Hello all, I've been playing around with the Roux method a lot lately, and I've decided it needs as much attention and perfecting as Fridrich and company are getting. :)
To that end, I've been trying to find ways to speed the Last 6 edges (and 4 centers) up, and thinking a lot about several variations of the normal method. First, there's unconstrained centers. This can shorten some of the hardest orientation situations from 12 moves down to 5 or 6, but the recognition seems akin to ZB to me. I need more practice with this, definitely, but I think that it may take too much time, even with mastery. (sorry, Gilles) The whole Step 4 method takes something like 18 moves on average, if my math is anywhere near correct. Instead of orienting and permuting L6E, what if we were to finish off DF and DB edges, then complete the cube with ELL? The hardest situations for finishing the two edges should be around 7 moves, with the average being somewhere around 6. ELL averages about 12 moves, so that puts the method in similar standing to the normal way. But what if we only finish off the DB edge? It can only be in 6 places, each place having 2 possible orientations. Thus, 12 simple cases, 11 of which are 5 moves or fewer. The average move count should be about 3.5, with the hardest situations at 7. You don't need to orient centers prior to this step, either. And recognition is very simple. The hardest case to spot is when the piece is already correct. :) After this, we could use any of the 22 possible cases found here: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~dlli/NewAlgSet.html This would give us an average of under 7 moves to place the DF edge and orient the LL edges, leaving us with an edge PLL step, as in COLL. As edge PLL's average 7 moves, our previous step averages 6.5 or so, and our first step at 3.5, this gives us around 17 again. The benefits? Aside from the 1/12 chance for a PLL skip, and the extremely easy to recognize and execute EPLL step, you never need to change your grip, and after the DF and DB edges are placed, you never need to adjust the M slice. Also, there are a number of lucky cases to exploit. There are only 29 or so unique cases for when the edges come up correctly oriented after placing DB. There are some very fast cases for when edges are correctly placed but incorrectly oriented, and learning the ELL algs can help out nicely for the 1/10 of cases where the DF edge completes itself along with DB. The worst case scenario is 26 moves to finish, and comes up roughly 1/2880 cases, while the odds for a 4 move or fewer solution are 1/72. When someone gets an OLL or PLL skip with Fridrich, the solve is usually in the low 40's for the number of moves. A PLL skip with COLL will probably be between 40 and 45. A very nice ZB solve may be in the mid to high 30's. With good 1x2x3's and a nice CLL case (like FRUR'U'F' or B' R'FR B R'F'R), a sub or low 30's move solve is a good possibility. Something like 1/312 solves (more once I learn more CLL's instead of slow COLL's :P) If anyone is interested in hearing more about this, or helping me to further this approach, please let me know. I could definitely use the services of someone who is good with ACube. Anyway, that's what's going through my head right now. Gilles, Jason, and others, what do you think? -Mike team [zb] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/u8TY5A/tzNLAA/yQLSAA/MXMplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/speedsolvingrubikscube/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
