Cave generation parameters

In Pikmin 2, the files that define a cave's settings can be found in /user/Mukki/mapunits/caveinfo. For instance, the Emergence Cave uses tutorial_1.txt.

Header

Each file starts with a simple block titled CaveInfo. It contains only one parameter, {c000}, which takes two values, a 4 and the number of sublevels in the cave.

After the opening block, there is a lone number. This number is, once again, the number of sublevels in the cave. After this comes a series of blocks, with each group of 5 belonging to a sublevel.

Sublevel

Each sublevel starts with a block titled FloorInfo (the comment for the first sublevel has a number to the left of it; this is the number of sublevels). The object spawn process for each sublevel is controlled by the following blocks, and is explained in a bit more detail here.

All notes (Japanese or English statements followed by a #) are unnecessary and it will save file space by deleting them.

FloorInfo

This block has a large number of parameters that determine how the sublevel works. All content in these parameters consist of two words. The first word is a number, 4 for numbers and -1 for strings. The second word is the actual value of the parameter - the one you can modify.

To do: Figure out what happens if you change {f000} and {f001}.

Parameter	Description	Japanese comment
{f000}	The sublevel number this sublevel belongs to, minus 1. For example, if this floor is sublevel 1, the value is 0. Comment translates to "floor introduction". Seems to crash the game if lower than the current sublevel.	階はじめ
{f001}	Same as above. Comment translates to "floor end". Seems to duplicate the floor and replace future sublevels. For example, if you are on sublevel 1 ({f000} is set to 0) when {f001} is set to 2, sublevels 2 and 3 will be the exact same as the first sublevel. The other sublevels will be untouched.	階おわり
{f002}	Maximum enemy number. Enemies in dead ends do not count.	敵最大数
{f003}	Maximum treasure number.	アイテム最大数
{f004}	Maximum gate number.	ゲート最大数
{f005}	Number of "room" cave units.	ルーム数
{f006}	Ratio that controls how many corridors there are compared to rooms.	ルートの割合
{f007}	1 if this floor has a geyser, 0 otherwise.	帰還噴水(1=あり)
{f008}	Cave unit list file name.	使用ユニット
{f009}	Lighting definition file name.	使用ライト
{f00A}	Skybox. Valid values are: none, f010, vrbox (they all mean none), ice (ice cavern), test (cavern), build (steel), hiroba (garden), flooring (wooden floor), tatami (carpet).	VRBOX
{f010}	1 if the next sublevel hole is clogged, 0 otherwise.	階段を壊す岩で隠す(0=オフ 1=オン)
{f011}	Unknown.[unsure] Comment translates to "α attribute".	α属性
{f012}	Music type. 0 for normal, 1 to mute (until a boss), 2 to use rest sublevel music	β属性
{f013}	1 if sublevel has an invisible solid plane of ground, generally used for the hiroba, flooring and tatami skyboxes. If 0, Pikmin can fall off the edge to their deaths.	隠し床
{f014}	Maximum number of dead ends.	キャップ最大数
{f015}	Sublevel format version?[unsure]	Version
{f016}	Time until the Waterwraith appears.	BlackManTimer
{f017}	0 is normal, anything else makes it spawn two (connected) seesaw blocks randomly in the level. May spawn the leaders and Pikmin inside one. Unused.	沈む壁

TekiInfo

TekiInfo determines the main objects (enemies) to spawn on the sublevel.

The first number in the block is the total of entries. It is titled num. Each entry consists of two lines. The first line in an entry determines how it spawns, the object's class, what treasure it has inside, how many to spawn, and how likely this object is to be used to fill the enemy slots (only applicable if the object's type indicates that it's an enemy). The second line of each entry is the type of object.

To note is that if something is wrong with the object's spawn data, the game will probably break down, but it might also trigger an error handler. If it does, the object is turned into a fully-functional Common Glowcap.

