lighting segestions for an underground city.

short question is there any suggestions for how to light an underground city.
note. my skylight isnt working when i darken the sky. it looks like it did before in my old scene. but its so dark now that sometimes the point lights wont even brighten some spots. but i also dont know how world light will behave when i close in the city, becuase it will be completely underground

long version is where somebody can help me figure out my old lighting and how to recapture it.
the first pictures are from my first attempt at this. and it looked great on the level, but unfortunately my harddrive died the day after that photo was taken. and i have no idea how i did it and my current lighting looks horribly dark and flat. i was lucky to be able to save all of the assests and the original .blend for the scene, but not the buildings. there are now several backups spread everywhere now. but after i rebuilt the scene i cant figure it out.

once im done with remodeling the buildings and properly building the final scene. ill need to know how to start lighting buildings in the distance without the main light source, because i will need the put a ceiling on the world.

now th big kicker. is im placing for the massive columns that hold up the ceiling to be holding micro suns in them. like big glowing orbs that are meant to be the main light sources. but i find it hard to believe in using 2 big point lights will look correct for lighting the mass majority of the city. or is that what i need to try.

the pictures below are the before and after shots. the dark ones are the new ones and the brighter glossier looking ones are the old ones. they are all textureless. with just plain black and a lightly emissive blue.

old


new