OK I think I get it now. Not all scrambles are alike. With just random moves, you'd need a whole bunch to create a "random state" cube. I wasn't aware that some programs produce random state scrambles that aren't just a series of n random moves but are really a much longer series of random moves then partially or fully optimized into an "algorithm" of n moves.
I see that Cube Explorer (a very cool program btw) has an option to generate WCA scrambles. I'm assuming these are random state. So I had the program produce 5 WCA scrambles. They are all in the low 20s in terms of the length of the algorithm, but they still aren't fully optimized. So I'm wondering why that is? I had the Cube Explorer program optimize the 5 scrambles (which takes a while), and ended up with four 18 move scrambles and one 17 move scramble.View attachment 5777
Is the reason why the WCA scrambles aren't fully optimized because of a concern that some competitors could actually memorize the series? That seems far-fetched. Or is there a concern that the length of the scramble would give away the difficulty level of the solve? If that's the case, why not make all WCA scrambles exactly 20 moves in length? If the fully optimized algorithm is only 16 or 17 moves for example, I'm sure the computer could figure out a way to add additional cancelling moves to reach the same cube state (pretty sure anyway).
With random state scramble generators (which admittedly I only found out existed as of yesterday) & optimizer programs, I just don't understand why we would ever have to do practice scrambles of greater than 20 moves (since we know that any cube state can be reached with <=20 moves and we know that we can mimic & optimize random move scrambles of any length, even into the hundreds of moves, using optimized algorithms). I practice solving the cube sometimes 2 or 3 hours in a day. Being able to do all my scrambles at between 16 & 20 moves seems like a really big time-saver and hassle-saver vs. doing 22 to 25 moves or more. It makes practicing more fun and leaves more time for actually solving the cube.
Please tell me if I'm missing something and if anyone knows where to find these shorter random state scrambles without having to wait for Cube Explorer to fully optimize the WCA scrambles.
I see that Cube Explorer (a very cool program btw) has an option to generate WCA scrambles. I'm assuming these are random state. So I had the program produce 5 WCA scrambles. They are all in the low 20s in terms of the length of the algorithm, but they still aren't fully optimized. So I'm wondering why that is? I had the Cube Explorer program optimize the 5 scrambles (which takes a while), and ended up with four 18 move scrambles and one 17 move scramble.View attachment 5777
Is the reason why the WCA scrambles aren't fully optimized because of a concern that some competitors could actually memorize the series? That seems far-fetched. Or is there a concern that the length of the scramble would give away the difficulty level of the solve? If that's the case, why not make all WCA scrambles exactly 20 moves in length? If the fully optimized algorithm is only 16 or 17 moves for example, I'm sure the computer could figure out a way to add additional cancelling moves to reach the same cube state (pretty sure anyway).
With random state scramble generators (which admittedly I only found out existed as of yesterday) & optimizer programs, I just don't understand why we would ever have to do practice scrambles of greater than 20 moves (since we know that any cube state can be reached with <=20 moves and we know that we can mimic & optimize random move scrambles of any length, even into the hundreds of moves, using optimized algorithms). I practice solving the cube sometimes 2 or 3 hours in a day. Being able to do all my scrambles at between 16 & 20 moves seems like a really big time-saver and hassle-saver vs. doing 22 to 25 moves or more. It makes practicing more fun and leaves more time for actually solving the cube.
Please tell me if I'm missing something and if anyone knows where to find these shorter random state scrambles without having to wait for Cube Explorer to fully optimize the WCA scrambles.