How to make an “NPC party” move as a group?

My goal is to make an NPC version of a party walk around the map and appear to do things.

I know how to make NPCs move on a route, but if one gets cut off, the others in the route keep on going. I want them to all behave as a player party does by always moving together.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Your description of what you're trying to do is a bit too vague to elicit an accurate response. Are you making a cutscene or just random people walking around? You can either run an event that gives them all the same movement route and then they'll just walk in single file line (if that's how you have em lined up), or you can set up a movement route for each one that is a looping circuit and set it to repeat. What exactly are you trying to do?

Sorry I was unclear. In a regular map you have NPCs, like shopkeepers standing still, guard NPCs patrolling a route etc. it’s easy enough to make a character randomly going on a map as well . What I want to know is how to make them all move together. I have made NPCs go on a careful route together by moving the same steps, but if I stop one the others continue. I want them all to move as one unit as if they were in a party. I was wondering if I can make them move randomly because I am simulating this is an actual Other party. Like a faux AI NPC party.

Random means random - if several events walk together it is no longer random. What you could do is manually selecting a random direction and then give the same command to different events.

In all cases you need ONE controlling event for the entire NPC party. the NPC events should be nothing but sprite placeholders without any command inside them, using remote control from the controlling event to be moved.

After that it depends on your structure of the controlling event, you would have to give us a screenshot of that event to see where it could be improved.

What you could do is have it so that when you talk to one NPC, it flips on a switch that causes the other NPCs to not move (or whatever, you'd basically have a second event page that either had nothing so they'd just stand there, or have them doing something - you could even have them stand around your player while they're talking and then get back in line afterwards), and then flips it back over when the event/dialogue is over.

Actually im having same problem trying to figure how to make the npcs stop their movement when talking to one. In my case i made a lil girl chasing a dog (playing with it) they are just running in circles. But when i speak to the girl (who is behind the dog in a line) the dog keeps on going his route, and ends up behind the girl now making it look like if the dog is chasing the girl. It's kinda funny to watch, but not what i need.
So i also want to know if there is a way to make the dog stop along the girl when spoken to her...

How about this. Make a switch that activates when you talk to the girl.
Make a new event on the dog and add an idle dog there that doesn't move.
When you finish talking to the girl just turn off the switch and let the chase begin once again!

I see flaws with this method depending on where you stand to talk to the girl and the dog might gain some distance before the switch have a chance to activate. But that is the best I got right now xD

I think a variable might activate quicker than a switch, but I haven't tested it out yet.

Okay, imma try and see if i can make it work. Im new at this so i guess im just not used to how switches and variables work.

A switch turns something on or off, like a light switch. You have an event and the event can be set to only run if a switch is on. Or you have an event that does something and then at the end it turns on a switch, and then make a second page of that event, with the condition that the switch is on, and leave the rest blank, then it will never do the first page again (unless you turn the switch back off).

A variable can do all kinds of things, and it's a good idea to look into all the many many uses there are, but for this example, it works just like a switch but instead of turning it on and off, you count upwards, and each number can potentially do something different (because each page can have a condition that the variable equal a certain number). I can't remember if it's like this in MV or not, since I've gotten in the habit of doing events this way anyway, but a change in variable usually happens instantly whereas a switch will not change as fast I think. I usually use self-switches and variables, but regular switches have their uses too. I tend to use them in bunches to control various aspects like what music is playing and what events happen during battles.

Tried and kinda made it work.... but didn't. lol. I made the girl stop when talking to her, but the dog keeps going, also, when making the girl moves again she restarts her route... hmm for example, she starts walking down, right, down(x4) i talk to her and she stops at down(x1), when dialog ends she goes back to walking from down, right..., she doesn't continue the route, but resets. x_X