v6.7.7: Noodle fallback to Stream

Queued October 3, 2026: This cumulative release changes Noodle exhaustion fallback to native Stream. It includes all v6.7.6 features and earlier fixes. Rooms update independently only after 30 seconds continuously empty and idle; players are not removed. Check Live lobbies or the room title for the actual worker version.

1. Fresh strict Noodle matches, preferring other requested patterns.
2. Fresh bounded relaxed Noodle matches.
3. Fresh, strictly classified native Stream maps.
4. Only after both eligible Noodle and Stream pools run out of fresh choices: the oldest available recent map.

Applies to .noodle / .noodles, .style noodle and Noodle combinations such as .style noodle technical. The selected preference remains Noodle, so fresh hold-heavy choices regain priority when available. This is not a permanent switch to .stream.

Stream uses the existing sustained-Stream classifier and score threshold, not an arbitrary Variety pick. Difficulty, duration, pass count, ranked age and native 4K/7K limits do not broaden. Converts are not admitted. Current/queued reservations and unavailable-map exclusions still apply, and the last ten actual played/skipped rounds are avoided when possible.

Noodle's hold threshold is waived only for the explicit Stream fallback tier. Rice retains its bounded tap-focused fallback, and Jump is unchanged. Other requested patterns remain preferred within each tier but may broaden during fallback. Rice and Noodle still cannot be combined.

.pool identifies (stream fallback) while that tier is active. Lobby fallback remains quiet; style changes still affect future picks only, without replacing visible queued maps. If neither eligible Noodle nor Stream choices exist, the previous selection is kept. Disabling style fallback retains strict-only Noodle behavior.

At the October 3 review, the 3.0–4.0-star, 45–150-second, at-least-1,000-passes native Mania baselines have:

These are dated catalog counts, not guaranteed live pool sizes after session difficulty/filter changes, queue reservations or recent rounds. The larger total is fallback capacity, not a claim that Stream maps are Noodle maps.

Passed 491 offline tests, four-room configuration checks, service-account release immutability and compatibility checks, and guarded reads proving Stream fallback and return to Noodle against both production catalogs. No production/research database rewrite, collector restart, shared-supervisor restart or log-retention change is part of this release.

See Noodle, Style combinations, Fallback, Release history and Update safety.