How a game of Crazy eights against bots works here: seating them, what they can see, how they decide, and what they leave to you.
Crazy eights here seats two to seven. Open a table and press "Add an opponent" once for every bot you want. With two players each gets seven cards; with more, five each.
In the lobby choose the target — 100, 200 or 300 points — and what happens when the draw pile runs out: turn the discards over and carry on, or play on with no more drawing. Only the host can seat bots, and only before the first deal.
Its own hand, the top of the pile, the suit in play and how many cards each player holds. Hands are kept on the server, so a bot cannot see yours.
Bots take about a second over each move. When a bot has to draw several cards before it finds one it can play, the table says how many it took.
A bot plays the card that would cost it most if it were caught holding it — tens and court cards before low cards — and keeps its eights for last, because an eight plays on anything and is worth 50 in a losing hand. When it does play an eight, it names the suit it holds most of.
When it cannot play, it draws until it can. It does not watch which suits the other players are short of, and it does not save an eight to block somebody who is about to go out.
The suit a bot names after an eight is the suit it is longest in. Change away from it when you can, and it will be drawing.
Bots shed their court cards early, so the pile often sits on a king or queen; holding a card of the same rank in another suit gives you a way to change suit without spending an eight. Keep your own eight for the moment you are stuck or a bot is down to its last card.
Invite friends with the code and let bots fill the empty chairs. After each hand everybody presses "Ready for the next hand"; the bots are ready at once.
If somebody leaves mid-game a bot plays their hand from then on. If their connection drops, the seat is held for twenty-five seconds and handed back as soon as they return.