How do I Get NPCs to chitchat back and forth?

Okay. I'd like to have some background characters chitchat back and forth. This isn't the only animation that they do, so I'd like to create a function that:

1)Stops their Platform Behavior, so that they stand still

2)Switches their default "Walk" animation to the "Stand Still" animation

3)Character A plays "Talk" animation for 4 seconds while Character B plays animation "Listen" for 4 seconds

4)Then switch to Character A plays "Listen" animation for 4 seconds while Character B plays "Talk" animation.

5)Repeat.

All my NPCs are in a Family called "Extras", so I'll be coding this function for the whole Family.

I've created the following Instance Variables for the Family:

Chatting (true/false)

ChitChat (1-Listen, 2-Talk)

FacingDirection (1-Not Mirrored, 2-Mirrored)

The Problem is that on Layer Start, the NPCs that have Chatting(true) continue their walking animation, do not play the chatting animation, and are never mirrored when I set them to be. I did, however, manage to get them to hold their position instead of moving around the screen like those who have Chatting(false).

Can anyone help? Possibly using a Timer behavior in there somewhere? Please remember that I'm brand-new to coding and Construct 2!

Without seeing your events and/or capx we could only guess..

How do I upload a capx file?

Screenshot:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykk5yi7wx9j90 ... t.PNG?dl=0

First thing I see is you aren't referencing any instance of the extras family in the event that calls the function..

Secondly I don't understand wha\t the timers are supposed to do here..

Timer listening is called to start when listening, but on timer end you set the animation to listening?

Let me stress that I have no clue what I'm doing.

I put the timers there thinking that it would play "Listening" animation for 4 seconds, and then play the animation "Talking" for 4 seconds, and back and forth. Then I added a timer for these behaviors in reverse so I could "stagger" the conversation and control which NPC begins talking first. It was a shot in the dark. I don't know how timers work, apparently.

So, how would you set your events sheet up if you wanted to tackle this?

I'd do something like this:

ChitChat,capx

Wow, thanks!