# Epic 9 - LiveOps, Telemetry, and Game Integrity

## Source Anchors

- Master epic reference: [`neon_sprawl_vision.plan.md`](../../../neon_sprawl_vision.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.
