Valandar, just remember that adding more lights that only cast light won't add too much to render times. Its the shadow casting lights (especially omni lights) that will start to really lengthen render times. Some "basic" lighting set ups in order to get a natural feel, look like chaotic messes. Just try and put some…
Your Occlusion falloff is the problem there. I usually used somewhere in between 100 and 200. I would play with it. 20 - 50 - 100. It depends on how much you want.
Alternatively, use the Deformation panel to resize your model up by 100 a few times, dynamesh, and resize back down by -100 the same amount if you want extra detail.
I am trying to make my first big set and am trying to figure out how to break the chunks up into modular pieces and how to texture them. I want to use a tiling texture as the base and add details with substance painter, but there's too much surface area for the shells to all fit into the 0-1 space and tile. Is it okay…