Introduction:
I started this mod with the simple intention to add a reason to toggle vehicle lights. I also checked other light related mods and found them insufficient, like the PrawnsuitLightSwitch and PrawnsuitVolumetricLights. The light toggle was not configurable and always changed when using the Propulsion Cannon and the energy consumption was not working and there were some bugs with the Prawn Suit lights and and and.. So I created this mod to adjust this!

Credit/ Copyright:
This mod was inspired by PrawnsuitLightSwitch and PrawnsuitVolumetricLights. However, the code was created completely new and solely written by me. It is in many ways vastly different to any of these mods!

Description:
First up, nearly everything is configurable and therefore optional! The mod itself is created with as little performance impact as possible. Please let me know if you notice anything. As people have commented, some changes are not related to light. They were extracted into a separate mod called Vehicles Improved. I also added some more changes and additions, go check it out!

Additions:

• Added the ability to add energy costs to many things  (Was 0 in the default game for all lights!):
  

• Seamoth light
• Prawn Suit light
• Cyclops/Base default internal light
• Cyclops/Base emergency light (dimmed light)
• Cyclops flood light
• Scanner Camera
  

• Added the ability to swap the light control buttons. The flood light was always in the back and the internal light was in the front. Irrational in my opinion. (The pictures should clarify what i mean)
• Changed Cyclops Camera Light: There are two light states as in default, however, they do not reset anymore every time the camera is changed. The first state is also the state you set the energy consumption and light config for (the default state). The second state is a "High Energy State" in which the light consumes twice as much energy but also will come with a 35% boost in range and intensity. This state is now considerate as a temporary boost for special occasions. The alternative camera controls now moved to my second mod: "Vehicles Improved" together with the damper settings.
• Added the ability to configure the Cyclops camera light intensity and range. This is applied to the first of the two states.
• Added a setting to automatically dim the lights to the emergency (dimmed) state when the player exits the Cyclops/Base. So you can leave the lights just at on and they go to power saving mode when you leave the base. Or turn them completely off when you "park" the cyclops somewhere. Base lights cannot be turned of and the nice mod Base Light Switch sadly does not save the light state. So you either have to turn light costs off or, internal light costs off and "auto dim lights on exit" on to completely avoid any base energy consumption or use the following option:
• Added the ability to have all Cyclops settings, like light dim and energy consumption, to also apply to bases. If set to off, the bases will work as in default. If set to on, the bases also consume light energy and dim the lights, if you have set this feature.
• Added the ability to toggle Prawn Suit lights. And you can also set a key for that :)
• Added the ability to toggle Scanner Room camera lights. Key is right hand (usually right mouse button).
• Added the ability to remove the "Prawn Suit light toggle hud overlay", thank you for the suggestion!
• The fade duration for changing the lights in Cyclops/Base can now be set in the options. The vanilla is 1s, the default is 1.5s.
  

Non optional changes:

• All lights are set to off on load. As light states are not saved and the Save Vehicle Light State mod is not sufficient/ working as needed, this is the only way to avoid light energy drain for all vehicles after loading the game, as the game sets all lights to on at default.
• All lights turn automatically off if no energy is left anymore. This only applies if a light energy consumption was set.
• The Scanner Room camera light range and intensity was changed. They were super ridiculously strong, way stronger than Cyclops or Seamoth lights.
• When changing the battery in Flashlight, Seaglide or Seamoth the light is not toggled automatically on anymore.
• The Cyclops/Base lights will always dim, if the base is in energy emergency mode (current energy < 20% of total energy) (May be optional in the future)
  

Bugfixes:

• Added volumetric lights to the Prawn Suit and to the Scanner Room camera lights.
• Fixed some volumetric lights not working properly on loading. After reload the volumetric lights are set to on, which causes the player to see the volumetric lights when loading from inside a vehicle. The volumetric lights should only be visible when not inside the vehicle. To circumvent this the player had to exit and reenter the vehicle.
• Fixed a bug with multiple Cyclops: Previously when controlling a Cyclops and toggling the flood lights while piloting, this would also toggle the lights in other Cyclops's (plural :D ).
• When going into Cyclops camera the floodlights are set to non-visible, which had problems with the newly added energy consumption. Now they are properly toggled off, when using the camera.
• The Cyclops/Base lighting and the Thermal Reactor was previously not updated if the player was about 60m or more away from the Cyclops. This is essential not only for the light energy calculation but also for the Cyclops when the "Cyclops Thermal Reactor Module" was equipped. I.e. when the player was too far away from the cyclops it was not being charged! :D
  

Options:
The options for this mod can be changed either ingame within the mod/options or with the help of the config.json file.
The vanilla config values are, when you delete the config file, these values will be set:
{
  "SeaMothLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "ExosuitLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "BaseDefaultLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "BaseEmergencyLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "CyclopsFloodLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "CyclopsCameraLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "MapRoomCameraLightEnergyPerDay": 0.0,
  "CyclopsSwapLightButtons": false,
  "CyclopsCameraLightRange": 55.0,
  "CyclopsCameraLightIntensity": 1.0,
  "BaseAutoLightDim": false,
  "BaseLightFadeDuration": 1.0,
  "IncludeBaseLights": false,
  "ExosuitToggleLightKey": 325,
  "ExosuitToggleLightHud": false
}
The default config values I am currently playing with, (Also shipped when downloading this mod and the default values in the mod options) are :
{
  "SeaMothLightEnergyPerDay": 10.0,
  "ExosuitLightEnergyPerDay": 13.0,
  "BaseDefaultLightEnergyPerDay": 7.0,
  "BaseEmergencyLightEnergyPerDay": 3.0,
  "CyclopsFloodLightEnergyPerDay": 20.0,
  "CyclopsCameraLightEnergyPerDay": 10.0,
  "MapRoomCameraLightEnergyPerDay": 8.0,
  "CyclopsSwapLightButtons": true,
  "CyclopsCameraLightRange": 60.0,
  "CyclopsCameraLightIntensity": 1.0,
  "BaseAutoLightDim": true,
  "BaseLightFadeDuration": 1.5,
  "IncludeBaseLights": true,
  "ExosuitToggleLightKey": 325,
  "ExosuitToggleLightHud": false
}
Hint: I play with a 5 times slower game, so i multiplied all values by 5. Also, these are just estimations if you find better or more suitable values let me know!

Mod recommendations:
Day Night Speed by zorgesho 
Base Light Switch by ahk1221
WhiteLights by RandyKnapp
My other mods, especially:
"Vehicles Improved"

Installation:
This mod requires QModManager and SMLHelper (Modding Helper).
Extract the Rm_VehicleLightsImproved archive into your QMods folder:
"./QMods/Rm_VehicleLightsImproved/mod.json"

Compatibility:

• White Lights seems to be incompatible.
  

Hard to tell. I tried to keep everything as compatible as possible!
I will update this in the future if incompatibilities occur.




Please let me know if you find any bugs and post them in the bugs section or if you are not sure, just as a comment!

Visit the modding community for help or additional information!

Sourcecode: Github