Lighting instead of darking

The original idea for lighting was to symbolize unlit areas by covering them with a black sprite which varied in opacity. I was thinking a better method would be to change the opacity of the individual game objects on a scale 0-1. So a completely lit object in the spotlight would have an opacity of 1 and would be completely visible. A partially lit object would possibly have an opacity value of .5 which would leave the object half transparent. And of course, an object in the dark would have a opacity value of 0 which would be invisible. These values would also determine the machine gunners aim on an object. There would no longer be a need to tint things black where the light doesn't hit, instead the spot light and lamplight will need sprites that show magnitude and direction. I can make those sprites though - Rollin.