Billing & subscriptions

Tier caps

Members = total community members of any role. A civilian, an officer, an admin all count as one. Multiple Roblox characters per user do not multiply this — one user = one member.

CAD seats = members with any non-civilian role (officer, dispatcher, admin, moderator, owner). Cap is enforced at the role-change moment.

One ER:LC server per community. Each AwareCAD community is a self-contained subscription. If you run more than one ER:LC private server, each needs its own AwareCAD community, and each community pays its own tier. You can't bypass tier caps by spinning up extra free communities pointed at the same server — we enforce server uniqueness at the database level (one ER:LC server key may be linked to one enabled community at a time).

During closed beta

Stripe is wired but gated. Billing flips on once AwareCAD's legal entity (Meridian Operations LLC) finishes formation and business banking is active. Until then, every community runs on Recruit (free) tier with caps relaxed for beta testers as needed.

When billing opens, you'll see "Subscribe to Patrol / Command / Headquarters" buttons on admin/community-settings. Checkout is via Stripe; we use Stripe Managed Payments so sales tax / VAT is computed and remitted automatically.

Switching tiers

Once billing is active, switching uses Stripe's Customer Portal — you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel from one place. Downgrading below your current member count keeps existing members but blocks new invites until you trim or re-upgrade.

One subscription per community

The subscription tier follows the community, not the user. You can own as many AwareCAD communities as you want — one per ER:LC server you run — and each carries its own subscription, its own member caps, and its own billing cycle. Being a member (admin / officer / civilian) in someone else's community gives you the same access their tier provides over there; it doesn't extend to anything you own.

So a community owner running three ER:LC servers maintains three AwareCAD communities + three subscriptions. The model keeps each server's caps + billing fairly priced against the people actually using it; one Headquarters subscription doesn't get to promote three different servers worth of operators.