Topic says it all; I've always asked myself who lighted all those torches when I'm inside a dungeon crowed of daedras or undeads... makes any sense? In adittion, nights and suppossed dark dungeons were so bright that I've never used a torch, never.

I'd love to see darker nights and close to pitch black dungeons (of course, not every dungeon; some or many are crowded by "humans"), and a reason to use torches, and light & nighteye spells.

You could just turn down your brightness.

i dont have a problem with the torches in there its just the ambient lighting that makes me mad, i'd prefer to have light come from actual light sources this time.

Every dungeon always had a hole on the ceiling of light it was sad... I would suggest them to do a overwhelming darkness type of thing that you cannot see through even if your brightness is maxed. Of course some do not like having to use anything to do something.

I'm of the "either-or" mentality: Either make things darker so torches, Night-eye, etc. have some purpose...

...or stop wasting time adding them in if they're really only atmospheric clutter. :shrug:

inb4 IMMERSION!!! lol

That would also lower the brightness of everything in the game including light sources too no? So it wouldn't make a difference in the way we want.

I voted yes. I never once had to use a torch or light spell which made them pointless. And using one just gave me away needlessly because i could see everything anyway.

Try installing mods like "Let there be Darkness" + "Darker Nights" + turn down your brigthness. Even with torches, things will become very annoying after a while. It's not good for your eyes to concentrate so much on single lights in an otherwise very dark area.

Also, torches and such only make things brighter within a very small radius. Beyond that it would be way too dark. That's not good for your eyes at all.

I loved the Oblivion nights and dungeon-darkness-level. With brightness turned down, it became dark enough for add more atmoshpere, but still bright enough for my eyes not to get hurt or annoyed after a while.

Note: Lowering brightness does not make light sources darker. They make their colours stronger. Lowering brightness in the game makes things more nice I think. Less washed out and a bit more colour (but not too much).

Just turn it down when you enter a dungeon. I did this in Oblivion. It worked fairly well.

I meant that if you turn down the brightness it isn't selective; it turns down the brightness of light sources as well and you end up wIth the same thing only darker. It might work I never tried it but it doesn't sound like it would all that well. :shrug:

Plus I don't think I should have to turn down the brightness everytime I enter a dungeon and it would make light spells and torchess more than a pointless addition.

My main beef with the darkness levels in Oblivion weren't really about the existence of torches or other light sources, but rather the overall light levels and how far you were able to see into the distance. A deep dungeon shouldn't allow you to see more than a few meters. Vistas aren't necessary inside a cave, you only need them if there's some important internal structure like the entrance to an underground fort or whatnot.

So Bethesda, please lower the viewing distances in dungeons and the overal light levels. Brightness sliders just won't do, because there's a rather profound difference between three-dimensional darkness (i.e. the local absence of light in specific areas) and screen darkness (the overall saturation of light emanating from the screen). Learn from Doom 3. Doesn't mean you have to make Skyrim exactly like that game.

Also, with the new "Alert" system, you could even make it so that alerted enemies got their detection values increased and even that they roamed through the shadows to actively search for you. Their AI could be designed to prefer shadows over lighted ares, when searching. Or at least something that isn't as dumb as Oblivion, because even after playing Oblivion for a few days I thought it got rather dumb. So it's got nothing to do with Oblivion being old.

Yeah I know, I'm just saying if they don't address this issue, you could always turn down the brightness or download mods.

Oblivion dungeons were absurdly bright. You didn't need any spells or torches to see in them unless you were Stevie Wonder, and even then you could probably get by.

I want to see a much greater range of brightness in Skyrim - where it can be painfully bright outside, and then so dark you can't see your hands fully extended in a cavern. What I would really love to see, but doubt we will, is the transition from bright to dark and vice-versa - having to wait for your eyes to adjust.

