CerealSunny
Retinazer
Hello! This was the reason I decided to make an account here.
I was thinking that, as the title suggests, there should be some sort of item similar to the "Name Tag" that Minecraft has for renaming town NPCs.
While killing town NPCs repeatedly to get the name you want can be very terious, especially since they can have several possible names, an item like this could also be used to give villagers custom names (like a Guide named Kiwi, or a Merchant named Jason), also called "nicknames" in-universe (idea by @TWillyH).
It would be a nice option to have for people who like having villagers with specific names, or to just give the Goblin Tinkerer a goofy name because he took all of your Platinum coins for reforges again without getting the one you wanted.
Here is what I came up with:
Name Certificate
Type: Tool / Consumable
Tooltip: Allows you to nickname villagers
Keep this in your inventory and interact with a villager to nickname them
Rarity: Green
Sell: 40 Silver
Research: 5 required
Recipe: Sign + Feather + Black Ink @ Work Bench
Alternatively, this item could be sold by the Clothier in pre-Hardmode for 2 Gold, which would make it a post-Skeletron item;
Or obtained by throwing a Sign into Shimmer (idea by @a really spooky planet).
How I'd imagine it would work is that while you have the Name Certificate in your inventory, whenever you interact with any town NPC (regular or pet), there would be a new "Nickname" option along with the usual. When you click on this option, it would show "(name of NPC) the (type of NPC)" similarly to a sign and you could change their name, but their type would stay the same.
To help picture this:
Let's say you want to nickname the Guide, so when you click on "Nickname", the white text would read "Asher the Guide". You could change his name to "Kiwi", but "the Guide" would stay there to show how it will look in status messages, like when they die or throw a party. Once you save this name, the Name Certificate would be used up.
"Kiwi" here is just an example, and you could name him almost whatever you want. I'd imagine it would have the same 20 character limit as Chests to avoid cluttering up status messages.
You could name them after friends and town pets could be named after real life pets, for instance.
Traveling and Skeleton Merchants can also be nicknamed, but you will keep the Name Certificate since they are not permanent villagers, and they will have any of their "default" names when they come back. The Old Man is the only NPC that cannot be nicknamed (he simply refuses to).
While there are villagers that drop special items when they have a specific name (e.g. Steampunker and Painter), they are all vanity items, so I think it would be fine to let nicknamed villagers drop these items.
If the nicknamed villager dies, the next one will still arrive with one of the "default" names currently available.
Below is an old sprite I made of what the Name Certificate could look like:
I thought I would throw the idea out there just in case, but regardless, any feedback would be appreciated!
I was thinking that, as the title suggests, there should be some sort of item similar to the "Name Tag" that Minecraft has for renaming town NPCs.
While killing town NPCs repeatedly to get the name you want can be very terious, especially since they can have several possible names, an item like this could also be used to give villagers custom names (like a Guide named Kiwi, or a Merchant named Jason), also called "nicknames" in-universe (idea by @TWillyH).
It would be a nice option to have for people who like having villagers with specific names, or to just give the Goblin Tinkerer a goofy name because he took all of your Platinum coins for reforges again without getting the one you wanted.
Here is what I came up with:
Name Certificate
Type: Tool / Consumable
Tooltip: Allows you to nickname villagers
Keep this in your inventory and interact with a villager to nickname them
Rarity: Green
Sell: 40 Silver
Research: 5 required
Recipe: Sign + Feather + Black Ink @ Work Bench
Alternatively, this item could be sold by the Clothier in pre-Hardmode for 2 Gold, which would make it a post-Skeletron item;
Or obtained by throwing a Sign into Shimmer (idea by @a really spooky planet).
How I'd imagine it would work is that while you have the Name Certificate in your inventory, whenever you interact with any town NPC (regular or pet), there would be a new "Nickname" option along with the usual. When you click on this option, it would show "(name of NPC) the (type of NPC)" similarly to a sign and you could change their name, but their type would stay the same.
To help picture this:
Let's say you want to nickname the Guide, so when you click on "Nickname", the white text would read "Asher the Guide". You could change his name to "Kiwi", but "the Guide" would stay there to show how it will look in status messages, like when they die or throw a party. Once you save this name, the Name Certificate would be used up.
"Kiwi" here is just an example, and you could name him almost whatever you want. I'd imagine it would have the same 20 character limit as Chests to avoid cluttering up status messages.
You could name them after friends and town pets could be named after real life pets, for instance.
Traveling and Skeleton Merchants can also be nicknamed, but you will keep the Name Certificate since they are not permanent villagers, and they will have any of their "default" names when they come back. The Old Man is the only NPC that cannot be nicknamed (he simply refuses to).
While there are villagers that drop special items when they have a specific name (e.g. Steampunker and Painter), they are all vanity items, so I think it would be fine to let nicknamed villagers drop these items.
