Historic periods

Seacraft's history is divided into serveral **historic periods** in order to organise and categorise the server's history.

## Terms

* **Era:** A period of time spanning a year or more. Contains serveral periods.
* **Period:** A period of time usually spanning a few months. Often categorised by server popularity.
* **Version:** Denotes the stage of development of the server.

## History

### Versions

For a long time, Seacraft used its versions to document its history. Events were classified into versions like Seacraft Beta or Seacraft Version 1. When it came to Version 2, more specific versions could be used like Seacraft 2.2 or Seacraft 2.3, or perhaps even minor versions like Seacraft 2.3.5. This worked for the most part, though some things were hard to place.

### The beginnings of periods

Where there was ambiguity in the timeline, the first time periods began to form in order to classify this ambiguity. The term 'Seacraft Gamma' was used to describe the grey area between Beta and Version 1, and the 'Forgotten Period' described the rest of Version 1 to about Seacraft 2.2.10.

It was later noted that there were particularly popular periods in the server's history as well. These started being called the 'New Town Boom' and the 'Shopping Centre Boom'. A tentative name was given to what is now called the Five Nights Period, being called the 'FNaC Boom'.

### Formalising the time periods

With the investigation of the server's log files after the end of Version 2 came much more detail about Seacraft's history. When periods then began to be formalised, names were given to most of the periods up to the Shopping Centre Boom:

* Seacraft Alpha
* Seacraft Beta
* Gamma Period
* Expansion Period
* Downtime Period
* Early Forgotten Period
* New Town Boom
* Late Forgotten Period
* Shopping Centre Boom

Note that the New Year Dip and the Writing Period remain unnamed here. It was also thought that the Historic Forgotten Period extended to about Seacraft 2.3, which led to the name 'Late Forgotten Period'.

The New Year Dip and the Writing Period would be named later.

In December 2022, ZacNVR formally renamed the Late Forgotten Period to the Five Nights Period, after realising the anachronous name. The Early Forgotten Period therefore dropped the 'Early' and became the 'Forgotten Period'.

### Beginnings of eras

The idea of classifying eras had also been brewing for some time. It was clear that there was a distinct early era, then a golden age, then a decline. While names like 'Early Days' or 'Early Age' were thrown around tentatively, the 'Golden Age' was more well defined.

### Later periods

Further investigation of the log files allowed for the classification of periods after the Shopping Centre Boom, as well as better placement for the Shopping Centre Boom itself. There were three clear periods:

* A period of low popularity but featured playings in short busts, particularly from Jakemaster\_360, Sir\_Azza and zac5.
* A period of popularity around Moose Forest and the surrounding region.
* A time when zac5 was left alone on the server, developing Seacraft 2.5.

These periods would remain unnamed for a time.

Periods also began emerging out of Seacraft Version 3. One period featured the boom in Coco Plains and the following loss of momentum, with only slow development on the server. Then came a period of renovation, led by jaykobe, ItsMoose, ZacNVR and SirAbrahamy. The next period was the present period at that time.

#### Naming the periods

At the time, ZacNVR was calling the Intermittent Period the 'Sporadic Period', but wasn't quite happy with the name. Additionally, he couldn't decide between the 'Renovation Period' or the 'Restoration Period'. He also thought that if he could give a name to Seacraft's western region, he could name the period of activity in the area after the region itself.

So in May 2023, ZacNVR sent out a Google form to help name some of the server's western areas and to name some of the later time periods. Many of the location names received useful suggestions, including the name 'Timberland Region' which was used to name the 'Timberland Period'. The form also helped settle a dispute between the 'Renovation Period' and the 'Restoration Period', with the Renovation Period being chosen.

In June, ZacNVR turned to ChatGPT for name suggestions, which helped name the Intermittent Period and the Desolate Period. The 'Fleeting Resurgence' was toyed around for the start of Version 3, but ZacNVR wasn't quite happy with it.

### Formalising eras

At the end of June, ZacNVR formalised the eras officially naming the 'Early Days', the 'Golden Age' and the 'Revival Era'. The era from the Intermittent Period to the Desolate Period remained unnamed at this time.

### Fruition Period

It was in late May when the server gained some activity that ZacNVR thought Seacraft might be in a new period. However, the server's popularity soon dipped after the release of Minecraft 1.20, but SirAbrahamy and ZacNVR kept making steady progress in the Crater Council L.G.A.

On the 30th of June, ZacNVR came up with the name 'Fruition Period', since the period had seen the full formation of some projects including the Crater Village developments, the forestation of Crater Plains and the population of the beach at Oceanview.

### Unnamed period conventions

On the 13th of August, 2023, ZacNVR devised a system for giving temporary names to unnamed time periods. They would each be denoted using their numerical position in the timeline, written in Roman numerals. At the time, there were three unnamed periods: Period XV, Period XVII and the newly acknowledged Period XIX. It was also on this same day he named the Waning Era.