You're not over-simplifying it, you just need to have something at the "switch" end that recognizes scenes. An ordinary low cost X-10 dimmer without scenes will turn on and off OK, and manually dim OK, but it won't go to pre-set levels. It will most likely come on full, then you have to dim to where you want it. I believe that's what you indicated you didn't want.

The best "future proof" purchases are going to be quality swithces with scenes built in. And, all expensive dimmers aren't the same. For instance, Smarthome's have only 64 dimming steps, PCS switches have 200. Much smoother.

Scenes are triggered by X-10 commands and are simply memory levels programmed into the dimmer for a specific X-10 command. Individual dimmers are "enrolled" in a scene as needed. If a certain scene is transmitted on say G/6, if a dimmer is suppposed to react to that scene it will, otherwise it will ignore it. It will also come on to the level you have instructed it to for that scene, and at the ramp (fade) rate you have instructed it to. As you can start to see, you are describing "scene" capable dimmers in your requirements. You won't get anywhere near where you want to go with the cheap "non-scene" dimmers.

By the way, the PCS dimmers are programmable on your computer, I don't believe the Smarthome dimmers are, though there may be something available I don't know about.

Best choices are on this page.

[Link: homeautomationnet.com]