2P Conventions for Score Hunting

# 2P Conventions for Score Hunting :::danger This page is **no longer actively maintained.** Some conventions may still be accurate, but others are certainly out of date. If you would like to contribute, please contact sodiumdebt (or hallmark) on discord. ::: These conventions are currently in development and use by hallmark and sodiumdebt as a fork of [Referential Sieve](https://hackmd.io/Ui6LXAK3TdC7AKSDcN20PQ?view) with specific focus on optimizing our score hunting: we want high winrates (we have significantly higher winrates than most score-hunters), speedy games (we play significantly slower than most score hunters), and only moderate mental drain. We use significantly fewer free choice conventions compared to many advanced teams, and we also avoid (when possible) expecting players to understand the context of why certain actions have occured. ## Shared Conventions All of the following basic and advanced Referential Sieve conventions (as of July 2022) are turned on exactly as stated in the OG doc: - Sieve Principle - Good Touch Principle - Safe Action Principle - Referential Play Clues - Referential Discard Clues - Fill-in Clues - Trash Pushes - Finesse Positions - Prompt Positions - Sarcastic Discards - Gentleman's Discards - Good Touch Play Order - Stalling Situations - Starting Hand Stalls - Bomb Lock - Locked Hand Stalls - Unlock Promise - Zero Clue States - Zero Clue Safety Promise - 1s OCMs. Additionally, we play with a difficult-to-revoke version of *Permission to Discard*. ## Removed Conventions In this section, we will list conventions we have not found on the main doc (as of July 2022, so somewhat outdated). These are conventions from the now old version of the doc we do not have: - Reclue layered finesses: now often bluffs - No-info Double Bluffs: now sometimes (fake) finesses, sometimes 1-card plays - Loaded/Stacked Play Clues: repurposed to get cards on the right and not be direct, in line with signalling diversity and our team's avoidance of free choice. - Priority - Trash OCMs ## Additional Conventions ### Tempo Clues Suppose a clue is given that satisfies the following conditions: - Provides no new positive info; - Touches at least one unsignaled card that -- may be playable; -- is not known to be fill-in-able. Then, it is not a no info play signal on slot 1 but instead a tempo clue on the leftmost card satisfying the second point above. Note that prism tempo clues have their own rules (color right, rank left) and that certain suits, like brown, are not eligible for tempo clues. ### Reclue Bluff Suppose a clue: - touches no new cards, - fills in at least one card, and - does not fill in any card as immediately playable. Then, it is an instruction to play touched cards to make a filled-in card playable and/or make a blind play. If there are touched cards which could be played to accomplish that, we play those right to left until a filled-in card is playable or we have no touched options left, at which point we play the finesse position. If, at any point, there are no touched cards which could connect, we play the finesse position. Any time we play the finesse position, if could not connect through touched cards, it is a bluff and we stop playing additional cards. #### Required blind-plays before Prompts If a reclue will require a blind play at some point for the focus to become playable, it should happen immediately. If the blind play doesn't connect, no other cards are promised playable. ### No-info Two-card Plays A clue that only retouches already-touched cards without filling in their empathy is called a *no-info* clue. A no-info clue should have highly efficient meaning to be worth giving, since it provides (almost) no empathy. We require no-info clues to promise two plays. The first play is always the finesse position. Next, any cards that would play by good touch should play. The second play is either the second untouched card in hand or a prior touched card. It is the leftmost possible no-info touched card, if either: - The cards touched by the no-info clue do not play from good touch and the first play could immediately connect to a no-info touched card. - There is only one untouched card in hand. Otherwise, it is the second-to-leftmost untouched card. This tends to be the more common scenario. ### Starting 1s Contract In variants that permit 1 clues that uniquely identify cards with rank 1, the expected opening clue (each player's first turn) is 1s if there are only unique playable 1s in hand. This clue is expected over other clues but, in Bob's case, not necessarily expected over taking an action. This means that if a player instead opens with a clue that is not 1 and it is later revealed that their partner still holds 1s in their hand, at least one of those 1s is known to be trash. The standard Good Touch Play Order convention applies. ### Rank Loaded Play Clues When a player has a common-knowledge playable or kt, they are considered loaded. A rank clue to a loaded player is a referential play clue. The clue refers to the previously untouched card to the right of a newly touched card with wraparound, biased towards referring to a card rightward in hand. This lets us access play signals on cards which might otherwise be color-blocked. ### Elimination Notes Being allowed to discard a useful 2 in low pressure situations usually indicates it exists elsewhere in hand. Being told to discard a useful 2 additionally indicates it was not in slot 1. We mark full conventionally-expected elimination for: - Good cards discarded due to a referential discard clue when a 1 was in hand at the start of the game - Cards that were playable at the time they were given ptd, if that time was sufficiently high (2+?) clue count. - 2s in 5 suit or lower - Discards of touched good cards when not locked (I think). ### Quasi-loaded Rank Clues When a player has permission to discard, we call them *quasi-loaded*, since we almost never want to move their chop rightward in hand. So, we have a version of the referential loaded play clue. Considering the hand with