@asog88, In a year there are only three months when the night can be short and very light.
Changing only periods of the year, at the same time of day can be very dark or very light.
https://youtu.be/RG6fKCnAlo4
What time of year was on the server?

Maybe it's my display, or an issue with my eyes, but I still can't see anything at night (which is a good thing). The sky seems a bit brighter, which allows you to separate it from the horizon and navigate long distances a bit more accurately, but at ground level I can't see a darn thing without a light source.

We need to get over the nighttime. Some people think it’s too dark, some think it’s too bright. They will never please everybody. I actually think night is in a good place right now. (It is not, as you say, ‘almost the same as day’!) It is just bright enough to have a firefight. Plus, moonlight seems to be a thing. The only problem is that light sources are near-useless. The only change I would like now, would be to make interiors pitch black, so that you HAVE to use a light. Not sure it’s possible, though.

@sanguine00 @EnterThePug Brightness of the night depends on the server configuration, which plays a period - month of the year, week, calendar day. Seasons have different intensity of illumination of the horizon and the night sky. The lunar calendar is working, but in the game the moon is not a source of light. For these reasons, we can hear different opinions about the brightness of the night from the players. Each expresses an opinion about their experience of the game, each with its own experience on the time period of the year on the server. Someone usually gets on the server with a bright night sky, someone with a dark night sky.
Details in my ticket on the problem of work lunar light T143219.

@Lex I have been playing around with the calendar in the offline mod, and you're right. Time of year does make a difference. Night has, overall, gotten brighter since 1.05, though. I believe that's what asog is referring too. Also, the moon is definitely a source of light. It's weak, but it still works. Look at these screenshots taken in the same place, but with the moon in a different position (all taken during January in the in-game calender)

@EnterThePug Moon should play a significant role in the night sky. Look in the game on the moon trace of light on the water surface.

@Lex Yeah, it's definitely weak, but I'm positive that the brightness changes in 1.05 affected the moon, too. Arma 3 levels would be amazing, though.

But hasn't anyone answered that DayZ's brightness has a big BUG?
I myself have always complained that dark nights were too dark to play, and some replied that it was not true ... only 1 or 2 patches ago I happened to log into the game and see a "decent" night: always dark , but where you could at least see where to put your feet. After a while ALL BLACK again!
I searched the net for a long time if it was a patch change and then a defect or vice versa and found one that explained the point.
It's a BUG of DayZ brightness.
The brightness bar does NOT work and the contrast (which doesn't even exist) starts indefinitely.
To unlock the brightness bar you need to change the value of "Hardware Antialiasing" setting and this allows you to "unlock the contrast" (from the maximum position) and to be able to get an effect while moving the brightness bar. AND FINALLY you can see the game at least in a decent way (I was able to see some beautiful nights, finally).
Once you have adjusted the brightness and unlocked the contrast, you can reset "Hardware Antialiasing" to the initial value.
It will work for a while, then it will fail again. Just repeat the procedure and you will be able to "enjoy the nights" for a while longer.
A lot of folks who complain about BLACK nights, should search the forums better (I have explained this a few times, and someone before me that I have read and repeated but it is NOT my job to do so. And the explanation has NOT even been pinned at the top!)
Those who complain of "too bright" nights have NEVER gone out into the woods on a moonlit night. DO IT FIRST!
The programmers amaze me that they have NEVER noticed.
And I got tired of reading everything for the forums and of "fighting against everything and everyone" to have a "decent and plausible" game ... moreover seeing also DELIBERATELY absurd choices of these programmers. Because a flaw is a flaw: programmers have to fix it, but you can also "help for the common good" (Sure that a "thanks for the lost time" as a "default" answer to ALL reports, it would be good manners !!!!! Finding the defects would be a OBLIGATION of the programmers, NOT of the players !!!), but "deliberate obscene choices" NO! (backpacks that must be emptied to be stored, fences and tents increasingly difficult to position [it should be the opposite], blocking the NVGs for a few "lucky" or "dishonest" [at this point they could remove them], the exaggerated consumption of shoes, food, tools, etc ... and many other annoying and / or unreal things made on purpose a game that is becoming more and more a "grotesque war FPS" than one of "survival from a pandemic".
I have found other annoying bugs, but I don't know whether to open a tickets or not ... so what changes?
Patch after patch I've seen something fixed, something else broken (sometimes even on purpose), adding useless or stupidly harmful things, leaving out really useful things, and NOT wanting to repair vehicles just for "stupid whims" (bring the check back to the client!)
Let's see if this comment will stay here or be deleted!
:-(

This page is chock full of SPAM!!!

indeed - cleaned up "a bit"