Message #736

From: Chris Locke <project.eutopia@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Announcing MagicCube4D version 4.0 beta ready for download!
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:44:35 +0900

First of all, I want to thank Melinda and Roice for writing and sharing this
great piece of software with the world! You’ve done a great job and we are
all very thankful for your hard work.

Second, I want to congratulate those who have solved some of the new puzzles
so far. In particular, Anthony for solving the 3 layer deep pentagonal
duoprism. I actually started working on the same puzzle too a few days ago
and managed to solve about half the puzzle before you uploaded your solution
to the wiki. Congrats! Upon looking at your solution, I see you were able
to solve the puzzle with much more finess than I have been working with. I
tend to rely on macros quite a bit to work my way out from 2 color pieces,
up to the 4 color pieces. As such, I often work with reset puzzles to find
algorithms to permute/orient just the pieces I want, and then use these
algorithms to build up other algorithms. So really, my way of solving is
mostly just being careful and patient. It also helps that after a while,
you find out what kind of moves tend to give potential good algorithms.
Commutators are one useful building block. Also, you can sometimes find new
algorithms by taking other sequences (like a simple aba’b’) and applying it
multiple times. Doing this you will sometimes find it fixes much of what it
does, leaving just what you need moved around (like it’s almost nilpotent).
Of course, conjugation can then vastly increase the usefulness of each
algorithm. …. but that’s a bit more of a digression than I intended :D

Before I forget, this actually brings me to a question I have. Will there
also be a record page for everyone who’s solved the puzzles, not just the
first and shortest solutions? If not, then I will still finish my puzzle,
but I won’t be in as much of a hurry, so I can do other things too in my
evenings :D. However if we will have such a list, I might try to finish it
earlier rather than later if I find the time.

Chris