Power scaling and how to properly show it.

[NotaNuffian]

The title is a question rather than an affirmation. If you expect me to give you an answer, oops.

I like the analogy given by one of the CN authors about the power scaling; this happens when he got ousted by the readers for being a lying cock by having his MC facing more and more powerful folks when in the earlier chapters, he stated that the amount of powerful folks is inversely proportional to the power level. And true to his words, when MC is still a wee bit piece of shit, the amount of powerful (ie mountain smashing) freaks are within a single digit. But once MC reaches that level, suddnely there are no more than twenty floating around and most of them try to sodomize him.

So the author gave this analogy; when you are unemployed, all you see is fellow poor people and occasionally there are a couple of working classes that walk pass you. Once you are a working class, you can see a bunch of CEOs with millions in their pockets attending parties. Then when you become a millionare, suddenly you will be joining the group of elites and find those with similar income. It is called growth, when you are a nobody, your view is limited and think that a hill is a mountain. Only when you climb up a higher height will you see more things and notice more, your clique will change accordingly as well.

Indeed, as your power level grows, you will notice more powerful folks just like how they will notice a growing stock like yourself. Likewise, the difficulty from the opposition will crank up as well, from facing a normal threat of getting bullied by the son of the village guard to having to kill god.

Which makes me a bit head scratching as some reference is lost of me to see how much the MC has grown. I have seen MCs snuff stars out with a sigh, those that caused Ritcher 10 with but a step and reaps the countless lives with just a swipe of their hand. I get that they are powerful, but once you cross a threshold, the numbers start to get weird and the feats become unimaginable.

Which is why I actually propose to let the MCs do mundane shit with crazy efficiency. Is it boring? Yes, but at least it gives me a solid understanding. You can tell me that MC's punch causes twisters all you want, but if I am making the "hmm" face, then I am not registering anything.

MC going against a powerful foe? How powerful is it really? Because CN works always just go with the motion and not get a guide to scale with the thing, I am constantly confused. So how powerful is a Foundation class? So MC can kill a Golden Ball class when he is just a Foundation? So? What? A Foundation class can powderize a human head? Ok at least that makes some sense. A head of a Golden Ball is much tougher than the normal head? How tough?

 

[SilvCrimBlac]

The title is a question rather than an affirmation. If you expect me to give you an answer, oops.

I like the analogy given by one of the CN authors about the power scaling; this happens when he got ousted by the readers for being a lying cock by having his MC facing more and more powerful folks when in the earlier chapters, he stated that the amount of powerful folks is inversely proportional to the power level. And true to his words, when MC is still a wee bit piece of shit, the amount of powerful (ie mountain smashing) freaks are within a single digit. But once MC reaches that level, suddnely there are no more than twenty floating around and most of them try to sodomize him.

So the author gave this analogy; when you are unemployed, all you see is fellow poor people and occasionally there are a couple of working classes that walk pass you. Once you are a working class, you can see a bunch of CEOs with millions in their pockets attending parties. Then when you become a millionare, suddenly you will be joining the group of elites and find those with similar income. It is called growth, when you are a nobody, your view is limited and think that a hill is a mountain. Only when you climb up a higher height will you see more things and notice more, your clique will change accordingly as well.

Indeed, as your power level grows, you will notice more powerful folks just like how they will notice a growing stock like yourself. Likewise, the difficulty from the opposition will crank up as well, from facing a normal threat of getting bullied by the son of the village guard to having to kill god.

Which makes me a bit head scratching as some reference is lost of me to see how much the MC has grown. I have seen MCs snuff stars out with a sigh, those that caused Ritcher 10 with but a step and reaps the countless lives with just a swipe of their hand. I get that they are powerful, but once you cross a threshold, the numbers start to get weird and the feats become unimaginable.

Which is why I actually propose to let the MCs do mundane shit with crazy efficiency. Is it boring? Yes, but at least it gives me a solid understanding. You can tell me that MC's punch causes twisters all you want, but if I am making the "hmm" face, then I am not registering anything.

MC going against a powerful foe? How powerful is it really? Because CN works always just go with the motion and not get a guide to scale with the thing, I am constantly confused. So how powerful is a Foundation class? So MC can kill a Golden Ball class when he is just a Foundation? So? What? A Foundation class can powderize a human head? Ok at least that makes some sense. A head of a Golden Ball is much tougher than the normal head? How tough?

Smh. Nobody has time for that. Allow me to brag about this Super-Mega-Ultra Black Viper Pill that will increase my cultivation efficiency by 1000x while I go and use my Secret Dark Dragon Special Blade swordsmanship style to defeat the Silver Star God-King without breaking a sweat and then wipe out the rest of his sect and then wank off to all of the widowed jade beauties that I'm going to add to my harem later.

