Struggling with GI and Skyboxes

I must be missing the obvious... and I'm sorry if this question is silly but I'm very new to all this.

What I'm struggling with is the impact of skyboxes on my GI. I'm trying to create a very simple, 'clean' look to my scene with futuristic materials.

The problem is that with a black skybox (say, in space), the metallic materials I'm using are 100% black. Kinda like real life you might add, but they just reflect everything my skybox contains, making it very difficult for me to create different game levels - I have to change all my materials between each scene, which doesn't sound right!

I realize I could just change the reflection source and ambient sources in the lighting menu, but this leads to very unrealistic environments.

Is there a good tutorial somewhere (I read everything on the unity site but it just explains how to use each parameter, not how to create meaningful levels).

 

You need to be more specific. Not "say, in space", is it in space? A screenshot might help.

Also is seems you are confusing GI with reflections. Metallic materials have a lot of reflection but are not affected very much by GI.

I also don't understand why you have trouble making different levels.

 

I solved my problem - removed the ambient light and skybox reflection, and lit the scene manually with directional lights. Yes it's more draw calls, but boy does it solves some headaches.