Darker Nights v1.11p6  

ABOUT

Now you see me...

This mod will make the nights in the Commonwealth darker. Not by a whole lot, but dark enough I think so that you know the night has fallen without having to check the time on your pip-boy. Interiors will be darker during the night as well unless they are well lit. There are seven levels of darkness to choose from.

To see the mod in action please go to the mod Videos section.

The mod provides an optional set of plugins which improves the ability of NPCs to detect you in low light conditions. There is a version "calibrated" to each of the seven levels of darkness but you may choose any one of them if you are not happy with the default. What it does is that it allows NPCs to become alert (enter CAUTION) at about the same distance as in vanilla.

The mod provides an optional, alternative night vision but I recommend you try my humble other creation Alternative Vision which features even nicer vision for night scopes, night person and also recon scopes, along with more colors and brightness options.

New 24/7 Night Mode basically makes nights last 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The sun still comes up but it just does not seem to give any light what so ever. Be advised obviously this option is off the lore books and is mostly intended to be used in special "mod compilations" such as Neon Wasteland.

PATCHES

This mod provides patches for other mods which change the same records so that they can be used together. If this concept is new to you, think of it as simply merging pieces of two mods together into a single mod. A patch usually merges only the specific parts of two mods which cause a conflict. This means you still need to install the original mod too when you install the patch.

There are two kinds of patches in this mod: 1) merged and 2) standalone. The installer will make sure the correct plugins are installed based on selected options.

1) Merged patches are part of the main plugin file, i.e. DarkerNights.esp. The file description indicates which merged patches it includes. They may include official DLC and major weather overhaul mods:
Far Harbor DLC
Nuka World DLC
True Storms Wasteland Edition 1.4 (compatible with 1.4.1)
Vivid Weathers Fallout 4 Edition 1.11 (compatible with 1.20 - 1.35)

2) Standalone patches are individual plugin files: 
FogOut v6
Nuclear Weather 0.8
Radiant Clouds and Fogs 1.3

Optimal load order when using my patches is indicated below. Plugins which are not mentioned including my optional plugins DarkerNightsDetection.esp and BetterNightVision.esp can be placed anywhere in your load older. If you have been using LOOT then you can use it to sort the plugins automatically.

## Official DLC and Major weather mods first
Fallout4.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCNukaWorld.esm
TrueStormsFO4.esm
TrueStormsFO4-FarHarbor.esp
Vivid Weathers - FO4.esp

## Minor weather plugins
FogOut.esp
Nuclear weather.esp
Radiant Clouds and Fogs.esp

## Darker Nights main file (vanilla or incl. merged patches)
DarkerNights.esp

## Standalone patches last
DarkerNights-FogOut.esp
DarkerNights-NuclearWeather.esp
DarkerNights-Radiant.esp

Please note that the patches are intended to provide darker nights for various weather mods only. Compatibility between the plugins themselves is not intended. Moving plugins up and down (within the sections above) may help but I recommend you consult the respective author(s) in that regard.

UPGRADE

To see what's new check out the CHANGES tab.

Since v1.11 some patches become merged into the main file and you may get a missing plugin notice when you load a saved game for that reason. You can refer to the main plugin description to double check the file includes all required merged patches but the installer should do a good job. Make sure to uninstall all loose patches for an earlier version as well as the main file first.

Since v1.10 a new optional plugin which adjusts NPC detection in less lit areas is part of the main mod file. Please uninstall or remove MoreDifficultSneaking.esp if you have been using it. The new plugin is fine tuned for each level of darkness and the old file may cause a conflict (preventing the new changes).

Since v1.6 new levels of darkness have been added and the name of some have been changed when appropriate. Darker has always been called Darker. Please refer to the following table:

Number   v1.6      v1.8      v1.9
0        N/A       N/A       Darkest
1        Darker    Darker    Darker
2        Medium    Dark      Dark
3        Lighter   Medium    Medium
4        N/A       Light     Light
5        N/A       Lighter   Lighter
6        N/A       N/A       Lightest

INSTALLATION

First of all make sure you have enabled modding Fallout 4. Check out FALLOUT 4: Enabling Modding for PC (UPDATED) by Gopher for the details.

