IIRC, you can earn resources in two ways:
1) Simply by being on a continent, you get some of each resource depending on what your faction currently controls. IIRC, this is uniform for all players in your faction.
2) Completing missions gives bonuses. Capture a base: Bonus!
2.1) You might earn resources for simply attempting to complete a mission. Simply by being present and fighting, you earn some bonus over the flat rate everyone else in your faction earns by being on that continent.
3) There's been some talk of "Points of Interest" where for example a transport may have crashed and dumped some resources that players can pick up (and fight over). I haven't heard anything on that front recently, and there wasn't anything related in all that recent E3 gameplay footage. (which was the sexy)
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