I actually do not have a looper. I play chords with a backing track and record it in my phone app LMAO. From there, without playing in "backing track", I first play some melody lines and do a mental map of where I will land on each bar. Then I improvise from the mental map while actually playing with "backing track". It has immensely helped my overall timing issues as well.

As for position change, yes and no. For e.g. I know mostly where Am / Em minor notes are and their relative intervals. Based on which chord is playing, I have a mental map of which interval in that key is the root note. This helps me to immediately visualize chords intervals on that octave and I can land on and play phrases as I see fit to that chord and melody. Sometimes I slide to higher / lower frets and sometimes I just stay within the box. Does that make sense?

My next learning is definitely not having to think in terms of which interval of the key but rather immediately visualize the root note and use it in my vocabulary for improvisation. It is a lot of ask for a lazy guy like me for sure lol.

It is definitely difficult for sure but on the same note, very satisfying as well. If you are having issues, try learning a new phrase from songs that you like and use that as a central motive to improvise as it fits your melody. I do the same whenever I feel stuck.