# 0011: Per-Cell Kill / Defer Criteria and De-Scope Sequence

Status: Proposed

Date: 2026-06-12

## Context

ADR 0002 commits V4 to six launch cells and states that removing a launch cell
"requires a phase-cut ADR" — but no document defines **when** such an ADR is
warranted, what evidence it needs, or which cell goes first. The
2026-06-12 plan-set audit (§6.2) flagged this as a verified gap: the program's
single biggest bet (six AAA-feel cells at once, risk R-01 in
`V4/docs/planning/program-risk-register.md`) had no contingency mechanics.

The raw materials for criteria already exist:

- **Feel-test gates** are quantitative and release-blocking per cell
  (`V4/V4_features.md:343-384`): e.g. Hitman sandbox at 60 fps with 120 NPCs
  and a sub-12-minute fresh-player loop; Wukong 6-frame ±1 parry windows; RTS
  openings replicable within ±2% of SC2 timing; Contra 60 fps couch co-op.
  They run in nightly Gauntlet from `V4/ue/Source/V4Tests/FeelTests/`, and "a
  failing feel test blocks the affected ruleset's release"
  (`V4/V4_features.md:382-384`).
- **Content inventory** rows per cell are committed
  (`V4/V4_features.md:1576-1603`).
- **Launch milestones** derive from `V4/V4_features.md:2722-2726` and the
  fixed launch date (`V4/liveops/live-service-calendar.json`,
  2026-10-01): Closed Beta 2026-04-01, Open Beta 2026-08-03, cert submission
  window opening 2026-08-17, Soak 2026-09-24 (dates are planning assumptions
  adopted 2026-06-12 where not directly specced).
- **"No coming soon" is absolute** (`V4/V4_features.md:290-291`, exit
  criterion `:2736`): a deferred cell must vanish from the advertised product,
  not linger as a teaser panel.

This ADR turns those materials into decision criteria. It does **not** cut any
cell; each actual cut still gets its own phase-cut ADR per ADR 0002, citing
this ADR's criteria and attaching the evidence pack.

## Decision

### 1. Gates and feel-test failure thresholds

Each cell is measured at four gates. "Green" means the cell's feel tests
(`V4/V4_features.md:343-384`) pass in nightly Gauntlet; percentages are over
the stated trailing window of nightlies. Thresholds are planning assumptions
adopted 2026-06-12.

| Gate | Date | Feel-test threshold (per cell) | Additional bar |
| ---- | ---- | ------------------------------ | -------------- |
| **G1 — Closed Beta entry** | 2026-04-01 | All feel tests implemented in Gauntlet; ≥80% green, trailing 21 nightlies, PC | Perf scenarios within 20% of target on console-proxy hardware |
| **G2 — Open Beta entry** | 2026-08-03 | ≥95% green, trailing 28 nightlies, on PC + PS5 + Series X | Quantitative feel numbers met on primary platforms (60 fps scenarios ≥58 fps p95); Closed-Beta survey "feels like the inspiration" top-2-box ≥70% for the cell |
| **G3 — Cert submission** | 2026-08-17 | 100% green, trailing 21 nightlies, on every platform that cooks the cell | Cell's content-inventory rows 100% content-complete; platforms that strip the cell per ADR 0005 cook rules are recorded as per-platform deferrals in the cert plan |
| **G4 — Soak / RC** | 2026-09-24 | Zero feel-test regressions on the release-candidate build | Per-cell crash rate <0.1% during Soak (aligned with `V4/V4_features.md:2743`) |

**Defer trigger (feel):** a cell that (a) misses the same gate twice — initial
miss plus a re-test after a 14-day cure period — or (b) is red on >25% of
nightlies over any trailing 30-day window inside the 60 days before a gate,
enters mandatory defer review (§4).

### 2. Production-cost overrun triggers

Each cell carries a cost baseline (estimate-at-completion) re-set at G1 and
re-estimated monthly. Defer review is mandatory when either:

- the cell's estimate-to-complete exceeds **130% of its G1 baseline in two
  consecutive monthly re-estimates**, or
- the cell consumes **>1.4× its planned share of pooled production capacity**
  (mocap stage hours, VO studio hours per
  `V4/docs/planning/program-risk-register.md` R-03, cinematics minutes) in a
  quarter such that another cell's gate-critical content slips.

**Content-completion floor:** independent of cost, a cell below **70% of its
content-inventory rows (`V4/V4_features.md:1576-1603`) at
content-complete quality at G2** enters defer review — content debt that late
cannot be bought back by money alone.

