Oracle hunting etiquette

[VACANTSTARE]

In my humble opinion, this is the biggest point of contention among overkill players. How much is too much when hunting the oracle? Granted, there's a 200 stat point ceiling, but that can still add up to alot of visists to the big O. I've recently come to believe that hunting him all out is A-O.K. for two basic reasons 1) It would take forever (with the game at harder settings) to get the components to enter the AFB without the oracle. It's far more likely that players would drop out from lack of interest than keep plugging away to up their levels. 2) If your in a competitive game your putting yourself at a disadvantage by not increasing your stats as fast as possible. If another player, or team of players, decides to declare war, it's better to be in a position of strength. I'd also say that by taking that position of strength, you deter another player's unwanted attention (though you can also make the arguement that rapidly boosting your stat's just makes it more necessary for other players to knock you down a peg or two. Those are my thoughts on the matter, but I'd like to hear from my fellow overkillers on this.

[Dwarf_in_hideing]

I always hunt the oracle. It allows you to advance so much quicker.  I  rarely seek to find him after the 3rd or 4th hit of the login/day however.  This stems from not needing to be oraclle greedy.. and because of an old setting that  sysops used to set up in OOII.  I am not sure if its still there or just if the default is set really high.
 
     Its rare to bump into its use these days... but the Oracle threshold used to be adjustable. A sysop would set it for 3 hits.. and the 4th hit you'd get warned off by the oracle. The 5th hit would *reduce* your stats.  
   
     The drawback was that we are talking about the total of hits by players. That means in an active game the first player to meet the set threshold got the benifits.. and the next players sucked up the warnings and stat losses. THIS is the reason for folks looking down upon  the Oracle hunter.. greedy lil snots that they were!  
 
  Now if this setting could be adjusted to a set number of  hits per player, it would add alot back to the game. OOII has been dumbed down enough I think. Its not gathering the new player by makeing it such a cakewalk for the older players.
 
   I used to love the struggle to get into the AFB in a game with 2 max Oracle hits.. and a hard mapset. Saveing up every watercrystal I could till I got lucky and killed for the componant that got me into the weapons and research area.. I've done it a time or three without hitting the oracle more than 2 times  in a game.. and not reaching higher than level 10
 
  Dam Frawd
aka The_Mad_Dwarf
aka  That- Dammed- Dwarf- that- can't- post- by- his-usual -name- because- this- system- lost- his- password - and-dosen't -know-his-new-e-mail

[Lucky_Dragon]

Once I discover the oracle monster on a particular level, and get my hands on a TriKorder, I can usually manage to track the oracle down once in a one-hour period. Since the game penalizes players for dying by lowering stats upon resurrection, I think oracle hunting is a necessary part of any realistic strategy for winning the game. Without the oracle, your character would not be able to handle the more powerful monsters on levels 4 and 5. If the oracle is made more difficult to find in future versions, then players will have to be awarded more stat points at each level-up to compensate, or the game will become too difficult to be enjoyable (unless you're a masochist).