In the current public release there's a bug with particle controllers (all kinds), because S3D reads some fixed length strings as variable, and writes them back as variable. The result is a file that is incorrect to the game. You can fix this by modifying the xml file. See here:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=128
Additionally, below a workaround for the other types you mentioned. I say workaround, because we can use a type that supports the data, but has incorrect 'labels', so you have to know what the values mean. This is why I said earlier there were no types in S3D available, this is simply a hax.
EmissionArea you can correct by adding this:
<property name="EmissionArea" datatype="vector2" />
This will result in two floats (x and y) and they stand for Radius and SolidAngle.
Life you can correct by adding this:
<property name="BitmapParticles/Life" datatype="vector2" />
<property name="ObjectParticles/Life" datatype="vector2" />
And will result in two floats (x and y) again, for Life and Variation.
The new release will support all these properties, but this should help for now...