What you need
-Our faction storage needs to have the necessary buildings. If we're short on something, let us know so we can restock. Of course, donations of buildings are always appreciated, and of course, you'll recover their costs easily on a successful run.
-Crews for the transporters. Even 3 is enough to get some ore, but more is of course better.
-The transporters. Loggerheads are by far the best, but you need veteran or elite piloting to use them. The crappier transporters are simples, so you can drive them with level 1s.
-A 1000+ CE command unit, both to fight and to capture the base node
Getting a buildable node
(You can of course skip this section if we already have a node.)
You need a base, but Dom bases don't work like Hadeus ones. You build them on site, and to do that, you need a buildable node. Dominus is 9x9 quads (a quadrant is a 30x30 area.) The Dom quads are divided as follows:
-Border quads (anywhere you can see a red line from) do not have nodes at all.
-The other ring of quads has nodes, but they cannot be made buildable
-The inner 5x5 quads are all buildable nodes.
First, scout around for a good place to capture. While any of the 25 buildable nodes can work, being sandwiched between 2 enemy bases is not only a pain in the ass, but greatly increases the chances of getting steamrolled.
Once you find the node you want, clear its quadrant of all bandits, than stand on the node and issue the capture command followed by the make node buildable command. These can be issued on the same turn, but MUST be done by your commander, and he must be piloting a unit of at least 1000 CE (total, the base unit can be crap).
Building the base
(You can of course skip this section if we already have a base, but may want to read it anyway in case we need more processors.)
To drop a building, put your command unit where you want it, then issue the drop building command. The desired building must be in faction storage.
Recommended buildings:
1. Large ore processors - These are required to do the run, and each deposit takes 20 turns to process, so you'll want multiple. 5 in generally enough, but if you find that isn't cutting it, add as many as you need.
2. Command tower - This will get the ore in faster, and get your transporters out on the next run faster. It also gives you some extra maneuverability when fighting the inevitable bandit pulls that come in with the ore.
3. Heavy Thumper - Your focus is the ore rather than the bandits, but that also means you're not fighting them to the best of your ability. Use this to greatly weaken their ability to fight back.
4. Tracking Station - This ups the accuracy of both you and your turrets.
5. Guns - Don't overdo it, as you can't hold off a heavy player assault. 3 guardian lasers is plenty.
6. Power - You of course need enough power to run what you drop. Try not to flash fusion reactors next to anything else for obvious reasons.
Optional buildings:
1. Supply depot - If you're going to be there a while, you may want this to reload. If you're not (or you're using energy), then don't bother.
2. Grav gen - Slowing the bandits is a double-edged sword. It can help keep them off your transporters on the way in, but can leave them in the way on the way out. It can help keep you and the turrets from being overwhelmed, but when it's 1-2 bandits, it just plain wastes time. If you do drop one, I suggest turning it off, then activating it only when large pulls are coming in. Of course, if you want to drag base at the same time, you'll definitely want this.
3. Interdictor - If you're drag basing, it always helps to include one of these. If you're not, you're just giving enemy factions a large shiney reason to attack you... so don't.
4. Shield recharger - Self-explanatory, but rarely needed.
5. Dropship pad - This is great for deploying replacement transporters and probes, but it's one of the most expensive buildings in the game. Please don't deploy this until you actually need to call something with it.
If you don't drop with your transporters, you can drop directly to the node on your second trip. However, the node itself doesn't count, so put at least the first building of the base down... or if you're going to be away for a while, just slap down a flag.
Gathering the ore
Every now and then, the special ore will land on Dom. The newsbot will announce it in chat. This only happens once every couple of hours, but a LOT of deposits get dropped. To capture a deposit, move a transporter unit (I recommend loggerheads, but any ore transporter can work). Issue the capture command, then drag the ore to an inactive processor. The processor will nom the ore. Once the deposit disappears from the unit, you can immediately send the transporter out for more. Note that unlike with beacons, you do NOT have to sit on a deposit for a turn to cap, and holding one applies only a slight reduction to move speed, not a cap of 4. You can easily have these things flying across the map at 10+.
Packing up
If you're done gathering and no one else wants to use the base, UD it. To remove a building, stand on it and issue the UD command. I recommend leaving 1 flag down so others can attempt to use the node in the future. Dom is not Hadeus - AFK bases absolutely WILL be destroyed, it's only a question of when.
