ok, let's try and improve the skip solution

src/main/kotlin/be/nielandt/Counter.kt

@@ -5,29 +5,25 @@ import kotlin.math.min
 /**
  * Counter for X digits of a given base.
  */
-class Counter(size: Int, val base: Int = 10) {
+open class Counter(size: Int, val base: Int = 10) {
 
     /**
      * Empty counter, all 0 values for each digit.
      */
-    private var counter: Array<Int> = Array(size) { 0 }
+    protected var counter: Array<Int> = Array(size) { 0 }
 
     /**
      *  The last (highest significance) index that overflowed and has been changed in the counter. Could be null, if it never overflowed.
      *  Start with saying that everything changed.
      */
-    private var lastModifiedIndex: Int = 0
-
-    fun getLastModifiedIndex(): Int {
-        return this.lastModifiedIndex
-    }
+     var lastModifiedIndex: Int = 0
 
     /**
      * Increase the counter.
      *
      * @return true if the increase happened, false if we hit the ceiling.
      */
-    fun increase(): Boolean {
+    open fun increase(): Boolean {
         if (atMax()) {
             return false
         }

src/main/kotlin/be/nielandt/CounterSkipSameFaces.kt

@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+package be.nielandt
+
+import kotlin.math.min
+
+/**
+ * Counter for X digits of a given base. Skips situations where faces are the same.
+ */
+class CounterSkipSameFaces(size: Int, base: Int = 10): Counter(size, base) {
+
+    /**
+     * Increase the counter.
+     *
+     * @return true if the increase happened, false if we hit the ceiling.
+     */
+    override fun increase(): Boolean {
+        var lmi = lastModifiedIndex
+        var last = super.increase()
+        lmi = min(lastModifiedIndex, lmi)
+        // are we having an invalid situation? this would be two consecutive moves on the same face
+        while (containsConsecutiveSameFaceMoves() && !atMax()) {
+            last = super.increase()
+            lmi = min(lastModifiedIndex, lmi)
+        }
+        // we have to set the lastmodified index to the lowest point that it got to... otherwise we might be skipping some cases
+        this.lastModifiedIndex = lmi
+        return last
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Are there two moves in the current counter / chain that act on the same face? This would be F+F2 for example.
+     */
+    private fun containsConsecutiveSameFaceMoves(): Boolean {
+        for (i in 1 until this.counter.size) {
+            val current = Move.values()[this.counter[i]]
+            val previous = Move.values()[this.counter[i - 1]]
+            if (current sameFace previous)
+                return true
+        }
+        return false
+    }
+}

src/main/kotlin/be/nielandt/CrossSolver.kt

@@ -67,17 +67,20 @@ fun main(args: Array<String>) {
 
 
     // scramble random
-    val moves = Move.random(20)
+    val moves = Move.random(10)
     println("Scramble: $moves")
     val scrambledModel = EdgeModel(moves)
     println(scrambledModel)
 
-    val baseSolve = CrossSolverBase().solveCrossesTimed(scrambledModel)
-    CrossSolver.printResults(baseSolve)
+//    val baseSolve = CrossSolverBase().solveCrossesTimed(scrambledModel)
+//    CrossSolver.printResults(baseSolve)
 
     val upgradedSolve = CrossSolverUpgraded().solveCrossesTimed(scrambledModel)
     CrossSolver.printResults(upgradedSolve)
 
+    val upgradedSolveSkip = CrossSolverUpgradedSkip().solveCrossesTimed(scrambledModel)
+    CrossSolver.printResults(upgradedSolveSkip)
+
 //    val allCrossMoveCountUpgradedSkip = allCrossMoveCountUpgradedSkip(scrambledModel)
 //    allCrossMoveCountUpgradedSkip.forEach { color, moves ->
 //        println("skip upgrade cross for color: ${color} in ${moves.size}: ${moves.joinToString(" ")}")

src/main/kotlin/be/nielandt/CrossSolverUpgraded.kt

@@ -1,16 +1,12 @@
 package be.nielandt
 
-import java.time.Instant
-
 /**
  * This solver avoids redoing edgemodel manipulations. Should be equivalent to X nested for loops.
  */
 class CrossSolverUpgraded : CrossSolver() {
 
     override fun solveCrosses(edgeModel: EdgeModel): Map<Int, List<Move>> {
-        val start = Instant.now()
         val moveCounts = mutableMapOf<Int, List<Move>>()
-
         for (moveCount in 1..8) {
             println("all cross move count upgrade doing $moveCount")
             // build a counter of moveCount big

src/main/kotlin/be/nielandt/CrossSolverUpgradedSkip.kt

@@ -7,16 +7,12 @@ class CrossSolverUpgradedSkip : CrossSolver() {
 
     override fun solveCrosses(edgeModel: EdgeModel): Map<Int, List<Move>> {
         val moveCounts = mutableMapOf<Int, List<Move>>()
-
         for (moveCount in 1..8) {
             println("all cross move count upgrade doing $moveCount")
             // build a counter of moveCount big
-            val counter = Counter(moveCount, Move.values().size)
-            // TODO skip the counter
+            val counter = CounterSkipSameFaces(moveCount, Move.values().size)
             val edgeModelFactory = EdgeModelFactory(edgeModel, counter)
 
-            println("moveCounts = ${moveCounts}")
-
             while (edgeModelFactory.hasNext()) {
                 // get the next model, using the internal counter which simply iterates over possible combinations of moves
                 val next = edgeModelFactory.getNext()
@@ -34,7 +30,6 @@ class CrossSolverUpgradedSkip : CrossSolver() {
                 }
                 // break if we have found hem all
                 if (moveCounts.keys.size == 6) {
-//                println("counter.skipInvalidCount = ${counter.skipInvalidCount}")
                     return moveCounts
                 }
             }

src/main/kotlin/be/nielandt/EdgeModelFactory.kt

@@ -28,12 +28,12 @@ class EdgeModelFactory(val original: EdgeModel, val counter: Counter) {
 
     fun getNext(): EdgeModel {
         // the counter was increased, hooray
-        val lastOverflowIndex = counter.getLastModifiedIndex()
+        val lastOverflowIndex = counter.lastModifiedIndex
         // we only need to redo everything starting from the lastoverflowindex
         // these are our moves, but we can salvage everything up to lastoverflowindex
         val moves = Move.combo(counter)
         // we have a history to work with... only redo what's necessary
-        for (i in counter.getLastModifiedIndex() until counter.size()) {
+        for (i in counter.lastModifiedIndex until counter.size()) {
             var start: EdgeModel = if (i == 0)
                 original
             else