Need a tip regarding a plot point in my new story

[MrPopocap]

So, I'm in the middle of brainstorming the details of my new fanfic, and there's only one more little detail that I need a few tips.

My MC is stuck in a time loop, every 32 years or so he turns back to when he was just born. The thing is, I don't know how many loops is enough for him to be OP enough to face the challenges of the story and, at the same time, not so OP that it's too easy for him.

I'm in between 50 ( I think this one makes more 'sense') and 100 loops. I fear that if I do 100 loops, he would be too OP in terms of knowledge ( even though with 50 loops, or 1500 years, he already is OP enough) and experience. I think the 100 loops are too OP,so much so that I'm afraid there won't be any challenges for him in the course of the fanfic.

So, 50 loops or 100 is better? Maybe even less? My opinion is already kinda formed, but I do want to hear your thoughts on the matter.

( For those interested, the fanfic is based on the Mass Effect universe)

 

[ParticleOfSand]

I say 10 loops. It leaves enough room for unknowns, but also gives him a lot of experience. Anything more than that becomes kind of unrealistic since he would already know everything.

 

[MrPopocap]

I say 10 loops. It leaves enough room for unknowns, but also gives him a lot of experience. Anything more than that becomes kind of unrealistic since he would already know everything.

Hmmmm, that is true. Sigh, this is the problem of wanting to make an OP MC with time shenanigans, it too complicated. I might reduce the time loops, but will still try to make him OP enough.

Thanks for the help!

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I say 10 loops. It leaves enough room for unknowns, but also gives him a lot of experience. Anything more than that becom

I'd make it 9 or 11 because an even number sounds too contrived.

 

[RepresentingPride]

So, I'm in the middle of brainstorming the details of my new fanfic, and there's only one more little detail that I need a few tips.

My MC is stuck in a time loop, every 32 years or so he turns back to when he was just born. The thing is, I don't know how many loops is enough for him to be OP enough to face the challenges of the story and, at the same time, not so OP that it's too easy for him.

I'm in between 50 ( I think this one makes more 'sense') and 100 loops. I fear that if I do 100 loops, he would be too OP in terms of knowledge ( even though with 50 loops, or 1500 years, he already is OP enough) and experience. I think the 100 loops are too OP,so much so that I'm afraid there won't be any challenges for him in the course of the fanfic.

So, 50 loops or 100 is better? Maybe even less? My opinion is already kinda formed, but I do want to hear your thoughts on the matter.

( For those interested, the fanfic is based on the Mass Effect universe)

It depend what you want to do and how your characters can grow stronger. Having more loops can make him/her know how to practice perfectly to become strong in the more efficient way, but in other way, depending on what you want your mc to do, more loop can be necessary.

For exemple depending of the scales of your world, your mc can try multiple thing to achieve his/her goal, but in every loop he/she change a small detail who, eventually change a lot in the future. If he/she had to have enough information and control over people with the loops, then you need to add more than 100, cause even with 1 000 loops, it would be not sufficent to know each path the story will take with each small detail he/she would take/remove.

 

[Jemini]

If you want to look to the most famous time-loop story in all of webnovels for an example (Mother of Learning), that series had a 1 month time-loop, and the total accumulated waking time (I.E. not counting the loops where they were in a soul-damage induced coma that carried over from one loop to another until their souls healed,) then they had a total of 10 years worth of loop time during which they became pretty solidly powerful.

If we're dealing with a 32 year time-loop, I'd actually say 2 loops is plenty (counting the original run through his life as loop 0, so you could call it 3 loops depending on your definition.) The 1st loop is to get accustomed to the rules of the situation and how their actions alter the course of events and create new futures, and then the 2nd loop to actually get things right.

EDIT: A good way to look at this is that, since you are basing this in the Mass Effect universe which is a sci-fi non-magical setting, you can very simply just ask yourself how well equipped you would be IRL to deal with the problems of this world if you were in a time-loop.

2 is exactly how many loops it would take me. 1st loop I'd start paying more attention to the stock market and find a way to get an account as young as possible, 2nd loop I'd leverage the knowledge I gained in the 1st to earn enough money to start influencing culture and politics in a way that would counter most of the issues I'm seeing. I probably wouldn't be very successful during this 2nd loop since social psychology is messy business and what I think is the best solution is most likely not the actual best solution, but the criteria here is to make it so your character is not TOO over powered.

I'd be able to come up with the spot-on perfect unerring solution to all of the world's problems by the time I'd gone through 50 loops, so that means 50 loops is definitely way too much. By 25 loops, I'd also be pretty darn OP. In fact, I'd probably already be pretty close to an absolute perfect solution by that point with the only thing being to iron out a few minor flaws, so even that is way too much.