Class

The first word in the first line contains the object class (fire geyser, Red Bulborb, clover, etc.), using its internal name (case insensitive). Treasures will not work; use the ItemInfo block for that.

If it is an enemy and is carrying something inside it, the internal name of that object's class is also included in that word, in lowercase, after an underscore (e.g. Chappy_key). In this case, the name of the enemy itself is no longer case insensitive and must be written in CamelCase, although exact casing depends on the object.

Spawn method

Some objects spawn from the sky, like Volatile Dweevils that only appear when you get close to their spawn position. To get an object to do this, write a dollar sign and/or a number before the name of the object, without a space in between. Example: $4BombOtakara. You have to write a specific thing to get a specific behavior, and if you write an invalid one, the game crashes:

Code	Effect	Notes
$	Always fall if a Pikmin or leader is nearby.
$0	Triggers the Common Glowcap error handler.	Unused.
$1	Unknown.[unsure]
$2	Only fall if a Pikmin is nearby, leaders are ignored.
$3	Only fall if a leader is nearby, Pikmin are ignored.	Unused.
$4	Only fall if Pikmin are carrying nearby.
$5	Only fall if a Purple causes an earthquake nearby.

Not all objects support this feature. The objects that don't support the feature completely ignore the $ sign and spawn normally. No bosses or plants (besides candypop buds) are changed.

Here is a list of all other known objects and whether or not they are capable of using this behavior.

Enemy	Supported	Notes
Anode Beetle	Yes
Anode Dweevil	Yes
Antenna Beetle	No
Armored Cannon Beetle Larva (Buried)	No
Armored Cannon Beetle Larva (Free)	Yes
Bomb-rock	Yes
Breadbug	No
Bulbmin	Yes
Bulborb Larva	Yes	Uses a unique falling animation, the same animation thats used when they are born from the Empress Bulblax.
Bumbling Snitchbug	Yes	Floats down from the sky.
Careening Dirigibug	Yes	Floats down from the sky.
Caustic Dweevil	Yes
Cloaking Burrow-nit	No
Creeping Chrysanthemum	No
Crimson Candypop Bud	Yes
Decorated Cannon Beetle	Yes
Doodlebug	No
Dwarf Bulbear	Yes
Dwarf Orange Bulborb	Yes
Dwarf Red Bulborb	Yes
Egg	Yes	Breaks upon hitting the ground.
Electrical Wire	No
Falling Boulder	Yes	Falling boulders sort of float in place for a bit, then fall down at a much quicker speed than normal. If multiple boulders spawn inside of each other, they will bounce off of each other at an angle when they are triggered by the player.
Female Sheargrub	No
Fiery Blowhog	Yes
Fiery Bulblax	Yes
Fiery Dweevil	Yes
Fire Geyser	No
Foxtail	No
Gas Pipe	No
Gatling Groink (Both variants)	Yes
Golden Candypop Bud	Yes
Greater Spotted Jellyfloat	Yes	Floats down from the sky.
Hairy Bulborb	Yes
Hermit Crawmad	No
Honeywisp	No
Iridescent Flint Beetle	No
Iridescent Glint Beetle	No
Ivory Candypop Bud	Yes
Lapis Lazuli Candypop Bud	Yes
Lesser Spotted Jellyfloat	Yes	Floats down from the sky
Lithopod Boulder (Unused)	Yes	The trail particles of the boulder will remain stationary in the air until the rolling boulder is triggered by the player.
Male Sheargrub	No
Mamuta	No
Mitite	No
Munge Dweevil	Yes
Orange Bulborb	Yes
Puffy Blowhog	Yes	Floats down from the sky.
Queen Candypop Bud	Yes
Ravenous Whiskerpillar	No
Red Bulborb	Yes
Shearwig	No
Skitter Leaf	No
Snow Bulborb	Yes
Spotty Bulbear	Yes
Swooping Snitchbug	Yes	Floats down from the sky.
Toady Bloyster	No
Unmarked Spectralids	No
Violet Candypop Bud	Yes
Volatile Dweevil	Yes
Water Dumple	Yes
Waterwraith Rollers (Unused)	No
Watery Blowhog	Yes
Withering Blowhog	Yes	Floats down from the sky.
Wogpole	Yes
Wollywog	Yes
Yellow Wollywog	Yes

Amount

The second word is a number, where the last digit is the spawn distribution weight and the other digits are the minimum amount to spawn. This line is commented with weight.
If the last digit (weight) is set to 0, it will specifically spawn the minimum amount (all but the last digit) - as long as there is enough room in the maximum enemy count; {f002}.

