The babysitting the cubs is an adorable idea. Very good way to work it into the lore. I could program it tbh to make sure it pulls item specifically from this year (or just ones that are restocking since it's generally the current year and previous year) so you def don't get stuck with some item that's been around years and is like 5sP

Anything we do, like a special quest or doing something with the cubs, will be limited. :)

The OD vending machine doesn't specifically put out items we have tagged for pirate (like what goes out via carl or specifically the shop), but you can get pirate items from it! Because wearables + restockable and stuff.

This is literally the only holiday left that we have restocking for, and that's why it's not going to leave. I was gleeful to shut down the Holiday Shop (which is kind of hilarious to me so many people want the pirate shop to be like other special shops but also complain about Holiday Shop being gone when it was the same like this) because I knew we weren't completely getting rid of restocking as far as holidays went.

We'll likely do something this year, ! It'll be a small thing maybe halfway but next year we'll likely have something bigger or more fleshed out to deal with the cubs getting older or something. Let's be real, they are already pretty clever (one reading all the books, the other stealing the ale).

I'd rather not have other quest givers giving out items from this holiday because most of them have their own holiday assigned to them they give stuff out, so a new thing (like the cubs or even dueling in the future) is much more likely to happen!

Also in regards to the retired/new things - the items aren't weighted for what goes out via quest as a bonus item. We include retired things because that's a way to get old restockables out at that we don't want restocking anymore (and at the moment don't go out any other way). Whatever we end up doing new feature wise, I'll likely gear it towards putting out items that are currently restocking (generally current year + previous year)

Yeah, they can go out as their regular items because of key words, item types, etc since they're restockable! I'm just talking about having them as bonus items, like Carl has them. Carl is giving a regular item + a chance at a bonus pirate item (just like Vesnali Alexander would give a possibly bonus item of old restockable Vesnali items).