 

[Corty]

6:

By a wonderful conjunction of mathematical coincidences, 6 is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 × 2 × 3) of the first three numbers. It is, therefore, considered “perfect.” In mathematics, a perfect number is one that equals the sum of its divisors (excluding itself), and 6 is the first perfect number in this sense because its divisors are 1, 2, and 3. The next perfect number is 28. No odd perfect numbers are known, but it has not been proved that none exists. The perfection of 6 shows up in the six days of Creation in Genesis, with God resting on the seventh day. The structure of the Creation parallels the sum 1 + 2 + 3: on day 1 light is created; on days 2 and 3 heaven and earth appear; finally, on days 4, 5, and 6 all living creatures are created.

or

10:

10 was the Pythagorean symbol of perfection or completeness. Humans have ten fingers and ten toes. Counting on fingers probably led to the decimal number system, with its symbols 0–9 and its place values, whereby the 7 in 703 counts as 7 hundreds, but in 173, it is 7 tens, and in 507, it is 7 units. We consider powers of 10, such as 100 or 1,000, to be “round numbers.”

Occurrences of 10 and its powers are so common that there is no point in listing them here. However, the Ten Commandments of the Bible deserve mention, especially given that Buddhism, too, has its own ten commandments—five for monks and five for the laity.

 

[LuoirM]

6:

By a wonderful conjunction of mathematical coincidences, 6 is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 × 2 × 3) of the first three numbers. It is, therefore, considered “perfect.” In mathematics, a perfect number is one that equals the sum of its divisors (excluding itself), and 6 is the first perfect number in this sense because its divisors are 1, 2, and 3. The next perfect number is 28. No odd perfect numbers are known, but it has not been proved that none exists. The perfection of 6 shows up in the six days of Creation in Genesis, with God resting on the seventh day. The structure of the Creation parallels the sum 1 + 2 + 3: on day 1 light is created; on days 2 and 3 heaven and earth appear; finally, on days 4, 5, and 6 all living creatures are created.

or

10:

10 was the Pythagorean symbol of perfection or completeness. Humans have ten fingers and ten toes. Counting on fingers probably led to the decimal number system, with its symbols 0–9 and its place values, whereby the 7 in 703 counts as 7 hundreds, but in 173, it is 7 tens, and in 507, it is 7 units. We consider powers of 10, such as 100 or 1,000, to be “round numbers.”

Occurrences of 10 and its powers are so common that there is no point in listing them here. However, the Ten Commandments of the Bible deserve mention, especially given that Buddhism, too, has its own ten commandments—five for monks and five for the laity.

Dude.

 

[Shrimp_eater]

6:

By a wonderful conjunction of mathematical coincidences, 6 is both the sum (1 + 2 + 3) and the product (1 × 2 × 3) of the first three numbers. It is, therefore, considered “perfect.” In mathematics, a perfect number is one that equals the sum of its divisors (excluding itself), and 6 is the first perfect number in this sense because its divisors are 1, 2, and 3. The next perfect number is 28. No odd perfect numbers are known, but it has not been proved that none exists. The perfection of 6 shows up in the six days of Creation in Genesis, with God resting on the seventh day. The structure of the Creation parallels the sum 1 + 2 + 3: on day 1 light is created; on days 2 and 3 heaven and earth appear; finally, on days 4, 5, and 6 all living creatures are created.

or

10:

10 was the Pythagorean symbol of perfection or completeness. Humans have ten fingers and ten toes. Counting on fingers probably led to the decimal number system, with its symbols 0–9 and its place values, whereby the 7 in 703 counts as 7 hundreds, but in 173, it is 7 tens, and in 507, it is 7 units. We consider powers of 10, such as 100 or 1,000, to be “round numbers.”

Occurrences of 10 and its powers are so common that there is no point in listing them here. However, the Ten Commandments of the Bible deserve mention, especially given that Buddhism, too, has its own ten commandments—five for monks and five for the laity.

i'm more of a 142857 person

 

[WarJoy]

I always thought people underestimate the amount of time they put people through in those time loops. "I got stuck for a 1000 years" andworked on my skills. It's just such an immense amount of time...


After 10 years of doing something you became an expert on it. After a lifetime of doing something - especially if you are a person that constantly trains and learns new things, the knowledge and skills you get are simply absurd. Old professors in our life. Old professional fighters... they are just on different level. This is an example of human training and fighting for merely around twenty five years, maybe thirty, cause later they are just too old.

After 1500 years of learning... imagine a human that has an entire fight planned ten minutes forward. Reacting to moves you didnt even decide to do. Starting a fight only knowing he will win. Detecting lies from people cause his instinct got honed so deep.

Manipulating people to a desired effect even without thinking just because he knows exactly how humans work. Being able to control his expression to make seem like whatever he wants.

Also probably seeing all people like stupid children and reading everyone like open book.

The idea of Wuxia Immortals living for milions of years and all they got is more power and some trained moves is so annoying to me. My 10000 years old character would go up to them with amazement and say "How come you are so old and yet so weak." While being hardly a human anymore...

 

[RepresentingPride]

I always thought people underestimate the amount of time they put people through in those time loops. "I got stuck for a 1000 years" andworked on my skills. It's just such an immense amount of time...


After 10 years of doing something you became an expert on it. After a lifetime of doing something - especially if you are a person that constantly trains and learns new things, the knowledge and skills you get are simply absurd. Old professors in our life. Old professional fighters... they are just on different level. This is an example of human training and fighting for merely around twenty five years, maybe thirty, cause later they are just too old.

