Prologue
The period of the day called night has always been portrayed in fantasy stories as the time when evil rises and [censored] starts to break loose. Heck, it's the spawn of many folklores throughout the history of man kind.
Night as a game rule was somewhat implemented in Darkfall, I found it great albeit a bit lacking. Sure, they spawned a bunch of spooky entities, but wasn't more than a nuisance.
It gave night a meaning, but it didn't affect your gameplay that much. Sure you had to either loiter a while or find an inn every time you came to Daggerfall at night. But it wasnt more than that.

"The meat"
I say, incorporate this feature from Daggerfall into Skyrim, and make it more dynamic, more of a rule you must pay attention to. I mean, Minecraft could incorporate in a smart way, Bethesda gotta be able to.
Let's say you want to explore. If day is starting to fade to dark, it's not a good time to go out into the forest. At night, the environment changes in the forest, depending on "area level" undead and evil monsters
should begin to emerge. Area level 1 make it "Skeletons and ghosts", area level 2 "Wretched ghouls and hobgoblins", etc. Sounds should turn very scary, with screams and moans. It should be VERY dark, not semi gray.
Decide to venture out at night? You should be scared [censored]less. But it should be doable, with the right amount of supplies and spells and with a little bit of courage. This should give ingame time meaning and make
it way more immersive. You have to pay attention to time, plan your trekking and you should come along just fine, i.e. pay attention to viable shelters when you travel through various environments.

Epilogue
Long story short, make night right, a part of the game. Turning night? Try to find an inn, or a hide out to sleep in until it dawns. Night ought to be scary, it shouldn't mess around. Oh, you're a valiant warrior that take
crap from no one? Venture out at night, you might stumble into an ongoing undead ritual in the forest, an event only happening at night. If you stay hidden you might be able to spectate this creepy event.
If you kill them all, you might find something rare and maybe some background story. There's nothing more atmospheric than seeing lights in the distance at night. Also, in the dark you have to rely on your hearing,
thus scary noices will be awesome.

Final thoughts
What da ya think? You want real nights, or is it just a nuisance? Something that is "In the way". Would you like it the way I portrayed, or have it somewhat different?

I want the nights to be extremely dark. Dark enough you need to have a torch or a full moon to see very far. Also I want to see lights from the towns in the distance instead of me having to manually change the values of my game...

This sounds like an awesome thing to include. What would be even better is the occasional "night" attack on a town you are in.
Resting for the night. But you are woke by screams outside. You can stay inside and ignore it, or go out and become the savior of the town, potentially earning rewards/respect/love of the town, while putting yourself in great danger.

And yea, that is based on difficult to kill enemies.

I like your idea. There should be certain creatures that only come out at night and certain events that only take place at night.

Of course. Nature and night have always been a source of legends and superstitions. Actually even now stories are still being told in the countryside where I live.

Night is when boogeyman shows up!! :biggrin:

I definitely want 'real' nights, dark as the are. Problem is that up north it never gets really dark night in the summer, and it's pitch black in the winter, but since they're not doing seasons I'd settle for just a regular dark night. Random effect if the moon is out or if it's overcast. The need to carry a torch is a must imo.

I don't think specific monsters need to appear, just whatever is out at night, like predators that hunt at night.

Nights should be much darker than Oblivion's.
But they shouldn't be too dark, because then it becomes ... too hard to see.

Nights should be dark, but you should still be able to see without any lightsource.

What are torches for? I think you should be able to see the path you're treading on and the outlines of everything, but not so much more than that. Let's say it'd be possible without, but to actually see what you're doing a torch would be needed.

Walking around in the dark carrying a torch, you'd be a real treat for some bandit archers. It should make you think twice about going out in the wild after dark. I'm tired of being invincible king of the world =/

Not ghosts, skeletons or zombies. Running into a random 'horror' creature every 5 minutes when it's dark would get old quickly. Instead we should have nocturnal predators, such as wolves. Make it dangerous, but make it believable.

In cities, too. Muggers should roam the side-streets and alleys at night. When it's dark you should always be looking over your shoulder, and thinking twice before leaving the well patrolled main streets.

