#483 Patch: doc/Developers/types/type_13.dox - clarify "chance to break" (food) semantics

[Rick Tanner]

The "chance to break" row for ARROW (type 13) was technically correct but under-specified, which contributed to a downstream documentation error (player-facing guides relabeled this field "durability" and inverted its meaning, treating a higher %-chance-to-break as a higher survival chance).

This patch, without changing the original meaning, adds:

• The break-chance roll also applies when a projectile simply runs out of flight range (not only on impact with a wall/monster).
• An explicit note that this value is the inverse of "durability" (higher = more fragile), and that an artifact's own value is ADDED to the base projectile's value rather than replacing it.
• A pointer clarifying that for ARROW (type 13), "chance to break" is the only relevant interpretation of <food> - the "changing", "splitting", and "is used up" rows describe unrelated uses of <food> for other object types.</food></food>

Crossfire version: crossfire-crossfire-server (current main/HEAD as of 2026-06-12).

Generated with: diff -u (run from the crossfire-crossfire-server top-level directory, per doc/Developers/programming_guide.md path conventions).

Also attached is the patched types_13.dox for comparison

$ patch -p1 --dry-run < type_13_dox_durability_clarification.patch
checking file doc/Developers/types/type_13.dox

$ patch -p1 < type_13_dox_durability_clarification.patch
patching file doc/Developers/types/type_13.dox

[Kevin Zheng]

Per the README in that directory:

Files in this directory were generated by utils/gridarta-types-convert so don't modify them else your changes will be lost next time they are generated!

Please submit a patch against the gridarta types file instead. Then this can be automatically re-generated.

[Rick Tanner]

New patch is attached

$ patch -p1 --dry-run < gridarta_types_xml_durability_clarification.patch
checking file src/crossfire/src/main/resources/resource/conf/types.xml

$ patch -p1 < gridarta_types_xml_durability_clarification.patch
patching file src/crossfire/src/main/resources/resource/conf/types.xml

$ git diff
diff --git a/src/crossfire/src/main/resources/resource/conf/types.xml b/src/crossfire/src/main/resources/resource/conf/types.xml
index e6ae9cde4..0a454155c 100644
--- a/src/crossfire/src/main/resources/resource/conf/types.xml
+++ b/src/crossfire/src/main/resources/resource/conf/types.xml
@@ -4941,9 +4941,15 @@

<attribute arch="food" editor="chance to break" type="int" min="0" max="100">
The <chance to break> defines the breaking probability when
- this projectile hits an obstacle, e.g. wall or monster. The value is
+ this projectile hits an obstacle, e.g. wall or monster, or simply
+ comes to rest after exhausting its flight range. The value is
the %-chance to break, ranging from 0 (never breaking) to 100
(breaking at first shot).
+
+ Note: this is the inverse of "durability" - a higher value makes
+ the projectile more fragile, not less. An artifact's own
+ <chance to break> value (if any) is added to the base
+ projectile's value, not used as a replacement.
</attribute>
<attribute arch="magic" editor="magic bonus" type="int">
Magic bonus increases chance to hit and damage a little bit.</attribute>