Algorithms

Maven's game play is sub-divided into three phases: The "mid-game" phase, the "pre-endgame" phase and the "end-game" phase.

The "mid-game" phase lasts from the beginning of the game up until there are 9 or less tiles left in the bag. During this phase, the game is most randomised and the artificial intelligence uses heuristical move evaluations.

The "pre-endgame" phase works in almost the same way as the "mid-game" phase, except that it is designed to attempt to yield a good end-game situation.

The "endgame" phase takes over as soon as there are no tiles left in the bag. In two-player games, this means that the players can now deduce from the initial letter distribution the exact tiles on each other's racks. Maven uses the B-star search algorithm to analyse the game tree during the endgame phase.