When Suk-krath sets...

[Salt Merchant]

...could there be some sort of message issued to people outside even if a sandstorm is preventing direct sight of the sun?

Something along the lines of "the dusk deepens to nightfall"?

It seems odd to be moving along and suddenly without warning you're stumbling in the darkness, or that person you've been talking to becomes a female voice, and so on.

Or have I been missing some cue a few thousand times?

[DesertT]

There's not an IC cue that I know of, but I just keep track on my computer clock.  Every 10 minutes, change of hour.

[FatDot]

I swear you get "The night has begun" When ... it begins. But if you're on a move, and the level of sandstorm is worse in the room you enter, you get no message, no.

[Tisiphone]

The problem might also have been a switch between "late at night" and "before dawn" with the moons leaving the sky. In this case, no, you don't get a message.

[Archbaron]

The problem might also have been a switch between "late at night" and "before dawn" with the moons leaving the sky. In this case, no, you don't get a message.

Yeah, this is usually the culprit in my book.

[Dalmeth]

...could there be some sort of message issued to people outside even if a sandstorm is preventing direct sight of the sun?

Something along the lines of "the dusk deepens to nightfall"?

It seems odd to be moving along and suddenly without warning you're stumbling in the darkness, or that person you've been talking to becomes a female voice, and so on.

Or have I been missing some cue a few thousand times?

Just a note : the sun actually sets during the hour of dusk.  Light still remains until you get into night.

[a strange shadow]

Yeah, the dusk echos are a bit misleading.

[Dalmeth]

Yeah, the dusk echos are a bit misleading.

Not really.  There's still a bit of light after the sun dips below the horizon.  It's just that, for the sake of code, real penalties to visibility take place only when the hour of late at night comes along as opposed to the steady decline that is natural.