If you are using Nexus Mod Manager you will be able to choose which options you wish to install when you install the mod of the first time. If you change your mind and decide to try other options you will need to uninstall the mod and then install it again.

When upgrading, uninstall the previous version via NMM first.

MANUAL INSTALLATION

Manual installation is also possible. Check out FALLOUT 4: Installing Mods on PC (MANUALLY) by Gopher for the details.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Are interiors affected by this mod?
Yes. This mod reduces sunlight/moonlight and the ambient light in the interiors and they will be darker during the night unless they are well lit. 

Can the nights be any darker?
No, but if you want even darker nights check out Darker Nights by Unforbidable Mod Spotlight by chris2012 featuring yet darker nights using Decay - Reshade Preset.

Will NPC have harder time spotting me with this mod installed?
Yes. It is easier to sneak with this mod.  For this reason, there is an optional plugin which adjusts the ability of NPCs to detect you in low light conditions as a part of the main file.

There is sort of ghostly glow affect on the NPC during the night. What gives?
This is added by vanilla and this mod makes it more noticeable. You can get rid of it with ENBoost and its DisableFakeLights setting enabled. You don't need to use an ENB preset for it to work but there may be a performance cost having the glow removed this way.

Another solution is to open the console with the ~ key, type cl off and press enter but you need to repeat this command every time you start Fallout 4. A more permanent solution (and other useful info) can be found here: Disable character light

KNOWN ISSUES

Dark sky is causing unsightly flickering (dithering or mesh) above the horizon in some settings (misty, overcast and similar weathers). Please use a variation with vanilla sky if this bothers you. No solution is known. Any tips and clues leading to an improvement are appreciated.

Unrelated to this mod, there is a rare engine bug (dating back to Skyrim) which causes screen effects to get stuck on the player character. If this happens to you, you will have to remove the effects manually using one (or more) of the following console commands, depending on what you see.

To remove permanent Night Vision scope effect (bright green, blue or red): rimod 00094636
To remove permanent Recon Scope vision (bright white and blurred edges): rimod 002041B6
To remove permanent Night Person vision (bright white): rimod 001E5DC3

COMPATIBILITY

Climate and weathers - Darker Nights is not expected to be compatible with a weather overhaul kind of mod which changes existing weathers or adds new ones. I will make a patch for such a mod, or a few even.

Lights and effects - Darker Nights is expected to be compatible with any mod that changes the lighting (lights, image spaces, templates) both in interiors and exteriors as long as the mod does not change Weather records of "regular" weathers and sunlight effects. This mod already adjusts the sunlight in interiors throughout the day as well as the ambient light (except during the day) but I am open to suggestion and will implement new changes as long as they are neutral to what interiors look like without the mod, or when there is an improvement. 

Night vision - the optional plugin with alternative night vision will conflict with any mod which changes image space modifiers for the night vision scopes and the night person vision.

Sneak mechanics - the optional plugin which adjusts light detection will conflict with any mod which also change the light detection base value, i.e. fDetectionSneakLightMod. The plugin changes this value to prevent sneaking becoming too easy for the darker levels. A plugin which alters fSneakLightMult and fSneakLightExteriorMult instead to achieve the same result will be perfectly compatible and the user will benefit from both mods.

TRIVIA

There are 380 plugins in this mod.
It takes a stock clock i7 6700k with Samsung 950 Pro SSD and 16GB DDR4 RAM 50 minutes to produce all plugins in this mod.
The installer for this mod allows 89,600 different setup scenarios.

CREDITS

This mod is based on the Realistic Nights mod for Skyrim in the sense that it attempts to emulate what the original mod did so I cannot nor want to take full credit and at the same time I cannot nor want compare my work to the original as I'm no artist by any stretch of imagination. After all, this mod is called simply Darker Nights as to leave room for a talented mod creator to do their magic.