• Pelagic Guardians of Horror - These only spawn in rooms, and will only be seen at a rate of ~10% in Apprentice, ~2% in Veteran, and ~5% in Champion. While I definitely feel the Apprentice rate could be a tad higher than desired, overall it's not nearly the rate perceived.
  
• 100% of room battle missions ALL spawn fewer rooms and corridors than the 80-100% explore mission. In fact, these missions make it much easier to manage torchlight due to that fact. I know this fact is never communicated, but it's all behind-the-scenes. The ratio roughly equals out. A long Ruins 80% explore, for instance, will spawn 26 rooms, requiring 21 to be explored. A long Ruins clear mission spawns 21 rooms. Explores tend to spawn more curios and fewer battles though, so it's up to preference.
  
• Trinkets, for the most part, are not the main way to make large bundles of money. The main way is by battling minibosses, which each drop a coin worth 3000 gold in Apprentice, and more on higher difficulties. This coin is in addition to rare loot. Another way to make money is by collecting lore, each worth 500 gold each.
  
• Heirloom drops are reworked, and pushed heavily into curios. Drop chances vary, but do not function the same as vanilla. Areas themselves contain almost always a single type of heirloom, and certain curios in those areas have a tendency to drop large amounts of them. Minibosses as well have a good chance to drop them. The ratio for trading is the same because the drop rate and need for them is 100% the same. To fully upgrade the town you need 636 of each type of heirloom; no more of one kind, no less.
  
• You are allowed fewer of certain provisions as a design decision, but that's for a good reason. The interactions with those items have been buffed, often leading to great reward if used properly. What you have now are, essentially, potions and daggers. These are cheaper options that, with a bit of knowledge, can achieve the exact same results from curios and in battle. These interactions are impossible to communicate perfectly in-game due to modding capabilities, and I definitely know that it's frustrating. I've done what I can though by providing information in the glossary and through lore you can find in-game. I still recommend using the spreadsheet for interactions though, as there are a lot of them.

Originally posted by Maester Silvio:

No criticism is too harsh, if it's productive and objective, so thank you for taking the time to write all of this!

First and foremost there's a lot to unravel here, some of it is just bad luck, some of it is decision by design, and some of it could be helped by some additional knowledge.

• Pelagic Guardians of Horror - These only spawn in rooms, and will only be seen at a rate of ~10% in Apprentice, ~2% in Veteran, and ~5% in Champion. While I definitely feel the Apprentice rate could be a tad higher than desired, overall it's not nearly the rate perceived.
  
• 100% of room battle missions ALL spawn fewer rooms and corridors than the 80-100% explore mission. In fact, these missions make it much easier to manage torchlight due to that fact. I know this fact is never communicated, but it's all behind-the-scenes. The ratio roughly equals out. A long Ruins 80% explore, for instance, will spawn 26 rooms, requiring 21 to be explored. A long Ruins clear mission spawns 21 rooms. Explores tend to spawn more curios and fewer battles though, so it's up to preference.
  
• Trinkets, for the most part, are not the main way to make large bundles of money. The main way is by battling minibosses, which each drop a coin worth 3000 gold in Apprentice, and more on higher difficulties. This coin is in addition to rare loot. Another way to make money is by collecting lore, each worth 500 gold each.
  
• Heirloom drops are reworked, and pushed heavily into curios. Drop chances vary, but do not function the same as vanilla. Areas themselves contain almost always a single type of heirloom, and certain curios in those areas have a tendency to drop large amounts of them. Minibosses as well have a good chance to drop them. The ratio for trading is the same because the drop rate and need for them is 100% the same. To fully upgrade the town you need 636 of each type of heirloom; no more of one kind, no less.
  
• You are allowed fewer of certain provisions as a design decision, but that's for a good reason. The interactions with those items have been buffed, often leading to great reward if used properly. What you have now are, essentially, potions and daggers. These are cheaper options that, with a bit of knowledge, can achieve the exact same results from curios and in battle. These interactions are impossible to communicate perfectly in-game due to modding capabilities, and I definitely know that it's frustrating. I've done what I can though by providing information in the glossary and through lore you can find in-game. I still recommend using the spreadsheet for interactions though, as there are a lot of them.

Finally, I really would love to come back to this and iron things out, but I have a career now with multiple jobs and responsibilities. My free time is limited, and to be honest I just burnt out of modding DD after ~3 years of 8-12 hours of work on the game every day, both for my mod and for the vanilla game. I can't rule out a potential return in the future to clean up some areas that need love, but I can't promise it either. I am truly sorry to the fans who would enjoy a PBD 7.0, but I would need 6-12 months to properly develop it. :/

Seriously, thank you for the criticism; try using some of the tips and info I provided to see if they can help you find some new tactics. If you need any more information, I'll always read and reply to discussions like this. I want people to enjoy it, but I know certain design decisions and modding limitations are frustrating, and in hindsight there is certainly a lot I would change about the mod too. It was my first professional-esque foray into designing, so there were more mistakes than successes I'm afraid.