I know...
But to have nights as dark as real-life would become annoying I think. Very hard for your eyes.
You should be able to "moderately" see without any lightsource... for the eyes' sake ^^

Oblivion "daytime nights" and bright caves left Light / Night Eye and torches practically useless, IMO...

You've tons of light sources. Use them.

(So, it's dark night for me).

One word..... VENGEANCE.
I thought it was pretty scary at the time, and I loved the horror'ish "side plot" I'd want the nights to be significantly tougher for the first 10-20 levels of the game. I want to have a reason for beds to even exist in the game, not just as props. No, the one-hour level-up doesn't qualify.

"But to have nights as dark as real-life would become annoying I think. Very hard for your eyes.
You should be able to "moderately" see without any lightsource... for the eyes' sake ^^"

Look at how Arma 2 does it. The moon provides a good amount of light when it's there, and it's pretty much pitch dark when it's not. Now, this is a game that is fairly hard core and realism oriented, yet people doesn't complain - partly because they expect this kind of realism, and partly because the mission maker will provide some means. If I make missions, I make sure there is a decent amount of moon, or provide players with night vision goggles.

Given my Arma 2 background, I play Oblivion with some Darker Nights mod, and I still don't find the night as dark as it should. Especially during bad weather and/or no moon(s). I think it should stay as realistic as possible. If you have problems with weather and moon, rent a bed - that's what they're there for. What helps in Skyrim compared to Arma 2, is the presence of snow.

I hope BGS gives it some thought, because in default game the nights are ridiculously bright. Equally important, but for the eye, is a dark GUI that doesn't blind you and remove your eyes adoption to dark nights and dungeon when they are brought up. So a dark brown instead of bright beige would be preferred.

Nights should be darker, but having undead spawn in the forests at night would be taking it too far.

Only is such an ugly word. Some creatures should sleep on the day and hunt on the night, but you should still be able to find and kill/fight those creatures during day time, but they would be hiding somehwere, not sleeping on a road.

And darker nights ftw! Where I live, at winter, right now, I can't see sh*t outside after 10 PM without lights. But areas shoudl not be as simple as "at night it is X % darker", it should depend on the area, current weather etc. It can be night and still bright if there are no clouds and the moon reflects the suns light. But if there are clouds and it is raining and it's 2 AM? Very dark.

Indeed that would be a great dilemma: better sight of where you're putting your feet down while sacrificing secretivism.

Indeed. The suggestion of their presence should be causing fear rather than actual encounters of which there should be at least a few in the game.

I remember playing UL DARK FOREST mod at night...with the game set at the darkest you could get it...and was it ever spooky!

The temperature could descend during the night, resulting in a real danger. If there will be enviromental dangers, during night as you didn't see well...

Two of my favourite Oblivion mods simply darken the nights and make caves darker. Makes night time and dungeon exploration tense ... fun .. rewarding.

You beat me to it.


VEEEEEENGEAAANCE!

Id say one thing id like to see is some races.. like altmer and kawhatevers could see much better at night while some races wouldnt be able to see much at all.. imperials and nords. and with each race the night would look different.

as for evil... id definetly like to see creepy things crawl out of the cracks as the shadows deepen...

I would think trying to strain your eyes to make out vague objects in semi-darkness would be harder on your eyes then trying to see by torch light in pitch black.

I'm positively surprised by the response. Seems like most people so far want it more dark, of course it would be annoying if its too dark and such.
But that's something they can check, having test subject try it out and fill in some forms. The thing that is hard to work out though, is how to make it balanced.
So that it doesnt go dark every 5 minutes, it would make it annoying. 1 day should take like maybe 1 hour ingame time our something.
Thought that would make it 30 min darkness... hmm, maybe if they make darkness last 5 min, day 30 min or something.

Imo, we should see the night as opportunity for great story telling and adventure not as a problem. Problems can be worked around.

Night is the time when this vampire sneaks into the house of a particularly annoying questgiver for a snack.

But it shouldnt be too dark. I hate games like that. Having to use a torch or spell is fine, but then they should actually light stuff.
I bought silent hill: homecoming and I will never finish that game. I cant. I cant see.
games are no fun when the whole screen is just one black patch with a pencil thin stripe of light that does not illuminate.