So I'm looking at Francesco, OOO, and F-COM (and maybe a little bit at Maskar's).

I think I understand the basic differences on paper between Fran and OOO, correct me if I have it wrong.

With Fran the level of monsters you meet is still based on your level like in vanilla but there is a little random deviation +/- from your level for variety. Also certain monsters have upper or lower caps on the levels they can be and the level of items they can drop (i.e. no Bandits in Glass Armour).

With OOO, the level of monster you meet is determined by the location and is set in stone for every playthrough. Vilverin will always be level X, whether you are way below it or way above it. Loot level is determined by the level of the monster.

Do I have it right?

Ok, so I know what they do on paper, but how does this play out?

With Fran's, take bandits for example, do they have an upper limit on their level or is it just that their loot level caps? If I go into Vilverin at level 50 will I still find it populated with Bandits or will something more fearsome take it's place? If there are still Bandits in there are they lvl 50(ish) bandits or lvl 20 (or whatever the cap is).

This seems great for removing the "Bandits in Glass Armour" problem people seem to have, but I guess I'm wondering if it means Bandits just don't exist once you get to a certain level?

OOO on the otherhand, will always have Vilverin contain Bandits of the same level (I heard 7?) so, does that vastly reduce the available content to me at any given time? When I'm 25 I don't want to be going into lvl 5 dungeons that are no challenge and don't have good loot but I also don't want to be going into lvl 50 dungeons and getting stomped on. Which brings me to my next question, if the available content is reduced, how does the game/mod direct me toward content of the appropriate level? Do I just wander around and hope that the dungeon I choose to go into is the right level? Is there a way for me to "assess" the npc I see to get an idea of his power level relative to mine or do I need to aggro him and see what happens (and then reload from my last save if it didn't work out)?

FCOM is a merge of the two but I don't fully understand how that works? Their basic concepts seem to be at odds, when they say it's a merge of the two do they mean it's basically OOO, but with Fran's new monsters and items added to the lists and each group of goblins (although level capped by OOO) has a chance of spawning with a special named goblin who is tougher?

What exactly gets added from Fran to OOO in FCOM?

Thanks for the help!

I think you get OOO's scaling with Frans creatures and items.

But I'm not even sure, I don't like the OOO concept at all, it seems to defeat the entire point of having an open world game.

This thread here: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/820948-scaling-overhaul-comparison/ will answer all your questions. Whew been looking for it all day.