I've been working my way through my old screenshots and it is clear that this came with 1.02 and the changes to lighting and clouds (SimulWeather was removed) that came with that update. The subsequent changes to lighting when the personal night light was implemented made it worse.

Screenhsots from before 1.02:

Screenshots after 1.02:

If the current cloud model is not possible to display properly at night in the Enfusion engine, you must bring SimulWeather back. The night sky simply cannot be allowed to look as it does currently, it is downright ugly and unnatural.

Imagine those clouds with the current lighting... *drools*

Not evened opened yet, this makes me sad. I know the average player is too busy running around shooting other players to look up at the sky, but that is not an excuse to let clouds look like pixely oil smudges at night. They really look awful.

Nighttime clouds still look discoloured in the 1.06 Livonia beta. It really is an immersion breaker when the sky looks like an oil slick as soon as the sun has gone down.

Here's another screenshot from the Livonia beta that shows the poor quality evening/night sky in all its glory. Surely this cannot be intended? (Running 1440p resolution, everything on ultra, GTX 1070, no gamma or brightness increase)

Agreed! Don't know why they are using only 16-bit color as well. I think that's the reason why the clouds looks smudged out. Using a higher color bit results in better shading. Don't think it's going to change to be honest though. Same goes for some of the textures. Some textures looks like their from the 90's. Down right awful.

Clouds still looking unnatural at night in 1.07. The "oily" appearance is still there although the darker night config is much better. No matter the config clouds are still too visible in the sky at night. Really, with the lack of light pollution the clouds should just block light from the stars and glow around the moon if there is one. The brighter night config looks a little better than before, since the cloud textures have been darkened a bit, but they are still far too visible as if illuminated from below.