The following example will spawn exactly five Wogpoles in Enemy Group A:

  (...)

  {f002} 4 5

  (...)

# TekiInfo

{
  1 # num
  Tadpole 90 # weight
  0 # type
}

The reason this spawns exactly five instead of nine as you would normally expect is because there is more than one digit next to the object. This immediately tells the game to use spawn distribution weight. Considering the fact that the weight is set to 0 the game will try to spawn all nine of those Wogpoles, but due to the limitation of using spawn distribution weight it gets cut down to five as that is all {f002} is allowing.

However, if only one digit is present after an object name and type is set to anything but 6, that digit will only be weight.

The following example will spawn exactly fifteen Yellow Wollywogs in Enemy Group B:

  (...)

  {f002} 4 15

  (...)

# TekiInfo

{
  1 # num
  Frog 1 # weight
  1 # type
}

Considering this example only spawns one enemy, the value for weight doesn't actually matter. In this case it's 1, which would mean there is a 1/1 chance of spawning it. If it was 2, 3 or 4, it would still always round down to 1/1 as there is only one enemy using the weight.

However, this can again be affected if you're not careful. In the case that two enemies spawn; one enemy uses single-digit weight and the other uses two digits but the last digit is 0, that second enemy will spawn as many as directed and then the rest will go to the first enemy. Sounds complicated, eh?

Well, the following example will help. It spawns exactly two Water Dumples in Enemy Group A and exactly seven Anode Beetles in Enemy Group B:

  (...)

  {f002} 4 9

  (...)

# TekiInfo

{
  2 # num
  Catfish 20 # weight
  0 # type
  ElecBug 1 # weight
  1 # type
}

If the above example's {f002} was only set to 2, then it would always spawn exactly two Water Dumples and zero Anode Beetles. If we were to add more enemies with more single-digit weights, then following spawn distribution weight we would get more RNG-based results, but would still all be affected in the same way under maximum enemy counts.

This is very important: In the case that the object spawns in the plant location (8), a single digit will be the exact count of that object - regardless of {f002}.

The following example will spawn exactly three Dwarf Red Bulborbs in plant locations:

  (...)

  {f002} 4 0

  (...)

# TekiInfo

{
  1 # num
  Kochappy 3 # weight
  6 # type
}

Otherwise; if it's a single digit and it spawns in other locations, that single digit will be spawn distribution weight. This means that the amount of the enemy will still rely on the maximum enemy count in {f002}. That said, if you spawn an object in the plant location with two or more digits, those digits will work like normal spawn distribution weight, just like how is shown in the first example.

Credits: Jimble

Type

This number controls what type of object this is, and where it spawns. The number ranges from 0 to 8, and most also correspond to a group of spawn coordinates. When spawning an instance of this object, the game picks a random coordinate from the group, if applicable. This line is commented with type. The following table lists the possible numbers, and the comments on the various unit layout files, in /user/Mukki/mapunits/arc/*/texts.szs/layout.txt, are also included due to them helping understand what each number means.

