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=== Trivia === | === Trivia === | ||
If comparing the Union Space Corps' number of ranked members to other clans like Khorne Empire and Knights of Valor, it would have the largest verified population of all time.<ref>[[Polarlab's Clan Census]]</ref> | If comparing the Union Space Corps' number of ranked members to other clans like Khorne Empire and Knights of Valor, it would have the largest verified population of all time.<ref>[[Polarlab's Clan Census]]</ref> | ||
[[Category:Union Branches]] | |||
Revision as of 15:00, 6 August 2022
The Union Space Corps is a branch of the LittleBigPlanet Union Ministry of Technology with the mission of beta testing and operating the Union's Project Lighthouse custom LittleBigPlanet server. It is the largest division of the LBP Union with hundreds of members.
History
The idea behind the Union Space Corps was first conceived by former Minister of Foreign Affairs CCSocalGamer in several now-inaccessible NationStates factbooks sometime around or before 2017. The concept behind the USC was that it would serve as the Union's military arm in outer space. However, the idea has since been repurposed to focus on the Union's custom LittleBigPlanet server.
Origin
The idea behind the Union Space Corps was conceived in October 2021 shortly after the creation of the Project Lighthouse repository on GitHub.[1] In a private Discord server on October 30th, Union Lead Protector M88youngling consulted CCSocalGamer, Apollo, and Rae Axelle about bringing back the Union Space Corps to beta test the custom LittleBigPlanet server being built by the Research and Development team.
Apollo gave several ideas for the program's structure, including that the leaders of the program should be named 'Starblazers'.
Deadlines Introduced
On May 1st, the Union Space Corps introduced deadlines for cadets to connect. This was in response to a realization that many cadets never moved forward with connecting to the server and were simply lurking on Discord. This later would take the form of three rotating cadet groups: Mobius, Mage, and Aurora. All three were based on Ace Combat, with Mobius being from Ace Combat 4, Mage from Ace Combat 7, and Aurora from Ace Combat 3.
Operation Purge
On March 20th, the Union Space Corps began plans for Operation Purge. This operation, scheduled for April 1st, tasked the USC with attempting to disrupt the beta testing instance of Lighthouse as much as possible to simulate an attack by hackers. Following the operation, the server was restored with a backup to roll back the damage.
Firmware 4.89
On May 10th, Sony released firmware update version 4.89 for the PlayStation 3.[2] This resulted in difficulties for Union Space Corps explorers in connecting to PlayStation Network. To connect, they would need to update their console to the latest firmware version. However, if they do this, the Hybrid Firmware they have installed that makes playing a modified copy of LBP possible becomes inaccessible. This made it necessary for most USC members to wait until a new HFW or CFW firmware version was released.[3] An alternative to waiting was to spoof one's software version when connecting to PSN. However, this was met with a bit of controversy due. Some on the USC considered spoofing to have a higher risk of getting banned by PlayStation Network.
On May 20th, Lead Developer Jvyden announced to the USC that new HFW and CFW had been released, enabling the USC to update and continue playing custom LittleBigPlanet servers.
Star Commander
On July 26th, Minister of Technology ShadowLeviathan appointed Starblazer Turecross321 to the position of USC Star Commander.
Structure
The Union Space Corps is organized similarly to other teams within the current LBP Union, having a hierarchal three rank system. However, the scale of this branch is far greater than in other areas of the Union.
Ranks
Members of the Union Space Corps are organized into the following ranks,
- Star Commander: chief of the beta testing program. Takes responsibility for cadet enrollment, promoting new Starblazers, and making decisions that dictate the direction of the USC. Advises the Minister of Technology and coordinates with Research and Development leadership.
- Starblazer: assistant leaders of the Union Space Corps. They are responsible for onboarding enlistees as cadets, promoting members, and organizing efforts to help get cadets connected to Lighthouse.
- Surveyor: scouts may be promoted to this rank if they are observed to be exceptionally helpful at advising cadets on how to setup and connect to Lighthouse.
- Scout: the base rank of the Union Space Corps, these are beta testers who have successfully connected to Lighthouse and are able to play and create on the instance. They are encouraged to help cadets get connected as well.
- Cadet: these are USC beta testers in training who have not yet connected to Lighthouse.
- Enlistee: these are Union Citizens who have volunteered for the Union Space Corps but have not yet been selected for beta testing.
Enlistment
The Union's instance of Lighthouse is not ready to accept public account creation just yet, so the only way to onboard beta testers is to manually create their accounts and add roles to them individually on the Union's Discord server. This is a tedious process that is difficult to do in large numbers. On March 1st, 2022, the Union Space Corps began accepting enlistment from citizens from the LBP Union Discord. Members with the citizen role could volunteer to join the beta testing effort by clicking on a reaction on Discord in the #settings channel. Every week of March the USC has been taking ten randomly selected enlistees from the waitlist. These selected enlistees become USC Cadets.
Ground School
Before becoming full USC Scouts, cadets must learn how to set up their system to connect to Lighthouse through a system called Ground School. This may be either through real PlayStation 3 or PlayStation Vita hardware or they may use an emulator like RPCS3. An instance admin such as an LBP Union Protector or R&D Lead Developer must create the accounts of the new cadets via the Lighthouse admin panel. They distribute the temporary passwords to the cadets as well so that they can sign in and set their own password.
Once a cadet has successfully connected to Lighthouse, they must inform a Starblazer on Discord so that they can receive the roles that they need to report bugs and join other discussions about beta testing.
Trivia
If comparing the Union Space Corps' number of ranked members to other clans like Khorne Empire and Knights of Valor, it would have the largest verified population of all time.[4]