Date: 2026-05-29 Purpose: map the state-of-the-art (2026) in online
roleplay/multiplayer and in modding tools/communities against what Oshun's V1–V6
specs and the Maya engine domain already cover, and record which SOTA
capabilities V7 must own. This is the research-and-disposition companion to
V7/V7_features.md (the spec) and V7/V7_TODOS.md (the backlog).
Each capability is dispositioned as one of:
- Covered — already specified at adequate depth in V1–V6; V7 reuses it.
- Partial — touched somewhere, but at the wrong layer, data-only, or unimplemented (engine spec with no code); V7 productizes/extends it.
- V7 net-new — not present anywhere; V7 introduces it.
Repo citations are path:line or path § "anchor". Bare §N references in
Parts A–D were re-keyed 2026-06-12 to the current V7_TODOS.md numbering (they
previously used the pre-renumbering scheme; Part E already used the current
one). External citations carry a URL and a credibility note. "Confirmed" =
official Rockstar/Take-Two source; "Rumored" = leak/journalism without official
confirmation.
V7 subsystem names below are the feminine deities defined in V7/V7_features.md
— Mawu (platform), Moremi (realm server), Danu (meshing), Nephthys
(persistence), Pheme (voice), Nàná (roleplay), Hera (social graph), Ixchel
(modding/creation), Abundantia (distribution + economy), Eunomia (governance),
Sekhmet (trust & safety) — each checked against the existing
libs//apps//DOMAINS/ registries for collisions.
Executive summary#
The engine-level primitives for online RP and modding are largely present across V1–V6 and the Maya domain — but almost entirely as specs/plans, and two whole product layers are missing:
- The server-authoritative, executable, community-run roleplay layer (the
FiveM/ESX model). V5's workshop is explicitly data-only — it "cannot ship
executable code" (
V5/V5_features.md:2315). There is no version that ships user-hosted authoritative realms with custom executable logic, persistent characters, jobs/economy/property, civic institutions, whitelisting, or proximity radio voice. - The modding ecosystem as a shipped product — distribution, collections,
safety scanning, and a creator economy. The Maya
forge-*family (forge-resolver,forge-conflict,forge-sandbox,forge-compositor, plus the planned Agora/Variants/Loom/Crucible capabilities) is fully designed but has "No modding or governance code … on disk" (DOMAINS/maya/features.md:885), is engine-level rather than wired to a product, and lacks the cross-platform distribution + creator-economy + executable-UGC safety layers.
Correction to an earlier audit: V5 does spec anti-cheat (EAC + server-side
ML signals + 3-strike flow, V5/V5_features.md:2438), positional/in-game voice
(V5/V5_features.md:2373), crossplay (:2464), a server browser with a mod-set
filter (:2407), and a paid-mod marketplace at a 70% creator share with
KYC/tax/payout gates (:2306). Those are Covered/Partial, not absent. V7's gap
is the executable + massively-multiplayer + community-run layer above them.
The disposition is therefore not "scatter features into v1–v6," and not
"everything is net-new." It is: *_a dedicated V7 that productizes the
unimplemented Maya forge-_ family (under Ixchel) + extends V5's online
backbone
- extends V6's Ori identity into a shipped community-run RP & UGC platform
(Mawu)** — consolidating the roadmap's existing-but-unstarted phases (76
Forge-modding, 77 Multiplayer-SOTA, 79 Immersive-open-world, 99
Creator-economy per
OSHUN_VS_ROBLOX_GAP_ANALYSIS.md) plus the genuine net-new gaps below.