Group	Content	Notes	layout.txt comment
0	Enemy, spawn coordinate group A		Teki A
1	Enemy, spawn coordinate group B		Teki B
2	Treasure	There is no cave definition file that uses this number.	Item
3	Unknown[unsure]	There is no cave definition file or cave unit definition file that uses this number.
4	Cave entrance/Geyser	Some cave units use this to spawn in the cave entrance for the next sublevel and for the geyser to appear. Nothing can spawn on here except for the cave entrance/geyser only.	FixObj
5	Enemy, spawns at the entrances of dead ends	No cave unit definition file has a spawn coordinate with this number; the coordinate is likely calculated automatically given how simple and consistent it is.
6	Plant		Plant
7	Leader spawn position	Objects can't use this as the type. This is only used inside cave unit definitions to specify a possible player starting spot in the cave. The Y coordinate is ignored; it snaps to the ground.	Start
8	Enemy, spawn coordinate group C		Teki F

Objects can only use types 0, 1, 5, 6, or 8. Objects will not be spawned on a dead end under TekiInfo. To get them to spawn on dead ends, they must be declared in the CapInfo block; here, they can also use type 2.

Example

	{f002} 4 5 	# 敵最大数

(...)

# TekiInfo
{
	2 	# num
	$Tadpole 23 	# weight
	0 	# type
	Sokkuri_bane 9 	# weight
	1 	# type
}

Assuming there's enough space in the sublevel, this would make the game spawn 2 Wogpoles, that only pop up from the sky when you get close. Then, it spawns 3 randomly picked enemies, with each enemy having a 3/12 chance of being a Wogpole (like the aforementioned ones, these spawn from the sky), and a 9/12 chance of being a Skitter Leaf that is carrying a Coiled Launcher. Any Wogpole in this sublevel will spawn in the set of coordinates that belong to group 0, whereas any Skitter Leaf will spawn on the coordinates of group 1.

ItemInfo

The next block is titled ItemInfo. It controls how treasures spawn. Treasures inside enemies aren't included here.

The first number in the block is the total of entries. It is titled num. Each entry consists of one line. This line contains the internal name of the treasure, in all lowercase, and then after a space, the amount to spawn. This amount uses the same scheme as the TekiInfo block, except it is limited by {f003} instead. If you try to spawn something here that is not a treasure, the game will crash.

Example

	{f003} 4 4

(...)

# ItemInfo
{
	3
	key 10
	gold_medal 12
	saru_head 04
}

The game will spawn one The Key and one Lustrous Element, the next two treasures (because {f003} is set to 4), will have a 2/6 chance of being a Lustrous Element, and a 4/6 chance of being a Colossal Fossil.

GateInfo

GateInfo controls what gates will appear. Each individual gate on a sublevel is randomly colored. The game will spawn the number of gates defined in {f004}, but will stop spawning them if there isn't enough room.

The first number in the block is the total of entries. It is titled num.

1. Each entry consists of two lines.
2. The first line is the gate's HP. It is titled with life. This line starts with any word (although the word gate is what's used in the vanilla game), and after a space, the amount of hit points it has, with decimal places (e.g. 1000.000000).
3. The second line is the spawn distribution weight. Only the last digit of this number is used.^[unsure] If the number is 0, this type of gate will not spawn at all, of course.

Example

	{f004} 4 2

(...)

# GateInfo
{
	2
	gate 4000.000000
	1
	gate 2500.000000
	1
}

This will spawn two different types of gates of random colours in random locations. The total number of gates appearing in the level is dependent on the value set in {f004}, which in this case is 2 so only two gates will spawn.

CapInfo

CapInfo determines what objects to spawn in dead ends.

The first number in the block is the total number of entries. It is titled num. Each entry consists of three lines.

The logic is the exact same as spawning objects in the TekiInfo block, except for the following things:

1. Each entry is defined by three. There is an extra line before the usual weight and type lines, which determines, presumably, the type of dead end this spawn applies to. It is titled captype, and always has the value 0.
2. Objects spawned here appear in dead ends.
3. Enemies spawned with this block do not count for the enemy limit.

Example

# CapInfo
{
	1
	0
	$2Egg 1
	1
	0
	WhitePom 1
	1
}

This will spawn an egg that will fall down upon spawning and a Ivory Candypop Bud, both in random dead-ends.