Can someone please explain to me how the conquest mode and getting new parts works? I must admit I'm really confused, thanks a bunch

Not sure about conquest, but what about getting new parts is confusing you? You buy them at the shop them arrange them in your garage. If you don't see the parts you're buying, hit L2 in that category and it'll stop hiding parts the game thinks aren't optimal matches. Hope this helps!

You unlock parts by getting your team level up, or by collecting scrap in story missions.

I will steal the explanation for the conquest mode from somebody on another forum

Basically, if you don't own territory you can launch attack missions, and if you do own territory you can launch defense missions. Choosing to launch a defense mission is the equivalent of putting yourself in a queue for playing a team-based multiplayer match - the next team to attack your territory will be the opponent.

If there's no defense when you launch an attack mission, you fight a battle against some AI redshirts just so you have something to shoot while the territory owners are out to lunch. If you win enough attack missions you can take over the territory, which can happen while the other players are gone if they keep not defending. If there's no attack when you launch a defense mission, you and your buddies sit in the multiplayer lobby making awkward small talk until something happens. Winning a defense mission reverses the gains made by the attacks.

So if you want to play multiplayer a lot, you need to control territory. Simply playing multiplayer a lot will make that happen, because either the defending players show up and there's a game, or they don't and you eventually get to conquer the territory. Once you own territory, you now have your own personal multiplayer queue that sets up matches between you and anyone who launched an attack mission, and the more territory you control, the more fights you get into, because there's more incoming attacks.

In other words, the territory control is the game's automatic matchmaking system and the number of sites you control is your team's rank on the multiplayer ladder. More wins means more people gunning for you, and hence both higher difficulty and more activity. That's my takeaway.]

@jozzy: Are the items unlocked from scrap separate from the items unlocked from team level? ie. Do I have to pick up scrap?

EDIT: NM, based on the vague answers I've found searching various forums I'm going to assume, "Yes."

From what I understand, the base 500 or so items are unlocked from team level, then a few (ultimate) ones are done through story, and the rest are via scrap

Apparently people have figured out how matchmaking works. From Gamefaqs of all places:

Alright, I'm going to regreat breaking this news - but really someone has to. What has been something of a secret among certain high ranking teams is how the online function works, and how battle for Team Points is supposed to play out.

Currently, Namco Bandai America is still trying to get information about how this system works from the developer. That's right people, they don't even know. But they know a few things, just enough to actually be information to someone who contacts the support staff. In a conversation with support, I've picked out a few things which confirmed my thoeries of how Invasion/Stronghold works.

Now for starters, there is a difference between Invasion/Stronghold and Domination/Stronghold.

Invasion/Stronghold

Accessed through Start Mission -- Selecting the Gold Icon with the turret. Offers various missions types of numerous difficulties. Earns you Team Points & Bonus Team points for completing unnamed-objectives. Weakens a random enemy team's territory of approximate level to your team, making it drop towards 0. Can be used to prevent teams from earning Team Points altogether and help prevent the territory falling to 0.
Domination/Stronghold

The orange Conquest Battle on the menu.Allows a team to set off on a territory-grab from another team. They will target the team with the lowest AP and must be of the same approximate team level. Often times these are AI teams ran by Men of Honor.Spends Team Points in a bet to take over new ground. Can be used to regain a territory's lost AP and put it into protected status.
Invasions

Many of these modes are ment for very small, swift Strike Teams. Large 5 man deployments are NOT recommended for basic Invasion. While they are fun to work with your team, if you are taking 5 men out and hiring Mercs, YOU ARE DOING THIS WRONG !!!!

Invasions are mainly SOLO affairs. That's right, SOLO. How this game is SUPPOSED to work, is that your team of 5 players is SUPPOSED to break up, each person do a strike on the enemy territory via Invasion. All 5 players move fast, strike hard, and get the job done without taking damage. They complete the unnamed objectives and new 20k in team points PER PERSON. This will earn you 100k in roughly 5 minutes.

Then your team does it a second time, further weakening the Territory down in rating. By now, your team has attacked 10 times and earned 200k in roughly 15 minutes.

Ensured that the territory is weak, the team will then do a Conquest Mission on the same target territory. This will ensure they'll strike the same place they've been hitting for the past 20 minutes. All 5 members join up for this, and all work together, using the experience they've gathered by learning the territories defenses.

This is the how the game is supposed to work.

All teams should be doing as many solo-Invasion missions as possible. This is what makes Stronghold viable. As long as all teams are greedily trying to gather points, more players can Stronghold and get into real active, random battles against 1 or 2 enemy ACs!

Then a team can get in a little tug of war, noticing that they are being struck a lot by one team. Either that team can change to a different regioin, or persist in trying to take that territory away! Keeping track of your Territory via the Territory Cust. screen whill tell you when to defend. If you seen your numbers falling rapidly, you should be deploying A LOT of people into a basic Start Mission Stronghold to repell any would-be attackers.

With so many teams, people should be constantly fighting little solo-man duels in Invasion/Stronghold with random people all the time. Right now, no one is doing this because they don't know they can!!

Huh. I guess I missed it when I glanced at GameFAQs while we were playing the other day. But this seems like a good plan. I'll be on later attacking territories, and then I guess if everyone comes on we'll try again to take something.
 
Also, where is the Territory Custody screen? Also it would be cool to learn that there's a screen that has general activity in the world map.

So this means the game is very much anti-Single Player?

@White said:

So this means the game is very much anti-Single Player?

Yes and no. There are 9 story missions and over 80 little side missions that you can do solo (or co-op) in this game. I really enjoyed them, but quite a few people seem to think that the solo stuff is boring and repetitive.