You might want to edit your post to clarify that weight does not affect the probability of a given selection.
Two ideas
You could pre-calculate (perhaps write to data files if there are many) all possible items and their strength/weight values. If your list of possible weight values is dense (few skipped values) put an array of items at each weight at a coresponding index in a master array.
So:
my @items = (
# 0
[ 'sword', 'mace', 'turtle' ],
# 1
[ '+1 sword', '+1 mace', '+1 turtle' ],
# 2
[ 'frost sword', 'frost mace', 'frost turtle',
'flame sword', 'flame mace', 'flame turtle' ],
...
);
If the set of weights is sparse, you might use a hash instead.
Then if you want to select a random item of weight 3-5, you can do:
my @in_range = map @{$items[$_]}, 3..5;
my $item = $in_range[ int rand( @in_range ) ];
Another way, would be:
- Pick a random weight value in your range. eg 7
- Prefix list is sorted by weight, and starts with an entry for ['' => 0].
- Find last prefix with weight less than or equal to weight. Eg. Pointy (6)
- Pick Random Prefix up to max prefix from last step. eg. Acid (4)
- Set plus value equal to desired weight - prefix weight. Eg. Plus = 7 - 4 = 3
- Result: Acid +3 Sword
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