Next Tuesday, March 13 at 10am PST 11am PDT (18:00 GMT), all active puzzles will expire and we will release a new update for Foldit clients.
This update includes some fundamental improvements to the Foldit score function, which means that all puzzles will score a little differently, and scores from before the update will no longer be valid. For this reason, all active puzzles will expire simultaneously when the update is released, with a brand new set of puzzles to take their place; only updated clients will be able to load the new puzzles. There are some details about the update on the blog here.
A big thanks to all the Foldit players who helped us test this update over the past few weeks in the experimental update group!
As far as I can tell, the six beginner puzzles are not expiring before the software update. Only the science puzzles 1492, 1493, and 1494 are ending before the update.
If you're working on the beginner puzzles, you may want to skip the new release. The new release will start to download automatically when you start Foldit, but you get a chance to skip it. You'll need to do the same thing each time you start Foldit.
The blog post says "scores from before the update will no longer be valid", which makes it sound like you won't be able to open solutions from the old version of Foldit using the new version.
You will need the new release to open the new science puzzles which begin after the update. You can have both versions of Foldit installed at the same time – see multiple Foldit clients on the wiki.
Another strategy is just to save a copy of your Foldit directory (c:\foldit or whatever) before accepting the update. This allows you to revert to the old version if you encounter problems with the update.
The good news is that the symmetry design beginner puzzle should be much less crash-prone in the new version.
If you're working on a contest, you might also run into compatibility issues between the old and new releases.
I'd again suggest making a backup copy of your Foldit directory before taking the release.
We'll be able to test for these issues once the new release is available. In the mean time, having a backup will prevent you from losing work on any contests or beginner puzzles.