Part A — Online roleplay & multiplayer#
| # | SOTA capability | Exemplar + citation | Repo coverage | Disposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A1 | Server-authoritative, user-hosted, custom-scripted RP servers | FiveM/RedM (Cfx.re), Rockstar-acquired Aug 2023 — GTANet (high) | none; V5 workshop is data-only (V5/V5_features.md:2315) |
V7 net-new (Moremi, §6) |
| A2 | RP framework lineage (jobs/economy/inventory/institutions) | ESX/QBCore/Qbox/ox — Framework Wars 2025 (med) | none | V7 net-new (Nàná, §11) |
| A3 | Persistent character identity across sessions | FiveM DB chars; VRChat/Fortnite persistence — VRChat, Fortnite Verse (high) | V6 Ori is portable identity (V6/V6_features.md § "The Ori"); no RP character |
Partial → V7 (Nàná extends Ori, §11) |
| A4 | Proximity / positional voice + radio channels | pma-voice (FiveM Mumble/WebRTC) — pma-voice (med) | V3/V6 centralized SFU; V5 "positional in-game chat" party/team (V5/V5_features.md:2373) but no RP radio nets |
Partial → V7 (Pheme, §12) |
| A5 | High-pop entity sync + culling (1000s of players) | FiveM OneSync Infinity (IDs→65,535, ~2,048 players) — Cfx.re docs (high) | V5 hub is 64-player (V5/V5_features.md:2381); Maya "world instancing" planned |
V7 net-new (Danu, §8) |
| A6 | Server meshing (seamless world beyond one node) | Star Citizen — static meshing 500/shard live Dec 2024 — MassivelyOP, SC Wiki (high) | none (single-shard/instancing only) | V7 net-new (Danu, §8) |
| A7 | Decoupled replication/persistence layer | Star Citizen Replication Layer — SC Wiki (high) | V6 event-sourced Ori; no realm-state replica | Partial → V7 (Nephthys, §7) |
| A8 | Co-op heists with scalable rewards | GTA Online Cayo Perico / Casino — GameTruth 2026 (med) | V5 heists spec'd (V5/V5_features.md § "Content & Creator Tools") |
Covered (V5) |
| A9 | Role-based progression / passive-income businesses | GTA Online CEO/MC; RDO Specialist Roles — Gamepressure (med) | V5 economy/factions implied | Partial → V7 (Nàná jobs/economy, §11) |
| A10 | Persistent player social graph (crews/guilds/posses) | GTA Crews / RDO Posses (high) | V5 has in-fiction factions + heist crews, not a player-org graph | V7 net-new (Hera, §13) |
| A11 | Server-authoritative anti-cheat foundation | industry default; cure for GTA P2P — anti-cheat history (med) | V5 anti-cheat EAC+ML+3-strike (V5/V5_features.md:2438) |
Covered → extend (§22) |
| A12 | Kernel-level anti-cheat | Riot Vanguard/EAC; BF6 — Wikipedia (high) | V5 EAC kernel driver (V5/V5_features.md:2445) |
Covered (V5) |
| A13 | Crossplay + cross-progression | ArmA Reforger 3-way; V5 9-platform — Host Havoc (med) | V5 crossplay (V5/V5_features.md:2464); V6 incarnation |
Covered → extend (§31) |
| A14 | Live shared synchronous events | Fortnite live events — GameBoost (med; specific concerts unverified) | V3 concerts (partial) | Partial → V7 (§26) |
| A15 | Cross-session persistence (economy/identity) | VRChat/Fortnite persistence (high) | V6 Ori persistence | Partial → V7 (Nephthys + Nàná) |
Part B — Modding tools & communities#
| # | SOTA capability | Exemplar + citation | Repo coverage | Disposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | Sandboxed safe scripting at scale | Luau (Roblox) / Verse (Epic) — UEFN/Verse, Verse Calculus (high) | Maya forge-sandbox 6-tier WASM unimplemented (DOMAINS/maya/features.md:916); V5 workshop data-only (:2315) |
Partial → V7 (Ixchel Sandbox, §9) |
| B2 | Composable layers vs. load order | Maya semantic conflict resolution (design) — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:909 |
designed, no code on disk (:885) |
Partial → V7 (Ixchel, §10) |
| B3 | SAT dependency resolution + lock file | Maya forge-resolver (PubGrub-variant, design) — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:903 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Ixchel, §10) |
| B4 | Cross-platform / console-authorized distribution | mod.io (Xbox/PS/Switch authorized; in-game browser) — mod.io console docs (vendor-reported) | V5 workshop is single-game, 9-platform, data-only (:2274) |
Partial → V7 (Abundantia, §17) |
| B5 | In-game mod browser + one-click cross-device install | mod.io (high/vendor) | V5 in-game + companion browser (data-only) (:2279) |
Partial → V7 (Abundantia, §17) |
