method? Second, if I add any NPCs, they always go in between the PCs at the same spot. 3 PC's, any/all NPCs, and then the remaining 2 PCs. Again, I'm thoroughly confused as to why, and what the tracker's method of deciding the order is.

Obviously if I add initiatives to everyone, it will re-order them accordingly, but I'd prefer to have all of the PCs at the top when there are no initiatives. Sometimes I like to pre-load a few upcoming encounters in a dungeon/wherever, and having those NPCs always end up between all the PCs is annoying and odd.

Thoughts/insights?

[Trenloe]

The order is applied as follows, if the first entry is equal then FG steps to the next, then the next until if finds a different value to order on:


The init roll result.
The init bonus - dex modifier for NPCs.
The PC/NPC name.
The FG database nodename - essentially this will mean that creatures of the same name will be sorted in the order they were created in FG.

So, when the "Init" fields in the combat tracker are cleared it will be ordering based on the Init/Dex bonus.

[Zacchaeus]

Also don't forget that provided you haven't made the NPCs visible the players will only see their own characters (even if some of them are separated by several NPCs) so you haven't given anything away if that's what you are worried about.