 

[LostLibrarian]

A lot of CN-novels are fast food novels without deeper thought. Hence, there is no real reason for stuff other than "we have to repeat the same arc with more powerful enemies". There are novels who can display actual strength levels through good fighting scenes, but honestly, most of them are just there to turn off the brain and enjoy.

Many novels often succeed in painting beautiful pictures of a single scene or action, but those are rarely connected by a clear progression or a logical sense of achievement. "You think you are strong? No. You are the weakest again, just a level higher". On top of that, a lot of the novels I've read have problems with numbers describing actions. Hundred, thousand, million, and billion are often just switched around and they jump ten thousand feet in one battle, but need three weeks to travel a hundred miles afterwards...

I mean, this is one of the reasons that LitRPG/System-novels have found such a big following. The strength can be displayed through clear numbers and damage values and there'll always be a sense of "the number got bigger, so everything is fine".


In short, it's often a problem with how much the author pre-build the world and the power system of the novel. And a lot of the stories are written in the moment without long planning, hence they have to retcon a lot of stuff through "actual, there is a level above the strongest level.", "Oh my, reaching innate level is just the beginning", "Let's go to the heaven plane and become cannon fodder once more"...

 

[Zirrboy]

Cultivation level is vague for two reasons.

One is that the author needs room to plotbend things to their liking.

The other is that pure cultivation, according to my own reading experience, is like character level in an MMORPG
You say "Yeah, my main is level 47" to compare strengths, but without any equipment, the character is still going to lose against a decently geared lvl 30.
In cultivation novels that is mirrored by what kind of powers you practice and how deeply you understand them, as well as actual gear of course.

In the end, that's bs, too, since nobody but the MC can leap more than half a level, but that's more or less it.

 

[CheertheDead]

Cultivation level is vague for two reasons.

One is that the author needs room to plotbend things to their liking.

The other is that pure cultivation, according to my own reading experience, is like character level in an MMORPG
You say "Yeah, my main is level 47" to compare strengths, but without any equipment, the character is still going to lose against a decently geared lvl 30.
In cultivation novels that is mirrored by what kind of powers you practice and how deeply you understand them, as well as actual gear of course.

In the end, that's bs, too, since nobody but the MC can leap more than half a level, but that's more or less it.

For me, it's really hard to justify mc being stronger than cultivator of higher level. It's sure is convenient to just slap a "mc invented this way of using power more efficient" shit on everything but it feels so ass-pull. Even if I say Mc is more connected to some power and techniques, it would become this technique is far more superior than other technique without being able to show why and how this technique is far more superior except saying "they deal more damage, take less time to use blah blah blah" which feels cheap as fuck.

 

[Zirrboy]

For me, it's really hard to justify mc being stronger than cultivator of higher level. It's sure is convenient to just slap a "mc invented this way of using power more efficient" shit on everything but it feels so ass-pull. Even if I say Mc is more connected to some power and techniques, it would become this technique is far more superior than other technique without being able to show why and how this technique is far more superior except saying "they deal more damage, take less time to use blah blah blah" which feels cheap as fuck.

I have no idea what you would see as justified reasons, so I'm going to ignore this part. And in the end, whether you buy something depends on whether you want to buy it, even if I were to somehow argue you down.

On the more general question "should you make cultivation stages/realms less important if they're useless in doubt either way" I'm inclined to agree .

 

[BenJepheneT]

At this point, cultivation power scaling just depends on how many nouns and adverbs you can cram into a title without it falling through grammar hell. The pills follow this philosophy too. There's only a limited amount of hues in the world; use them wisely.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

You see junior, there's a hidden cultivation level that Xianxia authors do not tell you about.

It's called the MC realm, which is the true pinnacle of cultivation!

It has multiple profound abilities such as heaven-defying armour, the godly peerless jade beauty attracting sword(WARNING: may include old men), access to the fuck your power system fist technique and the myriad profound profound drug lord art.

Also it's the only cultivation level that matters.

 

[CheertheDead]

I have no idea what you would see as justified reasons, so I'm going to ignore this part. And in the end, whether you buy something depends on whether you want to buy it, even if I were to somehow argue you down.

On the more general question "should you make cultivation stages/realms less important if they're useless in doubt either way" I'm inclined to agree .

I just want to give the readers something they could believe on. If I couldn't believe on what I wrote, how could I make them believe. :'(

 

[SerikoLee]

It depends on the world system someone is making like does it work like the real world or does it work like rank A to SSS class or something else.
But the rest is up to the author to set the rules of combat and how successful each combatant will be.