| B6 | Collections / reproducible modlists | Nexus Collections + Vortex; Wabbajack — Modding.wiki (med) | none | V7 net-new (Ixchel + Abundantia, §17) |
| B7 | Malware scanning + incident response | Thunderstore ClamAV; fractureiser (Jun 6 2023) — BleepingComputer, CurseForge IR (high) | none (V5 workshop is data-only, so no executable-malware surface) | V7 net-new (Sekhmet, §20) |
| B8 | Content moderation / approve-before-publish | mod.io moderation dashboard (vendor) | V5 3-layer ML+report+human, DSA appeal (V5/V5_features.md:2288); Kuanyin domain |
Covered → extend (§23) |
| B9 | Profile isolation / non-destructive modding | Mod Organizer 2 VFS — Modding Skyrim (med) | none | V7 net-new — subsumed by composable layers (Ixchel, §10) |
| B10 | Load-order optimization / conflict patching | LOOT, xEdit, Nemesis/FNIS — Modding Skyrim (med) | none | V7 net-new — obviated by semantic conflict resolution (Ixchel, §10) |
| B11 | In-game / in-engine creation | Roblox Studio; Dreams; Fortnite Creative — Dreams (high) | Maya in-world builder/visual scripting planned (DOMAINS/maya/features.md:832); V5 creator suite (data) (:2229) |
Partial → V7 (Mawu Studio, §14) |
| B12 | Hot-reload / live iteration | s&box (Apr 2026); UEFN Verse — S&box (med) | Maya hot-reload planned (:899) |
Partial → V7 (Ixchel, §9) |
| B13 | Engagement-based creator payouts | Fortnite/UEFN 40% engagement pool, ~$900M cum. — Epic dev docs (high) | none (V5 has direct-sale paid mods only) | V7 net-new (Abundantia, §17) |
| B14 | Cash-out developer exchange | Roblox DevEx >$1.5B/yr; rate $0.0038/Robux — Roblox Newsroom (high) | Aje commerce substrate exists; no DevEx flow | Partial → V7 (Abundantia, §17) |
| B15 | Direct sale / paid-mod marketplace | Bethesda Creations; Steam — Techdirt (high) | V5 paid-mod marketplace, 70% share, KYC/tax (V5/V5_features.md:2306) |
Covered → extend (Abundantia, §17) |
| B16 | Dependency-revenue chains | Maya mod-economy (design) — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:956 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Abundantia, §17) |
| B17 | Git-like game forking | Maya Variants (design) — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:943 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Ixchel, §15) |
| B18 | World genomes / expression layers | Maya Loom (design) — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:968 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Ixchel, §15) |
| B19 | AI balance verification of mod combos | Maya Crucible (design) — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:962 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Ixchel, §15) |
| B20 | Multi-tier community governance | Maya Agora (design); Roblox/Epic creator programs — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:927 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Eunomia, §19) |
| B21 | Frictionless subscribe/auto-sync distribution | Steam Workshop — GamingOnLinux (med) | V5 workshop subscription/auto-update (:2284) |
Covered → extend (Abundantia, §17) |
| B22 | AI-assisted creation (text-to-3D/world/NPC) | Maya plan + Isis integration — DOMAINS/maya/features.md:852 |
designed, unimplemented | Partial → V7 (Mawu Studio, §14) |
Part C — GTA 6: confirmed vs. rumored, and the V7 signal#
Confirmed (official): Nov 19 2026 launch (PS5 / Xbox Series X|S); dual protagonists Jason Duval & Lucia Caminos; State of Leonida / Vice City; Take-Two expects record net bookings in the GTA VI launch window. Sources: Techweez, PCGamesN, Take-Two 8-K (SEC). Rockstar has published nothing on GTA 6's online design, anti-cheat, crossplay, UGC, or economy — all online specifics are inference.
The strategically critical rumor — "Project ROME" (Rockstar Online Modding Engine): a datamined (Mar 2025), unconfirmed first-party RP/modding platform tied to GTA VI, consistent with Rockstar's Aug 2023 acquisition of the FiveM/Cfx.re team to "expand UGC." Sources: VideoCardz, GamesRadar — FiveM devs expanding UGC at Rockstar (low–med credibility). Implication for V7: the AAA leader is rumored to be betting its next flagship on exactly the server-authoritative-RP + first-party- modding layer V7 specifies. This validates the direction — treat it as a directional signal, not a fact, and do not cite it as confirmed in product copy.
