All the level data you would need to change is in one file. Thank goodness because there are an awful lot of .xml files with this game.
The file you will be editing is called 'tumblebugs.xml' and if you installed the game to the default directory it should be located at 'c:\my games\tumblebugs\media'. As usual, and you'll probably get tired of hearing it, make a backup copy of the file just in case.
Very important, I will be using the letter n to represent numbers in this tutorial.
Extra Lives
Your starting lives can be changed. It's located on line 5 of the file and looks like this:
<lives value="n"/>
n should probably not exceed 255, although I have not tried it.
Bonus Points
Lines 88 and 89 affect the bonus points at the end of the level. The ones that appear right after you splat the pusher bug and are normally 75 and 30 points.
Line 88 is the points from the squashed bug to the location of the last bug and looks like this:
<pathbonuspushertohead value="n"/>
I set n to 250 points, it was 75.
Line 89 is the points from the location of the last bug to the hole and looks like this:
<pathbonusheadtoexit value="n"/>
I set n to 100 points, it was originally 30.
These two settings are global and affect every round.
The rounds data starts at line 715.
To find the data for a particular level you want to edit, you will need to know the name of the level. The data for each round begins with:
<roundconfig>
<name value="Round And Round The Garden"/>
Where name value will be equal to the name of the level you wish to change.
Round Length
First value I'll give you affects the length of the round. It is:
<targetscore value="n"/>
where n is the number of points you need to get on the round for the Superbug to appear.
Par Time
The par time is affected by this:
<timepar value="n"/>
and is expressed in seconds.
Speed and Balls
The next two values affect the speed of the balls:
<speedstart value="n"/>
<speedend value="n"/>
speedstart is just how fast they enter the track. speedend is how fast they travel on the track during the level and is the one you will want to mess with to slow the balls down...or speed them up if you are so inclined.
Colored Balls
The next one affects the number of colored balls there are during the round:
<ballcolours value="nnnnnn"/>
where n = either a 1 or a 0. If an n is set to 1 the ball color will be present, 0 it will not...think of it as an on and off situation. Since there are six different colors for the balls, there will be six digits in the number. Obviously, you will need to have at least two of the digits set to 1. The six digits position represent the colors as follows:
1. Green
2. Red
3. Yellow
4. Blue
5. Purple
6. Orange
So a value of "100101" would have Green, Blue and Orange balls on the level.
Powerups
Next data pieces affect powerups:
<powerupsbefore value=" n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n" />
<powerupsafter value=" n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n, n" />
You'll notice there are thirteen numbers in each setting. This is because there are thirteen powerups. The position of the powerups are as follows:
1. Backwards
2. Forwards
3. Stop
4. Ballistic
5. Wildball
6. Blossom
7. E
8. X
9. T
10. R
11. A
12. Fireball
13. Colorburst
I've seen values as high as 200 and as low as 04. If the value is 00, then the powerup will not appear. I believe the lower the number the less frequent it will appear.
The only difference between the two settings is when the powerups will appear. The before setting simply means before the Superbug appears and of course, the after setting is after the Superbug appears. (I noticed that some of the levels the numbers are drastically reduced after the Superbug appears making it less likely for powerups to appear while you are trying to clear up the round).
<chanceofsamecolour value="n"/>
These affect the chances of same colored balls appearing next to each other:
This is the starting chance. If it is set to 80, I believe it means there is an 80 percent chance the next ball will be the same color.
<chanceofsamecolourdecrement value="n"/>
This is the amount the chance of the same color ball is decreased each time a same color ball appears as the previous one...huh?
Example, say the chance value is set to 80 and decrement value is set to 10. A Green ball appears. There's an 80 Percent chance the next one will be green. Now say the next one is green, the decrement value kicks in and deduct the chance by 10, making it 70. Now there's a 70 percent chance the next ball will be green. Now say it happens again that the next one is green, the next chance test will be 60 percent and will deduct by 10 for each successful test until it fails and the next ball is not green. When the test fails, the chance is reset back up to 80 and the whole process starts over again.
Well, this is long and it is late so I'll leave it here for now.
Tip: Did you know there are two ways to get extra lives. One is by collecting the EXTRA letters, the other is through points, which can be changed in the tumblebugs.xml file...but I haven't experimented yet and don't know the full details.
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