Hopping in to give my very long two cents, per usual:
Now as someone with an interest in game design, I can really appreciate concise, functional abilities like Sultan Saladin's. I won't use it (I have been avoiding getting a religious victory since I got the game and I'm not interested by Arabia's domination potential), but I appreciate it. Saladin finally plays like how he should have from the start
Though, I feel like those kind of abilities are really the opposite of what we need right now. These are hardly challenging abilities by any means, much less coming off the heels of NFP. From how Lincoln, Nzinga Mbande, and Saladin's new persona were designed, it seems like we weren't the only ones who had been reverted to 2016
.
If Firaxis is really thinking "more is more" and wants this cherry on top of the Civ VI cake to be worth it, then give us some cool abilities! I doubt they intend the majority of pass owners to purchase it, but this first pack doesn't give them much of a reason to. The "Negotiators" (I use quotation marks because the pack names seem to just be dressing) have some pleasant abilities, but only pleasant. Not interesting, not "I didn't know a Civ could
do that," not Babylon-levels of bonkers crazy absurd flipping the game on its head. NFP was daring and pretty out there, to the point of fault, but that was part of what made it enjoyable and so exciting, right?
I do enjoy the Negotiators, though. Like I said, they're pleasant. I wish Lincoln weren't designed as a conqueror and portrayed as liberty in a top hat, but oh well