After 1500 years of learning... imagine a human that has an entire fight planned ten minutes forward. Reacting to moves you didnt even decide to do. Starting a fight only knowing he will win. Detecting lies from people cause his instinct got honed so deep.

Manipulating people to a desired effect even without thinking just because he knows exactly how humans work. Being able to control his expression to make seem like whatever he wants.

Also probably seeing all people like stupid children and reading everyone like open book.

The idea of Wuxia Immortals living for milions of years and all they got is more power and some trained moves is so annoying to me. My 10000 years old character would go up to them with amazement and say "How come you are so old and yet so weak." While being hardly a human anymore...

It depends on what the post's author wants to do with its character and how the power system works in its world.

Having 10 000 years of previous training doesn't help you if when you get out of it, your body is still the same, and you need to gather energy for it to become stronger like in the cultivation stories, sure you will be able to defeat people with a better body than you due to the technique you have achieved in that time, but there a limit to it, cause the character need real time in the world to grow it's body and not time in a loop to repeat a training.

Another way is depending on the world itself and what the author wants to do with its character, it needs a lot of loops. Take Mushoku Tensei as an example, Orsted lived for 2000 years before regressing, thus making a loop, and he stopped to count after 100 loops, all of that to travel the world millions of times, know each people, to try to change all small detail to overcome this fucking human trash god. He needed to do it to find the single chance in the infinitesimal to kill it.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I think most people would go insane after just 2 or 4. I think people overestimate the strength of a human mental state. I read one shitty manga where the mc (13 yo kid) pressed a button and trained alone in a white room for 1 million years, and when he came back only a minute had past so he did it 3 more times.

Try standing alone in an empty room, no phone, no computer, no human contact. See how long you last. Not the exact same thing as you said, but I think they're closely related.

 

[Deleted member 76176]

I think most people would go insane after just 2 or 4. I think people overestimate the strength of a human mental state. I read one shitty manga where the mc (13 yo kid) pressed a button and trained alone in a white room for 1 million years, and when he came back only a minute had past so he did it 3 more times.

Try standing alone in an empty room, no phone, no computer, no human contact. See how long you last. Not the exact same thing as you said, but I think they're closely related.

This. Even just two loops are enough to alter personality to the point where the main character wouldn't be the same anymore. And I'd wager the person would be crusty—I know I'd be.

 

[RepresentingPride]

I think most people would go insane after just 2 or 4. I think people overestimate the strength of a human mental state. I read one shitty manga where the mc (13 yo kid) pressed a button and trained alone in a white room for 1 million years, and when he came back only a minute had past so he did it 3 more times.

Try standing alone in an empty room, no phone, no computer, no human contact. See how long you last. Not the exact same thing as you said, but I think they're closely related.

This. Even just two loops are enough to alter personality to the point where the main character wouldn't be the same anymore. And I'd wager the person would be crusty—I know I'd be.

The Author's Pov have this kind of problem written inside the story, with how loops can alter one mental or personality. It may be a spoiler for the one who read or want to read the Author's Pov.

Spoiler: Spoiler

In the Author's Pov, the mc go through a lot of loops, his personality change and he become cold, for him life didn't matter, even his relative at one point, so he decided to seal his memory of previous loops (more or less, some guys sealed him too) and instead of that, let himself think that he was send to a book he write, thus explaining why he know what happen in the future.

 

[Deleted member 76176]

The Author's Pov have this kind of problem written inside the story, with how loops can alter one mental or personality. It may be a spoiler for the one who read or want to read the Author's Pov.

Spoiler: Spoiler

In the Author's Pov, the mc go through a lot of loops, his personality change and he become cold, for him life didn't matter, even his relative at one point, so he decided to seal his memory of previous loops (more or less, some guys sealed him too) and instead of that, let himself think that he was send to a book he write, thus explaining why he know what happen in the future.

Pretty interesting concept.

 

[WarJoy]

I think most people would go insane after just 2 or 4. I think people overestimate the strength of a human mental state. I read one shitty manga where the mc (13 yo kid) pressed a button and trained alone in a white room for 1 million years, and when he came back only a minute had past so he did it 3 more times.

Try standing alone in an empty room, no phone, no computer, no human contact. See how long you last. Not the exact same thing as you said, but I think they're closely related.

Worthless Regression Chapter 50 – Asura Scans

asuratoon.com

This manga has beautifully described what happens to human's mental state such such a long training. Its really good, btw, so dont read only those chapters if you are interested as to not spoil. It has a novel too, a really good one.

Possessing Nothing - Novel Updates

www.novelupdates.com

 

[MrPopocap]

I say 10 loops. It leaves enough room for unknowns, but also gives him a lot of experience. Anything more than that becomes kind of unrealistic since he would already know everything.

And I decided to use the 10 loops. It's resonable enough to say the MC learned a lot and the loops changed him to a certain degree.

I read all the comments so thanks for the help, everyone!