How to get NPC to enter or leave an existing map during a cutscene?

[IndigoDreamsArt]

Title pretty much says it all... I'm building a scene where my player character is already on the map, is looking for their friend, and goes to another part of the map to trigger another cutscene, in which the NPC she will have a convo with is supposed to enter the map and walk up to her. The problem is, I can only get the character to walk up to her if she is already on the map. It looks super weird having that toon already just standing there when the player is looking for her, haha.

For future reference, I would be interested to know how to have an NPC leave the map entirely after a cutscene as well.

Thank you so much!

 

[ATT_Turan]

My advice is to think less about the concept of NPCs - in RPG Maker, there isn't actually any such thing, there are only events that you've given graphics to. A chest, an NPC, a roaming enemy, a door, they're all just events.

So you would have an event that has at least two pages. On the second one, you set a condition (a switch, variable, self-switch, whatever) and assign it the graphic of the NPC you want. On the first page, you leave everything blank. Place it on the map wherever you want it to enter.

During your conversation, you'll use an event command to set the switch/variable that fulfills the event condition on the second page - that will cause the event to immediately switch over and gain the graphics you set there, causing the NPC to appear. You'll then use event commands to move it around the map however you like.

Leaving is the same thing in opposite - have a third page with another, different condition, and when you want the NPC to leave you move it toward the edge of the screen and turn on that condition.

There are many tutorials on events on YouTube and in these forums - here's one of them. It's labeled for RPG Maker MV, but the events work the same way.

 

[IndigoDreamsArt]

This is excellent, and thank you so much for the tutorial for visuals as well.