How to dominate planets/moons/stations? How do I know if I have dominated it?

Solution 1:

First of all, make sure the planet/moon/station you are going to dominate is inhabited. Otherwise you can't dominate it because no one is going to pay you. Also make sure to have a high enough combat rating so that the planet/moon/station thinks you are serious (I recommend atleast CR 7).

Now to dominate, press n and destroy any ship you find (or atleast any hostile ship, if it is a pirate planet). If there are no more ships left, select (by landing) and hail the planet (shift+T). Demand tribute. They will send out their defensive fleet. Destroy all of them, and after that, hail the planet again and demand tribute. They will surrender and offer you tribute every day to leave them alone. Now you dominated them. You can land on the planet anytime (regardless if they are hostile or not, and now they are hostile to you). To confirm you have successfully dominated it, the system with the dominated planet will show up in your map as green (unless if the system has more than one planet/moon/station and you haven't dominated all) and the planet info in the left side will also show up as dominated instead of friendly/hostile/restricted.

Note that you can't dominate the Quarg and Hai worlds. They will never see you seriously, regardless of how high your combat rating is.