Beyond that, though; I really hope places that are supposed to be dark are actually dark, and I also hope that darkness plays a major role in stealth. Stealth in Morrowind and Oblivion was stupid - and that's a shame, because it's a major RP element that was squandered. So yes, count me among those that want dungeons and caves so dark, you actually have to break out a torch to see anything.

Also, imagine how much scarier such a cave would be when your light source fails, and you hear something echoing in the distance...

You do realise that the Guild of Lamplighters and Torch Replenishers is very influential in Tamriel? Even ancient undead daren't interfere with them.

But yes, plausible light sources (or lack of) in caves, barrows etc and players having to equip a torch or lantern or use a spell would be easily implemented and greatly add to atmosphere.

I hope that most of the illumination which is in dungeons originates from torches and other light sources this time around. Morrowind was on the right track with low levels of ambient light and visible lanterns/candles everywhere, but in Oblivion lots of the interiors were simply lit by nondescript "glows". I've brought this up innumerable times before, but it still gets to me. Seems as if dungeons will be at least a tad darker in Skyrim, though.

Some dungeons should definitely be almost impossible to see within unless you had a light source. It should be like locked doors - without a lockpick, you can't open them. Equally without a light, or a spell, you can't see in the darkness.

I hate bloom lighting.

I turn my brightness down too. I havent tried any mods to change the light levels.

I also don't usually hunt in the caves or mines unless I have a quest that puts me into one.

Well I wouldn't mind having them a bit darker, but not TOO dark either.

And anyways, I don't really know about you guys, but with my TV's settings, dungeons are quite dark in OB and still the rest doesn't look bad. Torches look like what they should and all.

Adjusting just brightness isn't the right thing to do. You need to mess with the contrast and the colour settings too. That's what I did and it DEFINITELY looks right (though it DID take a few minutes at first)

the fact that it is so easily done makes me wonder why it isn't done from the start. If a modder can do it with a 0$ budget using their tools why can't they when they've got people who are paid to design the game. There's really no excuse other than laziness. It's not like we even need pitch black darkness either, just enough to be darker than normal daylight and to make torches and light spells more than useless clutter.

That's exactly the sort of thing I'd like to see and it wouldn't be difficault to implement. Anything that adds to the atmosphere of stealth has to be a good thing.

...frantically you attempt to re-light the torch, sensing movement nearby you freeze. The sound of low, heavy breathing causes the hairs on your neck to prickle...

What bothered me was not so much the torches themselves but the fact that even where there were no torches, there was still enough ambient light to see clearly, add to that the mysterious patches of light that seem to be coming from no visible source, and one can only conclude tht Tamriel's dungeons are made with some form of magical material that naturally produces a degree of light, because in real life if I'm inside a structure with no windows and turn off any lights, I'm certainly not going to be able to see much.

Basically, if you don't use any sort of lightsource, magical or mundane, don't use nighteye, and there are no other actual lightsources nearby, and you're in a dungeon with no passages to the surface where light could come in throgh visible, it should be dark, and I mean, REALLY dark, to the point where you can't see ANYTHING, hand-held light sources or light and nighteye spells should be a necessity, not a luxury (At most.)

The brightness outside is appropriate if you ask me. Look at the night sky in TES4. There are two moons. In addition, they are very close. This allows more light to be reflected of their surfaces. So, it would only make sense that night time is actually brighter than what it would normally be. Not trying to be a smart alack, honestly.

As for dungeons, I agree. I think it'd be a nice touch to have some of the entrance catacombs lit, but as you get deeper there would less.

there should be at least some dungeons that are pitch black........the rest i dont mind of they have real light sources such as candles, torches, glowing mushrooms or crystals but i want them to be the actual source of the light..........not some arbitrary glowing sphere placed there by the editor.

^^^

All light should come from sources - where there is no light source there should be no light. Sure, there could be some places that do glow everywhere for magical reasons, but I'd like the full range of darkness and light where appropriate - meaning pitch blackness in a good number of places.

I think they used alot of non sourced lighting because it didnt cast shadows, if it werent it would cast alot of shadows thus slowing the game horribly.