rivencraft/docs/MILESTONE_5_ACCEPTANCE.md

# Milestone 5 acceptance: Age grammar

This is the completion record for [Gitea issue #42](https://gitea.tail180fb1.ts.net/dnorberg/rivencraft/issues/42) and release 0.5.0.0. Issues #28–#41, #45–#59, #61, and #62 are closed. #39 was closed with an explicit Ecliptic Seasons limitation, not with a working Ecliptic adapter. #42 is the final gate. Issues #43, #44, and #60 are separate open follow-ups, not hidden Milestone 5 completion claims.

## Authoring and generation contract

- Schema-v2 symbol JSON lives at `data/<namespace>/rivencraft/symbols/<path>.json`. Its file path is the stable page ID; `name`, `description`, and `category` are display metadata, while typed `semantics.role` and `semantics.value` control generation on the server. See [schema and role table](SYMBOL_SEMANTICS.md). Schema v1 remains display-only. Registry-derived biome, solid-block, and source-fluid pages are generated from valid registered entries rather than requiring one PNG or JSON definition per material.
- Ordered writing is parsed as Link Panel, terrain, biomes/controller, weather, season, lighting, sky, celestial modifiers/celestial, then material/feature pairs. Missing branches are seeded completion warnings. Unresolved symbols, unsupported combinations, conflicting single-choice pages, incorrect order, and an invalid Link Panel produce Binder diagnostics before items are consumed. Repeated feature and material pages retain their occurrence order. See [grammar and diagnostics](WRITING_GRAMMAR.md).
- Legacy's grammar ranks informed the random-choice weights; Rivencraft does not claim to run Legacy's complete 1.12.2 grammar or reproduce its terrain byte-for-byte. The [source audit](LEGACY_AGE_GRAMMAR_AUDIT.md), [weight table](RANDOM_AGE_WEIGHTS.md), and [runtime profiles](AGE_PROFILES.md) record exact mappings and adaptations. Authored supported symbols override seeded choices. A page-free or Link-Panel-only Descriptive Book creates a random Age. The resolved plan, seed, profile, biome IDs, traits, features, and writing order are saved with its Age identity before chunks generate. Reopening a book or restarting must not reroll it.
- Feature pages cover decorations, terrain additions, dense ores, crystals, fissures, and supported structures including Trial Chambers and newer vanilla structures. Material pages may explicitly choose a compatible block/fluid or receive a seeded compatible feature. Terrain and biome eligibility still restrict combinations; incompatibility is reported rather than silently ignored. [Age documentation](AGES.md) and [feature rules](WRITING_GRAMMAR.md) describe the supported subset.

## Optional integrations and fallback

| Integration | Milestone 5 result |
| --- | --- |
| TerraBlender | Optional adapter reads registered Overworld and Nether region biome IDs. Any compatible biome-producing mod using those regions can supply eligible pages; no Biomes O' Plenty ID is hard-coded. Missing TerraBlender leaves vanilla Age generation intact. A removed biome warns and uses an eligible load-time fallback without rewriting the saved plan. See [TerraBlender checks](TERRABLENDER_COMPATIBILITY.md). |
| Serene Seasons | Optional per-Age seasonal modes: No Seasons, Seasons, Eternal Winter/Summer/Fall/Spring. The adapter enrolls dynamic Age IDs in Serene's whitelist and synchronizes connected clients without a restart. Its internal config/saved-clock hooks are version-sensitive because a public dynamic-dimension registration/fixed-season API is unavailable. Without Serene, only No Seasons is valid for a *new* book; saved Ages retain their data with effects inactive. See [config and real-client checks](SERENE_SEASONS_COMPATIBILITY.md). |
| Ecliptic Seasons | Deliberately not integrated. Its 1.21.1 `ValidDimensions` setting requires a world restart and caches validity on server/client level load; no supported live registration or per-dimension calendar-control API was found. Issue #39 records the blocker and the upstream API needed to revisit it. Rivencraft does not require Ecliptic and does not support both season mods together. |
| JEI, Create/Ponder, Immersive Portals | Optional presentation/integration paths; none is required for core dedicated-server loading or Age grammar. Existing preview fallback and manual checks remain in [preview compatibility](PREVIEW_COMPATIBILITY.md). |

## Migration, limits, and milestone boundary

Existing saved writing keeps its stable IDs and order. Unresolved pages remain recoverable in books instead of being silently replaced. Existing bound books without a plan are not reinterpreted as newly authored grammar. A frozen plan can load without the old symbol definition or runtime-profile JSON, but missing referenced registry resources prevent or alter that load as documented in [runtime profiles](AGE_PROFILES.md); restore the data pack/mod and keep a backup. The migration regression suite covers legacy writing components, schema-v1 display pages, missing symbols, and old Binder/Desk data. It is **not** a promise of full compatibility with every pre-release world; that broader requirement is tracked separately by open issue #60.

Milestone 5 owns recognized symbol semantics, ordered grammar, deterministic completion, persistent Age configuration, and supported feature/integration effects. Milestone 6 owns instability from invalid or excessive writing and server-safe instability effects. Milestone 7 owns remaining structures/polish, portals, recipes, models, sounds, advancements, and migration depth. Several Legacy structures and crystals were pulled forward into Milestone 5 as their own closed port issues; that does not imply the rest of Milestone 7 is complete. Custom multi-body skies, gradients, unsupported direct Rain/Snow pages, and exact Legacy terrain/feature parity remain outside the accepted M5 subset. Open issue #44 tracks custom skybox work.

## Test and acceptance matrix

| Check | Result or handoff |
| --- | --- |
| Default dedicated-server GameTests, no optional mods | 26/26 passed after moving 25 detailed generation checks to the selectable `generation` archive. Core persistence, grammar, transaction, and migration checks remain. |
| Focused generation archive | 51/51 passed on the reduced core plus `-ParchivedGameTestSuites=generation`. No generation test was deleted; 25 detailed checks moved out of the default run. |
| Full archive | Previously passed 116/116 before the final random-biome-count adjustment in #41. Its later rerun stalled in the first batch and was stopped under the project GameTest rule; **not** claimed as a passing current run. Manual random-Age biome and six-terrain travel checks are in [GameTest handoffs](GAMETESTS.md). |
| Optional TerraBlender | An earlier optional-mod GameTest run passed 51/51; Biomes O' Plenty/Nether-region behavior was checked in-game during #37. The published jar does not bundle TerraBlender. |
| Optional Serene Seasons | In-game acceptance was recorded on #38 for six pages, saved whitelist, and no-restart sync. The GameTest mock player cannot negotiate Serene's season packet; the real-client path is documented. |
| Gradle build and JAR | `./gradlew build --offline --no-daemon` passed and produced `build/libs/rivencraft-0.5.0.0.jar`. Its SHA-256 is attached to the Gitea release. |
| Asset audit | Three byte-identical PNGs were replaced by references to their retained counterparts; no other unreferenced shipped textures or sounds were found. The user-provided `dev images` reference remains untouched. |

Completion checklist: implementation issues reviewed; #39 explicitly scoped as unsupported; schema/Legacy/grammar/generation/integration/migration boundaries documented; core and focused validation recorded; current archive stall disclosed; release JAR and SHA-256 published; issue #42 and Milestone 5 closed **only after** those release artifacts are verified.