# Steve

This is Steve. Steve is being crafted to balance several priorities:

- Tempo: we desire play signals to be given early to avoid unnecessary locks without losing delayed playables.
- Efficiency: we use referential clues to optimize information gain.
- Discard quality: we want to be able to save any card as needed.
- Discard planning: we want to see chops to be able to best prepare for them.
- Play signal planning: we want to be able to predict future play signals.
- Context: we want to reason effectively about our hands, consistently syncing with regards to focus inversion.

Some of these priorities synergize. For instance, tempo aids context. They can also clash: clue space dedicated towards optimizing discard quality could otherwise be used to improve play signal diversity.

## Basic Conventions

These conventions form the structure of Steve.

### Good Touch Principle

### Chop

Chop is the oldest untouched card not chop moved and not in the starting hand. When chop is in the starting hand, it is leftmost unclued card.

### The Starting Hand

All cards in the starting hand are likely valuable, but this information is not as strong as a chop move. In particular, an order chop move can tell a starting hand card to discard.
Initially, we plan on discarding slot 1 from our starting hand because discard signals can target the rightmost cards more easily. If we are given any other action, we will protect slot 1 and chop will be on the newly drawn card.

### Fill-ins

Clues which fill in a card as playable or trash do not provide other actions. If the fill-in clue is not fixing a card about to bomb, it chop moves.

### Direct Rank Play Clues

Any rank clue which reveals a newly-touched card to be playable or trash is direct play signal on the revealed card.

### Color Play Clues

A color clue newly-touching a card refers to the card to its left wrapping around if necessary., indicating it as playable. When multiple cards are newly-touched, the play signal is on the leftmost referred-to card.

### Rank Save/Discard clues

A rank clue newly-touching a card saves all cards between chop and itself (counting leftward from chop, wrapping around if necessary). It provides a discard signal to first untouched card to the left of the new card.

## Advanced

Advanced conventions are assumed to be on, but necessary for the system and open to change.

### 1s Order

1s generally play left to right. Playing out of order chop moves leftward as many cards as 1s skipped. If the hand runs out of cards, the discard wraps into the starting hand from the left.

Playing 1s out of order can indicate a cm on any card that is set to dc next. If there are none/not enough, it can indicate a dc of a starting hand protected card.

#### Starting Hand Stalls

### Locked Hand States

#### Unlock Promise

Playing a known card when you have permission to discard promises the connector in the locked player's hand in the rightmost possible position.

#### Direct Color Play signals

Slot 1 only

#### Color Stalls

Off slot 1

#### Rank Save Clues

Work as normal?

### Special Discards

#### Discarding an immediate playable promises it in the rightmsot possible position, *including chop*.

### Zero Clue States

Going to zero clues gives safe discard promise on rightmost option. unless it doesnt?
Staying at zero clues when you could discard means nothing?

### Loaded clues

Loaded save clues can be allowed because we want to lock in wrap around discards
Some sort of refer right play signals would be useful.

### Swapped signals

When **untouched cards are left of chop**, **players are unlocked, Bob is unloaded, and nobody is stalling**, we swap the expected lock signal with the expected play-chop signal. In particular, rank referring to chop is a play signal on chop, and color referring to chop is a lock.

With the swap, play chop has a higher interpretation precedence than rank save clues, and lock has a lower interpretation precedence than color play clues.

## Variant-Specific Conventions

### Brown

In brown variants the following adjustments are made:

- Trash chop moves are on: trash pushes are off unless they touch chop or Bob is loaded.
- Stale play clues convert to save clues before target-skipping
- Touched brown cards are eligible to be referred into and out of. Brown cards are expected to be told to play before other cards when possible.

### Pink

In pink variants we make the following adjustments:

- 1s order is right to left. Order chop moves are off.

#### Pink Promise

The focus of a rank clue is **weakly promised**.

## Experimental Conventions

Experimental conventions are works in progress.

## Miscelaneous Notes

- Fix Clues chop move unless the team is at 2 bombs, or a card is globally about to bomb and the clue prevents it.