Why is that will they spawn in groups now, was it always this way?
Yes. It was and is.
i think it’s something they added in 1.13 when they starting ruining the game by catering to normies.
either way, it’s worse on here than it was back in 06, completely glitched. sometimes the guards just disappear too.
You get to close to some npc and they call for guards.
Worked like this is vanilla also.