In defense of other UGC creators: this is actually surprisingly hard to do. :-) There's no initiative system in SRR, and the turn-based nature of the game (which is running behind the scenes even while in free-roam mode) has a habit of shafting the Shadowrunner team when transitioning to combat. If you've started a fight as a result of a conversation, or moving to a new area, then your turn is probably "over" and the enemy will get to move first.

And, unfortunately, some simple attempts to "fix" this can lead to other problems. For example, if you tell the game to skip the enemy's first turn, then sometimes the PC will get to have two full turns before the enemy can move once. That's less frustrating than ganking, but also makes combat less challenging and fun. Lots of variables play into it, like timing and whether you're in the middle of moving and whether you have any followers. There isn't a single solution that always works (at least that I've found), so different approaches are needed depending on how the fight starts.

I definitely agree that it's an area that could be improved. If the rumors of a new official expansion are true, then I'm hopeful that new editor enhancements will make it easier for UGC creators to specify which side gets to take initiative in a fight.

Duely noted. :)

Thanks for clarifying that, cirion. I'd been frustrated by it as well, but it seemed a little too universal to be just a common design choice. I'm guessing that it's enough of a pain (or impossible) to script the NPCs first turn in a way that makes them run for cover, group up, or something else that doesn't involve ganking PCs and doesn't completely **** over melee characters. Not that I'm against ganking PCs, I've wanted to gank mine a time or two when they were proving they'd studied at the Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy...

It's actually going to be prevalent in older UGCs. The logic used to determine who gets first turn when an enemy goes hostile changed in January...in my own UGC fights were the players always went first changed to the enemy going first. I had to rework a lot of fights to change it back and you'll only discover this in play testing...which is pretty tough in longer UGCs with tons of fights.

Like Cirion said sometimes that results in a double turn for the Shadowrunners anyway which is just as bad in some ways. The most reliable way I've found to work it is to have enemies on a nuetral team and then change them (Actor->Change Team trigger) to a hostile team when you want the fight to begin.

Changing hostility of existing teams is less reliable in my experience.

In the end, the game engine is built around enemies being hostile at the start of a map (and forcing turn mode from the get go, which can be onerous on larger maps). Deviating from this to make fights more interesting or make scene travelling faster is where problems arise.