how to give item multiple names?

[lumenacht]

I want to have a shop where the merchant speaks Spanish, so everything you can buy from or sell to her has a Spanish name, but when the item is in your inventory it has an English name. Is there an easy way to do this?

 

[Nolonar]

You can either implement your custom shop using events, or you'll need a plugin. Neither is particularly easy (unless you can find a plugin that does exactly what you want).

However, is this really a good idea?

I think it would be very frustrating if the player purchased an Espada, but couldn't find it in their inventory (because it's now a Sword).

And what if the shopkeeper is Japanese? Does she sell a 刀 or a Katana? Will the player even buy a 刀 without knowing what it is? If the player bought a Katana, do they truly expect to see a Sword in their inventory instead? Will they be disappointed? Will they feel cheated? Will they believe they encountered a bug?

So you should ask yourself: are you absolutely certain you want that? And what about the players? Do they want that?

 

[lumenacht]

That makes sense. I want the merchant's "personal" dialogue to be at least mostly in Spanish, but if it's going to be very difficult to implement then I probably don't have the experience to do it without accidentally crashing the game or something, lol. How about having the actual transactions be in English so a player who doesn't want to/can't translate can use the shop and just miss out on non-essential set dressing?

 

[coyotecraft]

I believe you can make temporary changes to database entries, like item names.
For example:

$dataItems[1].name = "New Name"

This will change Item 1's name to "New Name" while the game is running. Because the changes aren't saved or rewriting the Items.json file, it'll go back to normal once you restart the game.
In your case, you can have an event use the script above to change certain items names before calling the Shop Scene, and then again after the shop is closed to return them to normal.

 

[Nolonar]

I believe it's important that you think of this from the player character's perspective.

Does the player character understand Spanish?

• If not, there's nothing wrong with having the shopkeeper speak entirely in Spanish (while the player character has no idea what's happening). Your player character must make it clear that they don't understand, however. For example: "(What does she want from me? Espada? Is that a sword? Is she trying to sell me that sword?)"
  
  This makes it clear that the text is supposed to be Spanish, and that the player character doesn't understand any more than the player does.
  
  
• If they do understand Spanish, you might want to use the Assassin's Creed approach: let the shopkeeper speak in the player's language (in this case English), but leave a couple of non-essential words untranslated. For example: "Hola, jefe (boss)! Would you be interested in buying this hermosa espada (sword)?"
  
  This makes it clear that the shopkeeper is speaking in Spanish, but we understand it, because the player character understands.

Whether to sell these items under an English or a Spanish name, depends on what you intend.

If you're trying to sell some generic item, like an apple, for example, then it should be named "Apple" instead of "Manzana". That's because when the player is looking through a list of items to buy, it's the same as the player character looking at the shopkeeper's inventory to decide what to buy. In other words: the player is seeing the names of the items as the player character understands them. If they're seeing apples, the player should see apples as well.

This can also go the other way: If the player character has no idea what an "apple" is (maybe they've never seen apples in their life), then the item could be named "Manzana" (that's what the shopkeeper keeps calling them), or even "Mysterious round fruit".

And finally, there's also items whose foreign names we're already familiar with. Have you ever seen someone talk of "Katana" while meaning "Sword" or "Knife"? Most people have a very specific kind of sword in mind when they think of "Katana".

There are many different types of swords with foreign names, which nobody would ever translate with "Sword":

• Gladius (Latin for "sword")
• Claymore (Scottish Gaelic for "great sword")
• Katana (Japanese for "sword" or "knife")
• Shamshir (Persian for "sword")
• Zweihander (German for "two-hander")

These items are sufficiently unique and distinct from a generic "sword", that nobody would mind if you didn't translate them. And yes, there are plenty of RPGs where you can encounter several (or even all) of these "swords".

So if you want to sell a sword called "Espada", I see no reason why you shouldn't. However, I don't think it's a good idea to rename an "Espada" to "Sword" after the player purchased it.

 

[lumenacht]

In this case I was going to use it as a characterization moment, one member of the party speaks fluent Spanish while the rest do not, so I was going to have him be the only one able to understand the shopkeeper. I did run into the exact problem you are talking about when trying to name a hat(since 'sombrero' has very specific connotations in English). I think the solution I'm most drawn to at the moment is to have the names of the items in Spanish while the descriptions are in English(since the English speaking characters can look at the gorra de béisbol and say "yep, that's a baseball cap").

 

[VegaKotes]

If that's the case, have you also considered having dialogue set up first with NPCs talking in Spanish with most of your party unable to understand them?

Such as the shopkeep offering several items and speaking Spanish to the dismay of your non Spanish speaking actors. So then your Spanish speaking actor steps up and "translates" for the rest of the party.
You can even do something like if "Spanish speaking actor is in party show this dialogue and shop process" else "Show Spanish that the other actors can't understand.