Other rumors (ambition benchmarks only, low–med credibility): 700+ enterable interiors, RDR2-class+ NPC AI with daily routines/memory, smarter wanted system; extreme weather reportedly cut. Sources: Dexerto, ScreenRant — at least one "gameplay leak" was an AI hoax. These inform V7's NPC/world-depth ambition (which leans on Maya's AI-NPC plan and V4/V6 agent work), not its commitments.
Part D — Disposition rollup#
- Covered (reuse as-is): A8 heists, A12 kernel anti-cheat, A11/A13 anti-cheat foundation & crossplay (extend), B8 moderation, B15 paid-mod marketplace, B21 subscribe/auto-sync (all V5).
- Partial → V7 productizes/extends: the entire Maya
forge-*family under Ixchel (B1–B3, B12, B16–B20, B22 — designed, no code), plus A3/A4/A7/A9/A14/A15, B4/B5/B11/B14 (wrong layer or data-only). - V7 net-new: A1 server-authoritative RP servers (Moremi), A2 RP framework (Nàná), A5 high-pop sync + A6 server meshing (Danu), A10 player social graph (Hera), B6 Collections, B7 executable-UGC malware scanning + incident response (Sekhmet), B9/B10 (obviated by composable layers), B13 engagement payouts (Abundantia).
Conclusion: these are not already adequately covered in V1–V6, and they do
not belong sprinkled across the authored-game versions. They form one coherent
product — V7: Mawu, the Open World & Creator Republic — that productizes the
unimplemented Maya forge-* family (under Ixchel), extends V5's online backbone
and V6's Ori identity, and fills the genuine net-new gaps. See
V7/V7_features.md for the spec and V7/V7_TODOS.md for the backlog.
Part E — Deep-dive SOTA addendum (2026-05-30)#
A second research pass closed the hard design problems the first pass
under-specified. These are now specified in V7/V7_ARCHITECTURE.md (technical)
and V7/V7_DEPENDENCIES.md (build order + external deps); product-level
coverage was added to V7/V7_features.md (Trust Boundary, Hosting & Who Pays,
Child Safety & Age Assurance, Economy Firewall & Anti-Fraud, Streaming & Creator
Loop).
| # | SOTA problem | Chosen mechanism (exemplar + citation) | Where specced |
|---|---|---|---|
| E1 | Malicious-server-operator trust | Hybrid: platform-owns identity/economy/safety/client-integrity, realm-owns sandboxed logic only. FiveM client-sandbox + UEFN-Verse no-FS/socket model; never-delegate list — FiveM Sandbox docs, Epic UEFN security | arch§"The Trust Boundary"; features§"The Trust Boundary"; §3 |
| E2 | Client integrity / anti-tamper | Platform-owned attested client (Roblox Hyperion/Byfron precedent) — Roblox Hyperion | arch§"Anti-Cheat and Client Integrity"; §22 |
| E3 | Server-fleet orchestration | Self-hosted Agones (avoid Unity-Multiplay/Hathora shutdown lock-in); Packed+buffer autoscaler; Spot-for-stateless / owned-for-persistent (GameLift FleetIQ pattern) — Agones, AWS FleetIQ | arch§"Hosting"; features§"Hosting"; §16 |
| E4 | CSAM detection | PhotoDNA/PDQ vs NCMEC + CSAI Match (video) + Thorn Safer (novel); render-3D-to-2D-then-hash — Tech Coalition, Thorn Safer | arch§"Sekhmet"; features§"Child Safety"; §21 |
| E5 | Grooming / voice / longitudinal | Project Artemis grooming classifier (free via Thorn) + direct-audio voice screening + Sentinel-class longitudinal + Lantern cross-platform — Microsoft Artemis, Lantern | arch§"Sekhmet"; §21 |
| E6 | Age assurance | Facial-age-estimation (PII-minimizing), age-banding, default cross-age restriction (UK OSA / EU DSA / US-state wave) — Roblox IR age checks | arch§"Sekhmet"; §21 |
| E7 | NCII | StopNCII hash ingestion + ≤48h takedown (TAKE IT DOWN Act) — StopNCII, TAKE IT DOWN Act | arch§"Sekhmet"; §21 |