wraparound, and the ptd slot as the left-most (so the card left of ptd is the rightmost), a number clue refers to the rightmost previously untouched card in hand immediately to the right of a newly touched card. This referred-to card should - play if it is between ptd and slot 5 inclusive - discard otherwise, saving the ptd Note that, with this convention, you are not allowed to lock the player's hand. ### Elimination Riding Deduction If Alice has elimination notes for a playable card in multiple locations, one of which is her chop, and it is her turn, the playable is promised to not be her chop card. If that leaves only one location for the playable, the play is called for and ptd is not bestowed. Additionally, if the play is not the elimination noted card, the chop card is promised to be the elimination noted card. ### Toxic Referential Play Signals If a referential play signal is given to a card which (for explicit/contextual reasons) cannot be playable, the card is skipped and the play signal refers to the next previously untouched card, and so on until it finds a potential playable. Toxic play signals take precedence over self-finesses and self-prompts. ### Intentional Bombs Intentionally causing a bomb (via play signal or bomb lock) says that no play signal available at the time would have gotten a play. The common knowedge reasoning expectation is that short-term (before the set of playable card identies has changed) future play signals to cards in hand at the time are toxic. Intentionally causing a bomb also says that there was no good referential discard signal available, but we do not conventionally expect reasoning based on this fact. ### Early Game 1s We generally expect to find out about all our playable 1s with the first play signal given to a 1 for each hand. This means color play signals usually promise that either there are no other 1s or that the clue would bad touch. ### 0-clue State Specifics #### 0-clue safety We have the ability to *scream discard chop move*. Choosing not to scream promises an extra discard on slot 1 if the card does not already have ptd. Playing a known 5 counts the same as discarding and we assign no special free choice between a 5 playing and a card discarding. #### 0-clue unsafe situation The idea is to hope a 5 plays while players are loaded to convert to a safe situation. Otherwise, at some point an unsafe scream or scream of touched known non-critical might need to occur. ### The Necessary Bad Lock Suppose a save clue is given that would lock a player, and suppose it is common knowledge that the player has a safe action in their hand. (It just may not be clear where.) Furthermore, suppose that without the clue it would not be common knowledge that the player has a safe action in their hand. Then, this is a necessary bad lock signal, and it may communicate that the player is locked. If it is common knowledge that all but one of the candidates for the safe action could be play clued on the turn the lock signal was given, then the necessary bad lock is a play clue on the one remaining card; the player is not actually considered locked. Otherwise, the player is locked like normal. ## Variant Specific Conventions ### Stalling Situation Adjustments Sometimes in stalling situations (8 clues, locked hands, 0 pace), annoying variants make it difficult to talk about slot 1. This proposes a solution. #### Whiteish (White, Null, Light Pink) Color reclue touching the leftmost color-touched is a play signal on slot 1, promising a white card to be playing. #### Brownish (Brown, Muddy Rainbow, Null) Rank reclue touching the leftmost rank-touched is a save signal on slot 1, promising a brown card to be saved. #### Omni & Light Pink (Locked hands only) We use the direct playable rank to promise a pinkish card, and color to promise the true (non-rainbow) color. ### Pinkish (Pink, Light Pink, Omni) #### Weak Pink Promise When giving a number clue whose focus is a pink card, we match the clue's rank to the focus's rank when possible. If this is not possible, we prefer to lie with a high rank (for now?). For example: - If a pink card is in slot 1, r3 in slot 2, a rank clue of 2, indicating r3 discards promises that the leftmost card is either a 2 or a pink 3. #### Starting Hand Stalls Starting hand stalls promise rank truth of slot 5. If the clue resolves as a discard clue, then its focus changes. #### Starting Hand 1s Starting hand 1s clues play from the right. Order chop moves are off. Plays continue until recieving a fix. A fix is a rank clue revealing the next card to play is pink or a color clue revealing the next card to play matches a played 1. Fixes can double as referential discard clues. Reclue fixes are (weak) promises allowing slot 1 to discard. Bombing a card given as a starting hand 1s clue doesn't prevent future cards from playing. Maybe we could investigate reclue positionals for hands like x/x/i1/i5/r1 so that the fix can also get the play. #### 1s Fixes Fixes that are not discard signals promise rank. In partiular, rank loaded play clues are off for the turn that fixes. #### Positional Clues A rank clue matching the slot of an possibly impossible-to-fill-in card (usually pinkish, sometimes brownish or other) card is interpreted as a positional play clue before many other interpretations, including: - rank loaded - trash push in loaded - bluffs and no-infos - no-info reclue - self-prompt ### Rainbowish (Rainbow, Muddy Rainbow, Omni) #### Rainbow Promise We prefer to focus rainbow cards with a color corresponding to the rank. The rightmost color promises a 5, the next-to-rightmost promises a 4, and so on. Lies usually prefer to be given with the rightmost possible rank. We don't usually expect significant reasoning based on clue availability unless the focus was slot 2 (or occasionally slot 3, since the reasoning can be done as soon as slog 2 plays). #### Color preferred fill-ins Color fill-ins to promised rainbow/omni cards that don't promise anything extra touch slot 1. If that would not fill in the promised card, we cannot give a fill-in clue with color to that