I completed the initial unit testing and bootstrapping of the TOCS User database.  My account, and Paul’s, are up and active.

Among the various usual suspects in such a database, I added a roles field.  This field will define certain roles within the TOCS system.

By default, this field will be 0 for all users who only wish to play the occasional game.  One bit of this field, defines the “founders”.  That would be Paul and me.  After that, the system defines three levels of activity within three realms: playtesters, developers and the Iron Brigade.  The playtesters and developers roles are pretty easy to understand.  However, we define three levels to help us to determine how good a person is in that role.  Super helpful playtesting, or high quality module development will get you to Level 3 in those realms.

The Iron Brigade will consist of our power users and/or early adopters.  Being a playtester and/or developer will probably get you into the Iron Brigade, but it’s not automatic.  The number of users in the Iron Brigade will consist of a fixed amount of people, either a flat number or some percentage of existing users.  Being a member of the Iron Brigade will get you benefits, such as discounts toward module purchases and/or server usage discounts.  (The pricing model has yet to be determined.)  Either way, use the system, and/or add to its quality and content, and enjoy benefits in return.