### 3. De-scope sequence (the order, argued from shared-tech leverage)

If a defer review concludes "defer," cells defer in this order. The ordering
principle: **defer the cell whose removal frees the most schedule while
destroying the least shared technology and the least of the product promise.**

1. **2D Run-and-Gun (Contra) — first.** Shares the least infrastructure of
   any cell: its own side-scroll camera/renderer path, no use of
   V4Perception/V4Crowd/V4Tactical (the shared surfaces named at
   `V4/V4_features.md:390-394`), couch-co-op netcode unique to it, the
   smallest content row (8 stages, `:1595`), no ranked ladder
   (`:2020-2024`), no esports pool. Its deferral has the smallest blast
   radius and breaks no other cell's dependency. (Corollary: it also frees
   the least capacity — deferring it is a signal, not a rescue.)
2. **Real-Time Strategy — second.** The RTS cell is the **most isolated
   netcode risk in the program**: 25 Hz deterministic lockstep over 32.32
   fixed-point simulation (`V4/V4_ARCHITECTURE.md:890-932`) shares nothing
   with the client-server or rollback stacks and uniquely requires
   cross-platform determinism on all 9 targets (risk R-04). It also carries
   the largest map inventory (52 maps across SC-style/AoE-style/TD,
   `V4/V4_features.md:1592-1594`) and two of the five ranked ladders.
   Deferring RTS removes the single largest concentrated technical risk and
   the second-largest content burden in one decision. Costs to absorb:
   three of the five factions are RTS factions (`:1979-1985`) — the faction
   system must launch with the two Shadow War blocs and add the RTS factions
   with the cell; the esports circuit drops two ladders (apply
   risk R-15's collapse-into-Wildcard mitigation).
3. **Action RPG (Wukong) — third.** Shares the character/animation/GAS combat
   pipeline with the Tactical cell, so its engine work is mostly not wasted by
   deferral, and it is co-op-only (`V4/V4_features.md:339`) so it adds no PvP
   service load — but for the same reasons its deferral saves less server and
   netcode risk. It defers only on content grounds (30 bosses + 12 areas,
   `:1590-1591`, is the program's heaviest bespoke-encounter load) when boss
   content misses the §2 floor.
4. **Real-Time Stealth Tactics — fourth.** RTST runs on V4Stealth/V4Perception
   shared with the Tactical cell's Splinter Cell and Hitman sub-rulesets
   (`V4/V4_features.md:390-394`); if RTST is failing feel, the shared stealth
   stack is usually the cause, and the Tactical stealth modes are already
   sick. Deferring RTST therefore saves little marginal engineering — it is
   ordered above only the cells that must not defer.
5. **Stealth — effectively never alone.** The Stealth cell's plugins sit
   directly on the Tactical cell's shared surfaces; a Stealth deferral is a
   partial Tactical deferral and breaks the core promise wording
   (`V4/V4_features.md:280-285`). It may only defer as part of a program-level
   re-plan, not via this ladder.
6. **Tactical FPS — not deferrable.** It is the spine: the largest design
   footprint (`V4/V4_features.md:388-394`), the host of the shared systems,
   the PvP/monetization/esports backbone, and the beachhead cell in
   `V4/docs/planning/market-analysis.md` §5. If Tactical misses gates, the
   correct lever is the launch date or program scope (risk R-06), decided at
   Studio Head level — not a cell cut.

The ladder is an **order**, not a quota: a defer review may conclude "hold"
(extend cure period at G1/G2 only) or skip a rung **upward only** (a
higher-numbered cell may not be deferred while a lower-numbered one is in
unresolved defer review, except Tactical/Stealth which never enter the ladder
normally).

### 4. Defer-review protocol and what "defer" means

- **Evidence pack** (assembled by the Cell Production Lead within 5 business
  days of a trigger): nightly Gauntlet history for the trailing 60 days, perf
  captures per platform, EAC/ETC history, content-inventory burn-up, beta
  survey data.
- **Recommendation** by the Program Director; **decision** by Game Director +
  Studio Head jointly; recorded as a phase-cut ADR (per ADR 0002) within 5
  business days of the decision, citing this ADR.
- **Defer semantics:** the cell's plugins are stripped from cook per ADR 0005;
  the cell is removed from all advertised modes, store copy, and marketing
  within 5 business days (no "coming soon" — `V4/V4_features.md:290-291`,
  `:2736`); its content lands in a **named** post-launch season, no earlier
  than Season 2 (launch +90 days) and stated publicly with a date only after
  it has passed G2-equivalent thresholds in the post-launch track; SKU/pricing
  review runs if the deferral lands within 60 days of launch.
- **Kill (vs defer):** a deferred cell is killed — removed from the roadmap —
  if it misses **two consecutive committed post-launch season windows**, or if
  its refreshed cost-to-complete exceeds its own 18-month revenue forecast
  (per-cell figures in
  `V4/docs/planning/concurrency-and-monetization-forecast.md` §5 scenario
  table). A kill is its own ADR with portfolio-level signoff.

## Consequences

- The six-cell bet now has a pre-agreed, evidence-driven failure mode; the
  defer decision is mechanical and fast instead of political and late.
- Nightly Gauntlet feel-test history becomes gate-of-record data and must be
  retained ≥120 days and tamper-evident.
- Faction system, esports circuit, and SKU plans must each document their
  behavior under an RTS or 2D deferral (the two most likely rungs).
- Marketing may not advertise any cell that has an open defer review at the
  time copy locks.
- This ADR supplies the criteria ADR 0002 presupposed; any actual cut still
  produces its own phase-cut ADR referencing the evidence pack.