npc faction in encounter/combat tracker

[lousilver]

I see that npc-faction can be set to friendly, neutral, hostile... and faction. What is this fourth category? I've tried googling through a few threads but have not yet found an answer.

[Griogre]

Welcome to the boards, lousilver. Faction in this case just means default value - which is normally hostile for NPCs. However when creature modules are created the creator can set default value to something other than hostile.

[LordEntrails]

I've never found a use for Faction. There was a longer explanation in a thread in the last few weeks/months, but no idea where or what to search for. In short its probably exactly how Grigore described it, but since it didn't seem useful to me, I didn't bother comprehending it :)

[wndrngdru]

"Faction" is simply the name of that value. There are only three factions (hostile, neutral, friendly) and if "Faction" is chosen, the value is essentially undefined.
Undefined NPCs default to hostile when added to the Combat Tracker as most of the time an NPC added to the CT is going to be a hostile.

[Trenloe]

@wndrngdru is correct. The longer explanation LordEntrails mentioned is available here: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?69291-Encounter-faction-not-transferring-to-the-combat-tracker&p=608561&viewfull=1#post608561

[SilentRuin]

I've never found a use for Faction. There was a longer explanation in a thread in the last few weeks/months, but no idea where or what to search for. In short its probably exactly how Grigore described it, but since it didn't seem useful to me, I didn't bother comprehending it :)

I use the 4 flavors of factional settings to allow me to divide PC/NPCs into 4 different groups. That way I can have more than one type of group interactions going on in one encounter (not just friend or foe).

[Kelrugem]

The undefined faction can have some usage, depending on how your group interprets the neutral faction in the CT. If you interpret the CT-neutral as "undefined" (in sense of that the GM does not want to give away the actual alignment towards the players), then you won't need the undefined faction. (except maybe for things like what SilentRuin is doing)

But if your players interpret the CT-neutral in sense of an alignment (neutral towards them, as the alignment), then you can use the undefined faction to avoid giving your players information about the alignment of that NPC :)

PS: That is just an idea how one can use it; as others already said, its base meaning is just an undefined value for the faction

[lousilver]

Ty. I sometimes include "civilians" described in an adventure as neutral, like patrons and staff in a bar. I like the undefined feature, as sometimes they'll also be armed combatants as part of the background clientelle and not part of the true encounter, but the PCs are left guessing as to their exact purpose. I'll have to experiment to see how they appear to the players with the undefined setting.

[SilentRuin]

Ty. I sometimes include "civilians" described in an adventure as neutral, like patrons and staff in a bar. I like the undefined feature, as sometimes they'll also be armed combatants as part of the background clientelle and not part of the true encounter, but the PCs are left guessing as to their exact purpose. I'll have to experiment to see how they appear to the players with the undefined setting.

I and my players ignore the actual tooltip text and treat them simply as different factions for game play. The greens, yellows, reds, and blue? teams based on color of factional indicator. That is what your players will see in the CT for sure. I tend to use extensions so am not "positive" on how FGU reacts to those - but pretty sure your players will see the faction for anything in their CT (the 4 flavors).

[Moon Wizard]

It's designed specifically to be 3 states:
* Friend - Known friendly actor
* Foe - Known enemy actor
* Neutral - Unknown whether friend/enemy

There is an "undefined" state as well; but you shouldn't see this unless cycling faction in the CT (and is the default for encounters as noted in post #4).

Using it for any other usage is up to each user; but all the coordinating systems (token visibility, health visibility, effect visibility, and so on) all assume the 3 state usage.

Regards,
JPG

[SilentRuin]

It's designed specifically to be 3 states:
* Friend - Known friendly actor
* Foe - Known enemy actor
* Neutral - Unknown whether friend/enemy

There is an "undefined" state as well; but you shouldn't see this unless cycling faction in the CT (and is the default for encounters as noted in post #4).

Using it for any other usage is up to each user; but all the coordinating systems (token visibility, health visibility, effect visibility, and so on) all assume the 3 state usage.

Regards,
JPG

Can you elaborate on how token visibility, health visibility, and so on are effected by faction settings?

[LordEntrails]

There are GM options that display status icons and health details based upon the factions. More details on the behavior would be nice, but I suspect can be found via experimentation.

[SilentRuin]

There are GM options that display status icons and health details based upon the factions. More details on the behavior would be nice, but I suspect can be found via experimentation.

Yeah I did a global source check (5E/CoreRPG) for "faction" and saw where it was used. Not anything that will harm the way I mangle it to my own uses. I can still target, attack, save, and move and have the LOS applied regardless. That is good enough for me. The fact some things will only do some display stuff for "friend" or "foe" were "mostly harmless" to me.