[NightFright]

A question to con specialists out there:

Assuming I am redefining an episode with a custom con, e.g. one that looks like this:

include game.con

definevolumename 0 EPISODE NAME
undefinevolume 1
undefinevolume 2
undefinevolume 3

definelevelname 0 0 map1.map 00:00 00:00 MAP NAME #1
definelevelname 0 1 map2.map 00:00 00:00 MAP NAME #2
definelevelname 0 2 map3.map 00:00 00:00 MAP NAME #3

If map3.map does not have a boss enemy, would the episode end due to EDuke32 not finding the next map of the episode (in this case E1L4.map) or would it follow USER.CON and continue anyway? In other words: Would a con file like the one above override USER.CON regarding level arrangement or is it just replacing map slots which have been redefined, still using all the others from the rest of the episode (if available) from USER.CON?

I am asking this because currently I am using some code to stop the episodes from continuing in such cases and wonder if it's really required.

[Danukem]

I have never used the undefinevolume command, but I would assume that it does what it says. I would not expect any trace of the level definitions in USER.CON to remain in memory, so in your case the game would end after map3, the last defined level. The alternative would mean that the command is broken.

[NightFright]

According to the wiki, undefinevolume is one of three options you can use to hide/undefine stuff from the menu:

undefinelevel (for levels)
undefineskill (for skill settings)
undefinevolume (for episodes)

I have used undefinevolume many times in the addon compilation (at least with the upcoming update) and it seems to work as intended. It is however only needed if you redefine existing entries, i.e. if you include game.con and then change some user.con defaults. Addons using a full, customized user.con don't require it - it is enough to remove needless episodes from the con code.

Exceptions: Gaps in the episode list, such as

undefinevolume 0
definevolumename 1 CUSTOM EPISODE

or

definevolumename 0 CUSTOM EPISODE #1
undefinevolume 1
definevolumename 2 CUSTOM EPISODE #2

In those cases you would still need undefinevolume also in full user.cons, at least that's what I have found out. Maybe this should be documented in the wiki eventually, right now those entries are all empty.

I will do some experimenting with those override cons and post my findings here, but I also expect to see what Dan posted.