Note: Because the game is so very early in its production, much of this suggestion is based on assumption and speculation. Hopefully, if it's thoughtful and people generally think it a good idea, it can help influence your design decisions.

Let's look at two facts:

1) In this PVP-centric game, resources are probably the most valuable--if not one of the most valuable--rewards we, as players, can receive from capturing and holding territory.

2) Players love to notice themselves make a difference, either as an individual, as a small team, or as a faction. We crave this.

My main point is the typical MMO resource system is both rewarding, and it isn't at the same time. Games like Planetside 2 ultimately made me feel that their "resources" were fairly pointless. The fluctuation and shifts in territory happened so fast that I never ran out of resources to spawn vehicles, additional ammunition, or other combat related amenities. It was very one dimensional.

One simple solution to this is through simple visual feedback. Players should both be able to see how much they contribute to the overall resource score, how much of a given resource their faction holds, and how much is needed to reach a milestone or objective. This is the obvious part, but, unfortunately, it really isn't enough to make players feel they contributed something.

Going back to the example Planetside 2, an individual player couldn't capture and hold territory by themselves (most of the time). This, in turn, lead to a personal contribution to the overall "resource score" impossible as you had to be part of a larger unit. Additionally, seeing the resources was fairly unimportant since you couldn't do much with them either way.

How can we solve this?

I suggest breaking this up into a two-tiered system of resources: Critical and Discretionary, with each tier providing a different form of contribution and catering to a different play style.

Critical resources (tier 1) are those won through larger force conflicts that the upper-echelon of the factions direct (faction objectives): capturing territory, defending critical bases, destroying tyranid infestations, etc. Basically, the system you are designing now.

Discretionary resources (tier 2) are smaller, lower-value resources that can help contribute to the war effort in large enough quantities. These would likely take the form of nodes or items that individual players can pick up, pool, and turn in for some form of reward. The critical aspect of these resources are they are not always combat oriented. So, salvaging weapons after battle, retrieving gene seed, claiming (but not necessarily mining) mineral nodes, or other things of that nature.

Finally, why is this a good idea?

Far too many games introduce the concept of minerals and crafting but do little with them. This is especially true of many MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and City of Heroes. Now, crafting isn't really the 40k way, but you should be able to contribute to the war effort through secondary actions such as scavenging and salvaging scraps.

If you're feeling dangerous, you can also turn this into some sort of "boosting" system for base defenses, vehicle plating, player armor or cosmetic items, but I feel that is best left for the critical, tier 1 resources and things directly won from fighting your faction's battles.

In the end, these are the benefits you can get from it:

• It is a repeatable way for players to contribute to their factions war effort, the results of which they can actually quantify.

• It gives an alternative means of enjoying the game aside from PVP and PVE

• It adds depth to the resource system depending on how much you elaborate on it.

Well, back in WoW when people didnt just zerg Alterac Valley there was a resource gathering sort of element in the instance to where you could summon the big elementals or the mounted elites, etc. I mean, I guess it felt like you were contributing to something. Not saying if there is a resource element in eternal crusade it should be like that, but it's an example.

Well, yes and no. Alterac Valley was an instanced battleground where the amount that needed to be gathered by 20 people on each side was relatively low, especially after they reduced the overall time an AV instance took (it used to take a few days to a week of fighting to win AV before patch 1.5).
I think a better example of this, if you want to think of this in terms of World of Warcraft, is the Ahn'Qiraj World Event where the entire faction had to gather thousands of resources--bandages, ores, smelted bars, anti-venoms, etc.--over the course of a few weeks. This is the type of commitment I feel that could help give players more of a "support" role, and provide a repeatable, long-term goal with a substantial reward that any individual contribute toward.

Naturally, it will certainly take a large sum of a resource to reap any sort of benefit towards the front. Think in terms of hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of a given resource. Some people just prefer to grind, and this, I think, helps sate that craving as well as provides an alternate way to play the game.

And I know some people hate to grind, but that's why this would be a separate resource system sort of "beneath" the main one.

I love this idea, but I'd like to caution that campaigns are meant to only last a few weeks on their own. I like your tier system, and believe that reward system in place should also be tiered to scale with the feel of the campaign - as it is in AV. Using critical resources and only the NPC's of the whole faction advances a tier - players have their own advancement system which could be considered the second teir and I'll leave it at that.
When enough resources are gathered, NPC Guards are upgraded, fortresses become more fortified, outposts become small forts, ect. Perhaps NPC strike forces could be created to fight against the Tyranid threat to keep them at bay while the faction continues to press into enemy.

Thanks for the feedback. It really depends how long they intend to make faction objectives. If they're something like "Leaders have told you to take this target. 5 hour countdown starts now." then discretionary resources definitely wouldn't be tied in with faction objectives or campaigns.

As for scaling with the feel of the campaign, I'm not sure what you mean. AV had armor upgrades, damage upgrades, the flying units, and the special summons. Perhaps any sort of reward comes in the form of weapon or armor upgrades for the player. It doesn't really have to only affect bases and the environment.

This is the difficult part about it. Personally, I feel any discretionary resource should definitely have an impact, but I'm not sure about having automated strike forces. If anything, it would just reduce the "threat counter" (if you want to call it that), and spawn less tyranid in the area. The armor upgrades sound more feasible. Anything that just simply tweaks numbers a bit rather than having AI is probably within the scope of what the devs can hope to accomplish.