If the nicknamed villager dies, the next one will still arrive with one of the "default" names currently available.
Below is an old sprite I made of what the Name Certificate could look like:
I thought I would throw the idea out there just in case, but regardless, any feedback would be appreciated!
Last edited:
Stellar Mastodon 267
Terrarian
This seems very niche to be honest. I personally have no preference as to the names of any npc or pet.
Orchamut
The Destroyer
It's like this meme
Because you can change NPC names to anything you want with a world editor or language packs, I see no reason this wouldn't be a good idea to add to the game.
Because you can change NPC names to anything you want with a world editor or language packs, I see no reason this wouldn't be a good idea to add to the game.
TechionPrime41 🌳
Living Tree
I'm fine with it, since I keep trying to kill the Clothier to get a specific name, and I never end up getting a Clothier with that particular name, added to the fact that my inventory starts getting clogged with "Red Hats".
CerealSunny
Retinazer
I had that meme in mind while writing this too
I was mostly thinking about having a way to do that without having to use third-party software
CerealSunny
Retinazer
Decided to add a sprite I quickly made for the Name Certificate
I have little experience with pixel art, but hopefully it looks okay
I have little experience with pixel art, but hopefully it looks okay
Stellar Mastodon 267
Terrarian
Im gonna name my second guide NPCs Inigo Montoya so that after the wall of flesh it will be “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” Of course, they can’t actually kill me and their predecessors are not really their ancestors but yeah.
Noobiescrubpleb
Pixel Pirate
I'm a big fan of this idea, you have my full support.
a really far away planet
Torch God
I feel like it shouldn’t be obtained from the Merchant, maybe it could be shimmered from a Sign? Other than that, though, this sounds like a great suggestion!
Big Sammich
Duke Fishron
I like this idea a lot.
Orchamut
The Destroyer
I mean, better than outright murdering someone to change their name though right?
Stellar Mastodon 267
Terrarian
Feminism agrees to a degree more frequently women have been keeping their maiden names after marriage.
TechionPrime41 🌳
Living Tree
CerealSunny
Retinazer
Hey, I think I'll reply to some comments here. I probably could've done that for one of these earlier but oh well, I was kinda tired
I mostly just chose the Merchant because I wasn't really sure as to which NPC would sell this. Maybe the Clothier could work too, so it would be a post-Skeletron item? He does mostly sell vanity items but I think it would be a little harder to explain why he's selling (fake) name certificates, unless if I removed that part from the tooltip
The buffed Classy Cane they'll be adding in the new update probably won't help with that either lol
Looking at this again with a new pair of eyes, you're probably right. Maybe give the sprite the pretty "sheen" look like with the other Shimmered items (like the Aegis Fruit and the Ambrosia) and I think that could work fairly well
I mostly just chose the Merchant because I wasn't really sure as to which NPC would sell this. Maybe the Clothier could work too, so it would be a post-Skeletron item? He does mostly sell vanity items but I think it would be a little harder to explain why he's selling (fake) name certificates, unless if I removed that part from the tooltip
I definitely agree, but to be fair you can already treat them way worse like Orchamut said
The buffed Classy Cane they'll be adding in the new update probably won't help with that either lol
TheZipBon
Terrarian
Items in Terraria don't have specific sell prices - it's just 20% of their purchase price, rounded down. Regardless, this idea has my full support.
Benry Gaming
CelebrationMK10
I love this idea. I actually thought it was already in the game for weeks after buying it, and that I was just to bad to figure out how. Probably because at the time I thought it was just like Minecraft
CerealSunny
Retinazer
A little surprised this thread got revived, but I'm thankful regardless
Looking at this thread again and after seeing a few items with the same price on the wiki, I realized the sell price would probably be 40 Silver instead based on that formula. Whoops. I was using the wiki's item template that has both the buy and sell values here, but I'll keep that in mind in the future
CerealSunny
Retinazer
Thought I'd update this old thread, why not-
I've given it a crafting recipe and changed the wording in the post
To be honest I don't really care that much about what names my NPCs have anymore but I still think a way to give them custom names without needing something like TEdit would be cool
I've given it a crafting recipe and changed the wording in the post
To be honest I don't really care that much about what names my NPCs have anymore but I still think a way to give them custom names without needing something like TEdit would be cool
TWillyH
CelebrationMK10
(Why can’t I find the post saying that changing their name is weird?)
Tbh it kinda is, something like calling this a nickname is less weird.
I can just imagine
“Sup FartInMyFace6942 the Guide!”
“My name’s ANDREW!”
Tbh it kinda is, something like calling this a nickname is less weird.
I can just imagine
“Sup FartInMyFace6942 the Guide!”
“My name’s ANDREW!”
CerealSunny
Retinazer
I think the guy deleted his reply for some reason
Thanks for the feedback though, you can already treat them way worse but I'll consider it
