Long answer:

I don't know if there's a written explanation anywhere Wiggim, but a simple if not exact way to look at it is that you get (or lose) points based on your number of spots in comparison to the other players, turn by turn.

General rules:

--More spots generally equals more dom points.

--The longer you have more spots than players below you the more dom points you generally get.

--The above is why a person that finishes first owning 75% of the map will get more points than someone who comes in first owning 33% of the map.

--The above is also why a person who finishes fourth but attacked a lot and had or has a lot of territories may very well finish with more points than the person with a couple spots who sat never attacking but got third.

--The longer you sit doing nothing the more dom you are likely to lose; the more you expand the more dom you are likely to get.

Short answer:

Step one:
Kick more ass than you allow your own ass to be kicked.

Step two:
Repeat step one until you dominate.

Well thanks for the explanation. I got the gist of how dominance works. The thing is, I'm a geek, I like to know the exact details of how stuff works, so I can be sure I'm making the right minor decisions.

1.
When does dom move / not move? I have heard some say round 20, but I've also seen it not moving before that.

2.
Is there a way to know what (if any) way your dom is moving, other than mouse-overing your avatar. Maybe from the bar thing to the left.

3.
When exactly does dom change. I tried flagging out in round 2, but already got -94 dom. Could this be avoided? Would it have been much worse if I had continued sitting?

Skrum, a little help?

try search the forum on google aboutthat. ryan laid it out pretty detailed when he first introduced dom.

Wiggin, try to hold out until round 3 if it's clear you won't get any better than 6th or 7th. It's best to flag out fast if you have a "good 7th" than to wait and get a "bad 5th or 6th".

By good 7th, I mean if you see that you are 7th, and you have a score of -265 on a 500 table, that is a good 7th. If you wait to flag to try and survive, you could end up getting 6th or 5th, but your dom could drop low enough to where you'll get less than -265.

If you have a good start, and early on it's pretty clear that you will get a win, don't demand flags too fast. Rounds 8 & 9 is when the real dom starts to kick in and you'll see your score go up very quickly during this time.

Using your dom to minimize your losses and maximize your wins is one of the best ways earn points.

i do belive the original model was changed, because it was possible to transfer all a players points to another one in 1 game (= cheating). since then the calculation-method have changed many times over. and ryan have not explained the formula of it.

the original formula was that all players put # pts in the pot each turn. then the 1st place get 6 parts 2nd player gets 5 parts etc.

I searched for it in Google, and I found numerous threads with questions about how exactly it works, but no answers.

I found a thread with an explanation for dom for the the ELO system. Not relevant anymore.

I also found the following claims:
(from the blog): dominance scoring increases in value as the game goes on (but still caps off to avoid farming)
-> This is also what Thraxle said
(from a post): Ryan calculates them in real time, using an abacus.

In trying to reverse engineer how the dom is calculated, I have this idea:
If your position bar is longer than your dom bar, and dom is not locked, you gain dom. If it is shorter, and dom is not locked, you lose dom. Is this a correct assumption?

I don't know if the two bars have any relation to each other.

damn ryan just give us the code

we wanna exploit it