GAME.md

Splitter

In Splitter, you must group numbers together to score points — two 2s, three 3s, and so on — but you're placing two numbers at a time, so things won't always work out.

You get a score sheet with 44 empty spaces on it. You can expect two different patterns of spaces (see the image); Both patterns have a dashed line through the middle that splits it into two mirrored halves. This mirroring is why we call this game 'splitter'.

On a turn, the computer rolls two six-sided dice. You then write the results, e.g. 1 and 4, in empty spaces in the provided pattern, with each number being in the mirrored space of the other. If, say, you place the 1 in the leftmost space of the top row, then you must place the 4 in the rightmost space of the top row. The position you choose on the left side of the split also determines the position where to put you other number on the right side of the split.

After 22 dice rolls, your pattern will be filled. Each 1 on its own — that is, with no other 1s orthogonally adjacent (vertical and horizontal but not diagonal) — scores 1 point; each set of two 2s that have no other orthogonally adjacent 2s score 2 points; and so on up to a set of six 6s with no other orthogonally adjacent 6s being worth 6 points.

There are two special cases: A starred space is present on each half of the pattern, and a scored group that contains this starred space has its points doubled. The other board has a pattern which has a set of three spaces with hearts, and if you fill all three hearts with the same number, you score 5 points.)

Digital sheet

On the first move, we provide you with a digital version of the sheet, the meaning of the numbers in this sheet are =>

• 0 = NOT FILLABLE ; Ignore this space. It's not fillable.
• 1 = EMPTY ; Here you can put a dice number.
• 2 = STAR ; same as 1, but a potential score will be doubled.
• 3 = HEART ; same as 1, but you can get 5 extra points if all hearts have the same number in the final round.

Extra clarification of the rules:

• Each round you must place 2 numbers based on the numbers from the dice, but in mirrored position
• You can choose where to place one number on the left side of the grid and the other will be mirrored to the other side
• If you get 4 connecting 4's you get 4 points, 5 connecting 5's you get 5 points, and so on.
• You need the EXACT number of connections if you get more or less than the number you will get no points
• A star space is present on each half of the pattern, and a scored group that contains this starred space has its points doubled

Example

This is one of the two grids we will be playing on:

Tip

This is grid 1 and can be used with --layout 1 with Tester

Here is an example of a filled board:

In this example you will get 7 points

1. 3 3's are connected giving 3 points
2. 2 2's are connected giving 2 points
3. There are 2 single ones giving 2 points

There are too many connected 1's and 5's on the board to give a point for that and theres to little connected 6's on the board for those to give a point

Tip

For an example on how to plan your moves check MOVES.md

You can also watch this youtube video for a simple guide on how its played

An example implementation can also be found in the Source/Example directory of this repo.

Details

The top left corner has the coordinate (0,0). The X coordinate increases to the right, the Y to the bottom.

Testing

Tester is a program that "tests" and runs your bot (The command argument) every game and kills it after the game is done.

Tip

Tester works in both Windows & Linux (Linux will require cloning this repo and running with dotnet though).

Theres a exe in the releases panel of this repo

$ ./Tester.exe

Description:
  Try your splitter bot with the tester program

Usage:
  Tester [options]

Options:
  --games <games>      Amount of games to play before spitting out the results [default: 200]
  --silent             Makes it so all output is hidden to speed up the program [default: False]
  --layout <layout>    Layout to use there's 2, 1 is without the hearts 2 is with the hearts [default: 1]
  --command <command>  Command to execute []
  --version            Show version information
  -?, -h, --help       Show help and usage information

Heres a example on how to run the typescript example ./Tester.exe --games 200 --layout 2 --command "bun typescript/index.ts" or the c# example dotnet run --project Tester --games 200 --layout 2 --command "dotnet run --project Example". Keep in mind that running your program using dotnet run instead of dotnet [path to dll] will add so much overhead that its not possible to stay within the 10 minute time this should only be done for development.

After the games are complete tester will output some info about how long it took to complete the total score and score per game

Input Data

1. When your program first runs via the Tester it will send a line with the sizes of the grid <width> <height> <rounds>
2. Then it will send the entire grid, This will send <height> amount of lines with a width of <width>. The grid will be in the Digital Sheet format
3. Then it will send the first dice results as <number1> <number2>

After that you send the response back in the following format

<number> <x> <y> Number being one of the numbers of the rolled dice, The other one will automatically be mirrored on the other side in the Testers side you have to mirror it yourself on your own side

You will get <rounds> amount of dices and after that your program is ended (Your program is killed / you can choose to exit yourself)

Tip

• If you send a line that doesn't start with a number it'll be ignored & A error will be logged
• If you send a line that starts with a # it'll be ignored & no error will be logged
• By default everything is logged to the console unless you enable the --silent flag

Heres an example loop:

The lines prefixed with a # is what is send to your bot, its not prefixed with a # when the tester runs your bot.

# 8 7 22    // width height and number of rounds. will not change during this competition.
# 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0
# 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
# 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
# 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
# 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
# 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
# 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0
# 4 1       // you get a dice roll of 4 and 1.
4 2 1       // place the dice with value 4 on position 2,1 ; the dice with value 1 will be mirrored automaticly.
# 1 2       // etc. etc.
1 3 2       
etc.
etc.

The only thing you have to send is the things not prefixed with a # the rest is what tester sends to you

Tip

Reading the code of the Example bot in the Source/Example folder or the code of the typescript bot in the Source/typescript directory will help with creating your own implementation. You can also look at MOVES.md for some explanations on how to plan your moves.

Complex

Your solution can be as simple as taking a random number or as complex as taking into account the star and heart fields and more