| E8 | Payout fraud | Verified-spend eligibility + retention weighting + graph self-dealing/RMT detection (Roblox/UEFN) — Epic engagement payout, Roblox 8-K | arch§"Economy Firewall"; features§"Economy Firewall"; §18 |
| E9 | RP economy inflation/RMT | Built-in sinks + dynamic auto-balancer (Alter Aeon model) + currency firewall (non-cashable) — Gold sink, virtual-economy interventions (arXiv) | arch§"Economy Firewall"; §11, §18 |
| E10 | Authoritative netcode | Tick tiers (60 Hz combat / 10–30 Hz world); Gambetta prediction+reconcile; Valve interp (~3× send interval); Quake3 ack-relative delta (32-ring, 1400 B, Huffman); lag-comp RTT/2+interp — Gambetta, Gaffer snapshot interp, Quake3 net |
arch§"Netcode"; §4–§5 |
| E11 | Server meshing | Replication-layer decoupling + single-writer-per-entity + atomic 2-phase handoff + co-location (SpatialOS failure lesson) + TiDi overload valve (EVE) — SC Replication Layer, EVE/TiDi | arch§"Danu"; arch§"Nephthys"; §7–§8 |
| E12 | WASM sandbox | Wasmtime + Component-Model/WIT capabilities + fuel(deterministic)/epoch + NaN-canonicalization determinism + AOT-at-upload; Luau hardening lessons — Wasmtime determinism, Luau sandbox | arch§"The WASM Sandbox"; arch§"Determinism"; §4, §9 |
| E13 | Dependency + content store | PubGrub (pubgrub-rs) + lockfile + Nix-model content-addressing (hash of content+closure) — PubGrub, Nix |
arch§"Dependency Resolution"; §10 |
| E14 | Determinism (cross-cutting) | One deterministic sim core underpins rollback netcode + mesh replay-recovery + replayable plugins; golden-replay CI guard | arch§"Determinism"; §4, §30 |
Net effect on the disposition: none of E1–E14 were adequately covered in V1–V6; all are now V7-owned and specced across the four V7 docs. E1 (the trust boundary) and E4–E7 (child safety) are the two areas where a miss is existential/legal, not a feature gap — both are now platform-central, day-one, never-realm-delegated.
Caveats carried from the deep-dive: native 3D-mesh CSAM hashing is an open problem (render-to-2D is the verifiable path); the gambling/lootbox firewall conclusion needs jurisdiction-specific legal counsel; managed-orchestration vendors are volatile (self-host Agones); exact platform fraud algorithms (Roblox/Epic) are undisclosed beyond eligibility/retention gating; Overwatch's 220 ms rewind cutoff and CIG's exact 2PC handoff steps are inferred, not published.
Methodology & caveats#
- Web research conducted 2026-05-29 across two parallel SOTA sweeps (online-RP/ multiplayer + GTA 6; modding tools/communities), cross-corroborated against primary sources (Cfx.re docs, Star Citizen Wiki, Roblox/Epic dev docs, SEC filings) where load-bearing.
- Repo coverage verified by reading
V5/V5_features.md(§ "Online Services & Multiplayer Infrastructure", "Content & Creator Tools"),V6/V6_features.md(§ "The Ori", "Subsystem Glossary"), andDOMAINS/maya/features.md(§ "User- Generated Content and Creator Tools", "Modding and Governance Framework"). - Naming: V7 subsystem names (Mawu, Moremi, Danu, Nephthys, Pheme, Nàná,
Hera, Ixchel, Abundantia, Eunomia, Sekhmet) were each checked against the
existing
libs/,apps/, andDOMAINS/registries; the earlier-draft names Ìlú/Ọjà/Mnemosyne/Oya collided with existing domains (libs/mnemosyne,libs/oya) or the monorepo's feminine-deity convention and were replaced. - Vendor-reported / unverified flags: mod.io scale stats and UEFN cumulative- payout figures are vendor/secondary-reported; the Fortnite 40% engagement split and Roblox DevEx rate are independently confirmed. GTA 6 online/economy/anti- cheat/crossplay and "Project ROME" are rumor or absent, never confirmed.
- Phase numbers (76 Forge, 77 Multiplayer, 79 Open-world, 99 Creator-economy)
reference
OSHUN_VS_ROBLOX_GAP_ANALYSIS.md's roadmap; V7 consolidates them.