从嵌套的dict中选择一个随机值，并在另一个嵌套的dict中更新它

Question

I'm currently coding an RPG Text Game in python and I'm trying create random encounter system on every boot. I have a dict with multiple encounters and their corresponding categories and another nested dict which contains the information about the area of the game. I can create a random selection and have it printed out, but how do I get that random selection to update in every "interact" in the area nested table. I want a new random value from the encounters table for each "interact" key in the area nested dict.

Also I only need the values to be updated so "interact" : "zombie" for example, categories are just for the weighted random selection as I want them to be "random-ish" with most of them being nothing ("") or enemy

Though this is the latest version as I've tried lots of different approaches and they all fail - Also this code below errors out and I have no idea how to solve this problem. If needed I can also post all my other attempts.

Here is my failed attempt:

import random

encounters = {
    "enemy" : {
        1 : "zombie",
        2 : "wolf",
        3 : "wraith"
    },

    "chest" : {
        1 : "chest",
        2 : "weapons_chest",
    },

    "npc"   : {
        1 : "villager",
    },

    "furniture" : {
        1 : "bed"
    },

    "nothing"   : {
        1 : ""
    }
}

area = {

    "spawner" : {

        "spawn" : {
            "name"      : "Spawn",
            "interact"  : "",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "alleyway_1"
            }
        }
    },

    "alley" : {

        "alleyway_1"   : {
            "name"      : "Alleyway 1",
            "interact"  : "",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "spawn",
                2   : "alleyway_2",
                3   : "hall"
            }
        },

        "alleyway_2"   : {
            "name"      : "Alleyway 2",
            "interact"  : "",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "alleyway_1"
            }
        }
    }
}

def random_encounters():
    print("random encounters")

    weights_a = [0.3, 0.1, 0.05, 0.05, 0.5]

    encounter_a = random.choices(encounters, weights_a)
    encounter_b = random.choice(list(encounter_a.values()))

    for q, w in area.items():
        for a, s in area[w].items():
            area[w][s]["interact"] = encounter_b

random_encounters()

EDIT:

Expected result would be:

 area = {

    "spawner" : {

        "spawn" : {
            "name"      : "Spawn",
            "interact"  : "bed",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "alleyway_1"
            }
        }
    },

    "alley" : {

        "alleyway_1"   : {
            "name"      : "Alleyway 1",
            "interact"  : "zombie",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "spawn",
                2   : "alleyway_2",
                3   : "hall"
            }
        },

        "alleyway_2"   : {
            "name"      : "Alleyway 2",
            "interact"  : "chest",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "alleyway_1"
            }
        }
    }
}

Where "interact" : "zombie" zombie is the output from random_encounters()

Answer 1

Since random.choices and random.choice only works with list type, you can get the list of object keys and pick one of them randomly instead. The resulting key selected will be used to access the sub dictionary items. One more thing, when iterating through the dictionary using for key, values in dictionary.items() , the first variable will be the dictionary key and the other one will be the value corresponding to that key. I think you're confusing the order of the two so I also fixed that for you.

I also added the import json and print(json.dumps(area, indent=2)) so you can verify that it is what you want. You can delete it after you're done testing.

Edit: In order to set unique encounters for different area, you put the random encounter generating code inside the 2 for loops so that each area will have its own random encounter. Also, since you want to set the each items have a certain probability to occur and using list(encounters.keys()) will give a list of dictionary's keys in random order, I decided to change from using list(encounters.keys()) to using encounters_keys=["enemy", "chest", "npc", "furniture", "nothing"] that have the encounters ' keys in the same order of the weights_a so that each type of encounter have a correct probability.

import random
import json

encounters = {
    "enemy" : {
        1 : "zombie",
        2 : "wolf",
        3 : "wraith"
    },

    "chest" : {
        1 : "chest",
        2 : "weapons_chest",
    },

    "npc"   : {
        1 : "villager",
    },

    "furniture" : {
        1 : "bed"
    },

    "nothing"   : {
        1 : ""
    }
}

area = {

    "spawner" : {

        "spawn" : {
            "name"      : "Spawn",
            "interact"  : "",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "alleyway_1"
            }
        }
    },

    "alley" : {

        "alleyway_1"   : {
            "name"      : "Alleyway 1",
            "interact"  : "",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "spawn",
                2   : "alleyway_2",
                3   : "hall"
            }
        },

        "alleyway_2"   : {
            "name"      : "Alleyway 2",
            "interact"  : "",
            "solved"    : False,
            "connects"  : {
                1   : "alleyway_1"
            }
        }
    }
}
def random_encounters():
    print("random encounters")
    encounters_keys = ["enemy", "chest", "npc", "furniture", "nothing"]
    weights_a = [0.3, 0.1, 0.05, 0.05, 0.5]

    for q, w in area.items():
        for a, s in area[q].items():
            encounter_a = random.choices(encounters_keys, weights_a)[0]
            encounter_b = random.choice(list(encounters[encounter_a].keys()))
            area[q][a]["interact"] = encounters[encounter_a][encounter_b]

    print(json.dumps(area, indent=2))

random_encounters()