User blog comment:Willbachbakal/Singleplayer Gene Tonics/@comment-3567720-20110703141443/@comment-1330314-20110705192941

The thing is, first-person shooters are supposed to be hunter-oriented games. You don't progress through the game just by collecting stuff and wandering around, you actually have to kill people. Everything you do in a first-person shooter is oriented towards encouraging you or rewarding you for shooting theq bad guys, no matter how indirectly. Even something as innocuous as an engineering Tonic eventually helps you shoot stuff better through the use of machines. Having a Tonic that rewards you for not killing stuff and just standing still would make no sense in that context.

The thing is, no matter what label you decide to put on Fountain of Youth, whether it's "gatherer-oriented" or whatever, doesn't change the fact that it's an incredibly boring Tonic to use. Since time spent waiting in a puddle is time lost, it would be better if you could recharge your EVE and health faster. Also, it rewards you with an unlimited supply of those resources without incurring any risk whatsoever, which makes it even less fun, which is why I find it needs a cap.

Just to make things clear, just compare Fountain of Youth as it exists with my tweaked version. With the original you'd run to the nearest bit of water whenever you got hurt and fully recharge, which can take a very long time. With mine, every time you'd win a fight you could go looking for water, recharge a bit of your EVE and health almost instantly, and then immediately continue exploring, fighting or completing your objective. If you got badly hurt, you'd just be able to wash all of the damage away, boring yourself to death in the process, with the first version, but with mine you'd be able to regenerate a chunk and then either top it off with a First Aid Kit or go looking for someone to jump so as to reset the regeneration factor. Honestly, which of those playstyles would you prefer?