yeah the particle collision event (PCE) is by no means easy it takes a little work to make it look good as with any aspect of 3d art, also remember using the particle textures too that will help a lot in making your stuff look good...

Also in the section Per Particle (Array) Attributes section there are some items there that are particularly helpful...lifespanPP and goalPP are two that you may use the most....you can set expressions before runtime, after runtime and even on creation... you can also add in attributes in that section also by going down to the next section Add Dynamic Attributes... you can add an attribute, the color, and opacity you can add as per object (all particles), per particle(one particle at a time) or a shader...

The one thing I like about using the tools like the PCE is you don't have to worry about keyframing your attributes as much as you would be doing without the PCE.....

Hope to see your dynamics soon