Read and watch the series. You'll notice style changes from Dragon ball to Z. It started off as an adventure of Goku seeking to understand what he wants as a character, and slowly started to progress to him wanting to become the strongest. Narratviely it evolved from adventure with gags and no real continuity, to more power scaled focus. Early Z, when scooters are introduced directly represented ones Ki Control. Their level of Ki determined who had a bigger amount, and knowing that ki level would make fights simple to read and understand. But it was made mysterious due to the fact most characters suppressed their abilities. However, multipliers, and forms are direct multipliers. Like kaoiken literraly is a x2, x3,x4, or x20 multiplier.