neon-sprawl-archived/docs/decomposition/epics/epic_09_liveops_integrity.md

Epic 9 - LiveOps, Telemetry, and Game Integrity

Source Anchors

• Master epic reference: cyberpunk_mmo_vision_86a57ef3.plan.md — Core Epic Map, System Modules Epic 9
• Related modules: E9.M1, E9.M2, E9.M3, E9.M4

Ownership and success (Level 1)

• Ownership focus: Live Operations + Data/Analytics + Security
• Success criteria: Team can operate, balance, and protect the game continuously post-launch with fast feedback loops.

Objective

Establish event taxonomy, KPI visibility, remote balance tuning where safe, and integrity/incident workflows so solo operation can detect regressions, abuse, and economy drift early.

Module Breakdown

E9.M1 - TelemetryEventSchema

• Responsibility: Canonical event taxonomy covering session, progression, economy, combat, and PvP events.
• Key contracts: TelemetryEvent, EventSchemaVersion, ClientEventEnvelope
• Dependencies: None
• Stage target: Prototype

E9.M2 - KpiDashboardsAndAlerting

• Responsibility: KPI aggregation, dashboard surfaces, trend alerts, and milestone gate signals.
• Key contracts: KpiDefinition, AlertThreshold, MilestoneGateSignal
• Dependencies: E9.M1
• Stage target: Pre-production

E9.M3 - LiveBalanceControlPlane

• Responsibility: Runtime-safe tuning of combat, progression, and economy parameters.
• Key contracts: BalancePatch, ConfigVersion, RolloutState
• Dependencies: E9.M2, E5.M1, E2.M4, E3.M5
• Stage target: Production

E9.M4 - IntegrityAndAbuseResponse

• Responsibility: Bot/exploit detection signals, incident triage, and response workflows.
• Key contracts: IntegritySignal, IncidentTicket, EnforcementAction
• Dependencies: E9.M1
• Stage target: Pre-production

Implementation Slices (Backlog-Ready)

Slice 1 - Baseline event SDK and schema versioning

• Scope: E9.M1 with client envelope, batching, privacy guardrails, and schema version bumps.
• Dependencies: None
• Acceptance criteria:
  • Prototype funnel events match master plan baseline list; breaking changes versioned.
• Telemetry hooks: schema_version_mismatch, ingest errors.

Slice 2 - Minimal dashboards for prototype gates

• Scope: E9.M2 dashboards A/B/E subset for onboarding, loop health, and PvP optionality.
• Dependencies: E9.M1
• Acceptance criteria:
  • Each prototype pass/fail gate has at read one chart or query.
• Telemetry hooks: alert firing on thresholds defined in KPI section.

Slice 3 - Integrity pipeline and incidents

• Scope: E9.M4 correlating integrity signals to tickets and enforcement actions with audit trail.
• Dependencies: E9.M1
• Acceptance criteria:
  • Known exploit replay test produces ticket + action log.
• Telemetry hooks: integrity_signal, incident_open, enforcement_action.

Slice 4 - Live balance control plane (production)

• Scope: E9.M3 applies signed BalancePatch bundles to combat/progression/economy knobs with rollout states.
• Dependencies: E9.M2, E5.M1, E2.M4, E3.M5
• Acceptance criteria:
  • Rollback path for bad patch within agreed SLO; diff visible in ops UI.
• Telemetry hooks: balance_patch_applied, client config hash.

Risks and Mitigations

• Risk: Telemetry noise obscures real issues.
  • Mitigation: Decision-driven instrumentation rules from master plan; sampling strategy.
• Risk: Remote tuning causes live incidents.
  • Mitigation: Staged rollout, automated rollback, parity checks with E6.M4/E3.M5.

Definition of Done

• Prototype runs with E9.M1 + minimal E9.M2 visibility.
• Pre-production adds integrity workflows; production adds E9.M3 with governance.