Subject: Degree of difficulty

Date: Thu Jun 21 18:52:53 2018
User: Franko
Message:
So when you reach a streak of 49 games that game should be a 10th degree of difficulty. Therefore the 50th game has to be easier because there is no tampering with deal. Right?

Date: Thu Jun 21 23:10:13 2018
User: jamesblackburn-lynch
Message:
Franko, I'm not sure I understand but this might address your question. All the "tampering" done is to make the games easier until the 50th when the tampering ends. So by that logic, the 50th game would be harder than what came before. But the reality is it is much more complicated than that. The "tampering" only increases the odds that a certain deal will be easier. It is no guarantee. Games after the 50th are often far easier than the first one. James

Date: Fri Jun 22 05:31:47 2018
User: Goosey_Goosey_Gander
Message:
I have often questioned whether the "tampering" (which I believe increases the chance of lower cards towards the bottom of columns), actually makes the games harder in some game varieties

Date: Fri Jun 22 11:16:09 2018
User: Franko
Message:
Thanks for your thoughts, you guys; As you start a streak, the games increase in difficulty as get closer to 50 games. So by the time you get to game 50 the difficulty level is 10. So if game 50 has been tampered with and game 51, and beyond, hasn't, they are just the luck of the deal. Any game COULD be harder, but probably not because the cards are not being manipulated.

Date: Fri Jun 22 11:51:58 2018
User: TNmountainman
Message:
Correct. Several of us here use the word "climate" instead of "level", to denote that any random game is like a random day in any particular climactic site. It's gonna be colder (on average) in Moscow than in Milan, but there are days at some times of the year where Moscow might actually be hotter. Just now, for grins, I just looked at the data for 9x2. There are approximately 80 climate 5 games that have never been won, most with many attempts, and thus are likely not solvable, despite being categorized as the easiest subset. On the other hand...….there are a huge number of games in climate 10 that have a 100% of having been beaten in the past (although normally with far fewer attempts than games in climate 5). As has been discussed earlier, some of this phenomenon is due to better players (on average) playing a climate 10 game because (in normal streak play) one would have had to win 50 straight to *get* to game 51. But also, some of those games come up in tournaments, so that's not necessarily true, either. Beyond climate 10, a player can choose (using the "custom" mode from the drop-down menu) to play games in climate 11 or 12. *Those* games *have* been manipulated to be harder than random draws - which supposedly begin at game 51 of any streak, of any variant. But yes, as you've deduced, without doing that, all games from game 51 on are purely random draws. The owner of this site, Denny, developed algorithms designed to separate out games on theoretical difficulty levels because of where kings, aces, etc., were placed in the deal. His work in doing that is part of the genius of this site. Franko, there has been much, much, much discussion of the nuances of this issue over the years, and if by some chance you're curious enough, those discussions can be found with the search function - but only by using a single word. I would suggest using both "difficulty" and "level" (one at a time) and "subject" (vs. "body") to find such threads. The results are numerous, and some of the discussions are quite in-depth. Good luck. Of particular interest are threads where it has been alleged that climate 6 games *may* be easier than climate 5 games in some variants. One example in which this has been discussed (as I recall) is for the 13x0 variant. Goosey_Goosey_Gander is alluding to this *possible* effect in his comment above (tho not necessarily to that variant). I'm assuming (perhaps incorrectly?) that you've already perused Denny's comments on the "Instructions" page. If not, the link below should take you directly to that discussion (hopefully).

Link: Denny's discussion of difficulty levels (climates)

Date: Fri Jun 22 15:17:10 2018
User: Franko
Message:
You have all been helpful. Thank you. I thought I had it right in the first place, but I just wanted to talk about. Now I am shooting for the 50th game so that I can get down to the real Freecell and a phenomenal streak. I made a 106 game streak 8 or nine years ago and I'm gonna do it again. Hope it don't take 8 or 9 more years. See ya.

Date: Sat Jun 23 09:26:57 2018
User: joeygray
Message:
Incidentally, if you want to skip straight to the meat of random games, select 'custom' as your variant, and hit play. Then put in 8, 4, 10, and random, and you will be allowed to check the counts-for-streak box. (Or any variant with 10 and random.) (11 and 12 work too, if you want to play 'harder than random' random games and have them count for your streak.) If you select a particular game number, or select a level which is lower than your current streak would select, then the count-for-streak box will be greyed out.

Date: Sat Jun 23 20:03:58 2018
User: Franko
Message:
Whew! Thanks Joey. All them numbers, variants and randoms are a bit much for me. (especially them random' random games) I have only ever played the 8x4 and I just sneaked past the 50 game mark and I will see how good I can do. I'm shootin' for 107. See ya.