I use the ir_black for vim (MacVim mainly). Recently have been doing a lot of work in the terminal over ssh and have constantly been having to switch colouscheme to dessert, just to see the text properly.

:colorscheme desert

The vimrc Which I had copied from some one else used:

" 8 Colours Modified to 16 Colors
if &term =~ "xterm"
  if has("terminfo")
    set t_Co=16
    set t_Sf=^[[3%pl%dm
    set t_Sb=^[[4%pl%dm
  else
    set t_Co=16
    set t_Sf=^[[3%dm
    set t_Sb=^[[4%dm
  endif
endif

It turns out that if I had realised this came from: :help xterm-color and read it. For 16 colours it recommends:

" 16 Colours
if &term =~ "xterm"
  if has("terminfo")
    set t_Co=16
    set t_AB=%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{40}%+%e%p1%{92}%+%;%dm
    set t_AF=%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{30}%+%e%p1%{82}%+%;%dm
  else
    set t_Co=16
    set t_Sf=%dm
    set t_Sb=%dm
  endif
endif

Which is now working well. It also recommends some things for 256 colour but that just filled my terminal with Color escape codes.