card. ### Whiteish (White, Null, Light Pink) ### Whitish promise A toxic play signal telling slot 1 to play promises a white card in slot 2. ### No-info 1-card Plays No-infos promise only one play. We do not care whether the signal appears necessary; just play slot 1 and stop there. ### Brownish (Brown, Null, Muddy Rainbow) #### No Trash Push Rank clues to trash are direct discard clues. They promise an unplayable good brownish card or playable card to their left. #### Referential Touched Browns Touched brown cards can be referred into and out of for the purposes of referential play clues. They are expected to be told ASAP, in the sense that giving play/(dc) signals to other cards promises negative identity information, allowing the card to be referred over in the future. ### Null #### Permanent Chop Moves Permanent chop moves are on in null: if a card is chop moved, it is skipped over when determining the target of a referential discard signal. ### Prism #### First toxic interpretation for a weird discard signal If rank clue could be filling in a prism (or its doppleganger) card or referential discard clue, and it does not make sense to be a referential discard clue, the next interpretation is that it is a fill-in play clue. #### Prism tempo clues Rank = rLeft, Color = Right. Note this is consistent with H-group but not other parts of the ref sieve community--could be revisited. This certainly applies when both are known and should apply when the relevant clue would reveal 2 of them and promise the play in the correct slot. In other words, prism play clues should be greedily given/assumed in known-safe-action situations. For instance: - Suppose b3 is slot 1, known bi4 slots 2/3, and slots 4/5 touched. Then 4 should be given to promise b4 on the left and blue should be given to promise b4 on the right! Since a connection is always possible, it should be assumed. Of course, a promised connection like with finesse still resolves to a connection like normal. ### Rainbowish 1s On each player's first turn, color is a direct play signal on all touched cards. ### Pinkish 5s. Pinkish 5s presents a problem. You can only have two on 100% of the time: 1) Trash push 2) Direct rank playable 3) Referential discard clues focusing 5s Options: - never have direct rank playability on (or never after 1s on round 1) - treat the highest trash rank (on the pile) as known 5s, so not possible to trash push with. - have direct rank playability off for 4s, and expect direct rank play signals (with non-4s) to be solely on focus of the (otherwise-discard) signal. We choose to turn of direct rank playability of 4s. ### Reversed We still have 1s direct play clues on for turn 1/2, but after that we respect the possibility of reversed 1. Note: 1 to slot 5 should probably be a starting hand stall, but we haven't bothered to implement that (maybe just a one turn stall)? ### Matryoshka Cards are considered touched if they are touched by rank. We use rank referential play clues (refer left, biased left. The good touch playable rank is a direct play signal. We also use and color positional discards on the untouched (by rank) cards. Red gets the second untouched card to discard, yellow the third, and so on. Discards aren't given if a card is revealed to be (good touch) playable. If a color is given greater than the number of untouched cards in hand, the player is locked. ### Chimneys and Funnels We probably want conventions that are basically the opposite of matryoshka. So far we have just played with mostly-vanilla RS and have done OK. ### Up or down Extremely fun, everything is playable. I highly recommend score-hunting this. ### Critical 4s Nothing special but another pretty fun variant. Expect to BDR some 3s. ### Throw it in a hole Play Sieve! Unknown plays cause the play to have to consider a superposition of play stacks. This superposition is to be clarified by later semisarcastic discards. We want to avoid having both players simultaneuously needing to consider multiple possible current play stacks. ### Duck Clues touching slot 1 are saves. Other clues are referential plays. Reclues are plays of the leftmost touched. At some point just starting bombing touched cards from the right. Hard variant. ### Variants with fewer clues available We throw out some of our discard signals. This covers eg alternating clues, odds and evens, synesthesia, etc. We strengthen our ptd convention to treat clues touching ptd as not revoking ptd--touching trash from which we do not get elim (trash elim, that is--we still get normal ptd elim). We sometimes swap the referential direction of our play clues in loaded situations. This allows us to get cards that are farther into the hand more easily, but it does come at the cost of slot 1 play clue signallability: often, save clues fill this gap. Expect to lose these variants more. ## Experimental Conventions These are conventions that we've discussed having but have not turned on. ### Chop Direct Rank Play Clue Suppose a rank clue to an unloaded player: - touches only slot 1, - tells slot 1 to play by good touch principle, and - provides no other positive empathy. Then it also promises the first untouched card in hand is a safe discard. Would be off in a lot of (mostly whitish) variants. This is an official RS convention. ### Trash Order Chop Moves A trash clue focusing the 4th or 5th untouched card in hand could be a trash chop move, not a trash push. ### Trash Push Reference Direction Trash pushes could refer rightward with a rightward bias in order to align with rank loaded play clues. ### The Unnecessary Bad Lock Signal Suppose a bomb lock or save clue is given that would lock Bob, and suppose it is common knowledge that Bob has a safe action in their hand. (It just may not be clear where the safe action is.) Also, suppose it is not a necessary bad lock signal, so it is known the action is signalable. Then, this is an intentional bad lock signal and it must get not just one action but two. The most likely candidates to be playable (tiebreaker is leftmost) are signaled to play, and the player is not locked.