Taste it? No thanks. The shaman may have better marketing with Union Pacific if they allow re-selling or making it a rare drop from jobs. Please ask the shaman if he's got some Potion of Invulnerability at fort fights, won't you?
If Inno ever re-sells the Union Officer set versus considering re-balancing fort fights via class abilities away from the already overwhelming advantages given to duelers and workers, it'll prove
a) they are greedy and are going for the easy buck and b) they are simply lazy.
Sorry, if you keeping this wheezing,skeletal creature-of-a-game alive, yet at the same time doing massive cash grabs like the UO set and schemes like the DotD/Christmas tombola combos, don't say
"we can't cover dev of the West with our current budget". It seems like more of a conscious choice not to put in effort versus a fiscal inability.
Otherwise, if The West is only solvent because of a couple people ego-boosting themselves to be better than everyone else + these tombola schemes and OP set grabs, then it is time to pull the plug. If that really is the case, the basis of your game's profitability is rooted in negativity as opposed to its heyday when it was fun, clever, innovative and genuinely engaging. That was the fuel that drove the game's players and its developers in the past.