Magic Lamps

I always haul them to Attnam to rub, just in case the genie is hostile. Anyone else do this?

Depends on my gear, I tend to do that only if there's a substantial risk of dying to it between it spawning and me teleporting away. Generally lamps found on any level before like GC2 qualify for that.

If I find one early into UT I also like to haul them to New Attnam on the off chance that a hostile genie gets a lucky hit in on Decos so I can use his armor.
They're also an unbreakable light source for the Enner Beast floor.

I never thought of the new attnam/decos thing.

You can also do that with the patrol guard for his helmet in Attnam, though I've yet to see the genie actually kill him.

is his helmet special?

It's perception +2 IIRC. It's an easy stat-boosting helmet to get with a scroll of taming too if you haven't been able to find brilliance or understanding yet.

I have said this before but I am amazed that there are still things to be learned in this gsame almost a decade after development stopped.

I feel so stupid for taking this long to realize that oil lamps are actually functional lamps...

Thats awesome. They arent very good light sources - their only real use is as an unbreakable light source on a level where that is important. there are other better Ubreakable light sources that you should be able to acquire by the time you reach that aformentioned spoily level.

A trip to UT4 can net you some of the more pretty ones

Aesthetically though, the oil lamps are the best. No contest.

how so? I think their light is dim.

I prefer flaming swords to the oil lamps or the UT4 ones aesthetically. A warm glow that's not too harsh yet is bright enough to actually see with. The UT4 ones are so neon, you need to stack multiple colours to get a bearable result.

I like a lightning hammer + a blue light crystal. Combined it's very bright and gives a nice white light

One of each UT4 item works quite well, or just the blue itself.
Of course having a practical light source like a flaming sword or lightning hammer is much better if you are indeed using those weapon classes.

Also worth noting is that mutant animal blood glows. It's pretty neat lighting up a corridor with the gore splattered on your chest, and fleeing mutants can light up the entire way to where they're hiding!

I did say aesthetically, and brightness is a practical factor! Oil lamps most closely resemble a flaming torch of old in terms of light.