OK last night and this morning I been working on a rule change to Collatz:
When the number is odd do this: (3*N + 1)/2 because with the bare 3*N + 1 your next step IS ALWAYS to divide by 2 because an Odd + 1 ALWAYS makes an Even number, automatically dividing by 2 saves a step and more importantly to computer programs keeps the highest working number (it's working with) considerably lower! (so you don't hit the Type limit so soon).
Because this is how you could work an equivalent expression:
(((N + 1) / 2) * 3) - 1 = (3*N + 1) / 2 and the computer math on the left expression never exceeds ~~ 1.5 * N (+/-) as opposed to 3 * N + 1
If the number is odd then add 1 (makes the odd number even) so you can divide by 2 (and stay an Integer) then multiply by 3 (this gives us a higher limit we can go with our number Type, nearly doubling it!) now you subtract 1 because when adding 1 before dividing by 2 you are really adding 2.
Before limit for Integers is 32XXX/ 3, with rule change that gets equivalent results limit for Integers is (32XXX / 3) * 2. So you've effectively doubled the numbers you can work with a given Type.