[OPEN] [CD] Cats can't use the litter boxes

Hi @DragonAge_300905

does the freeze only happens if the boxes are broken or is that a separate issue ?

From previous experience with queue interaction bugs, the litter box might be breaking because the cat might be repeatedly trying to queue using it only for it to fail for an unknown reason. The game then begins a very rapid loop until the object breaks. Have seen this happen with regular sims and objects like TVs, sinks and showers.

A sim which is off the active lot and in the surrounding neighbourhood doesn't queue any actions involving objects inside the active lot, and using auto-solve (Clicking on the needs icon in the tab) will result in the sims complaining that there is no object nearby to relieve this need. When a need gets low enough, they may autonomously queue 'Return to Active Lot' and then queue to use an object on the active lot once the sim has reached the lot's gridspace.

One possibility is the cat might be skipping the 'Return to Active Lot' part somehow and trying to route back to an object on the active lot, which confuses the game because routing from off the active lot isn't something the game normally does. Hence the cycle of action queues that inevitably break the litter box.

But that's my theory, I haven't dived into the game's code to see if that's how it works. Could be wholly wrong. :P

Edit: Thinking about it, it may be very loosely related to another bug where sims constantly queue to 'Return to Active lot' when at a party/hospital/social gathering away from the Sim's home.

Edit #2: Seen in the routing issues thread that sims can't interact with cats that are sitting on picnic tables. There might be an issue with cats on table not being able to route interactions to and also from them while on a surface.

Sorry I don't know how to edit my post.

In tonight's game I had the litter box issue after I cooked pet food. One of my cats, I have 2 adult males in this game, couldn't use the litter box after eating his food. I went into build mode, deleted the litter boxes and bought new ones. He still couldn't use the litter box so I quit to desktop and restarted my game. He was able to use the litter box after a few seconds of loading my game. I had both kinds of the self cleaning litter boxes, one of each litter box. Now I only have the non laser self cleaning litter boxes on the lot. I have 2 litter boxes, one inside the bathroom and one outside the bathroom. The self cleaning litter boxes on the lot now are the one that rakes the litter. Sorry I don't know the name of it. I've never used the covered litter box, I'm not sure how to know when it's dirty and needs cleaning. I do the visual ones that you can see when they need cleaning.

No freezes have happened in this game so far.

ETA. In this game my cats haven't left the lot. They go out front to check the mail box that's on the porch but they haven't left the lot. And I'm playing in Windinburg sp? on the 20X20 lot on the island. They sometimes will go down the stairs and check out the cat bush that I have in the front of the stairs. It's a single story house on a foundation.

ETA again.

@crinrictThe one thing that's been constant through all the litter box issue is the cat has been a Tuxedo breed. In my currant game I have a Japanese bobcat and a Tuxedo. It was the tuxedo that had the issue with the litter box. I could be wrong that the Tuxedo breed is the issue but it's been the breed that has had the issue in my games.

You can click on the cogwheel of the post and choose edit.

The img-tag doesn't work here. To add a pic directly to your post, just upload it here.

 EDIT: Moved your freezing post here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Sim-s-Queue-Freezing/m-p/6411883#M50116

I'd like to keep separate issues separate. Thanks.

Does it count if you go to a general area and call your pet over there or do they have to go there own their complete own ?

Do they break right away after you did the repro steps ? All has been working fine for me so far.

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@crinrict wrote:

Does it count if you go to a general area and call your pet over there or do they have to go there own their complete own ?

Do they break right away after you did the repro steps ? All has been working fine for me so far.

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The pets have to go there on their own without any input from your sim. The pet goes on their complete own choice.

In my last game where the litter box broke, it happened right after the cat was finished eating the pet food my sim cooked for him.  It was Mayor whiskers who I had adopted in a prior game and saved him to my library with my sim. I changed his traits and his name to Whiskers.

I don't know what you mean about repro steps. I just now put the lot on the gallery, but the camera dosen't show low enough to see the cat bushes in front of the stairs. I also changed one litter box to match the litter box in the bathroom after having the litter box issue.

In my game I'm playing now I don't have pets because I want to play the vet career and I read on the forums that it causes issues if you take your pets to the vet clinic. I don't want to leave my pets at home when I go to work.

The link for the house I'm playing where the litter box issue happened is here.

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/0AE39A40CBE011E78D3DA7B3994392A6?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=downloads&time=all&searchquery=INDYANNA2&max=50&maxis=false

ETA. I didn't use the MOO cheat on my build. I hardly ever use the moo cheat when I'm building and if I use it, I mention it when I upload the lot.

OK.

By repro steps I mean the description what you did above.

The second cat I made did go away all on her own but the litter box didn't break.

I've seen quite a few posts about it on the officials though. Not sure what's going on.

I'll add this to the list of inconclusive atm.

I had a thought that maybe litter boxes on other lots in the neighborhood could be causing the home lot litter boxes to fail.

In my BB game, I had bulldozed the 20X20 lot and built my own house. There were neighbors living on the big lot and I think they had a cat. The neighborhood symbol was the seashell.

In the Newcrest game I had my cat park with litter boxes on the lot. I use the park lot to harvest the plants growing there. I had built on one of the 20X30 lots. The neighbor hood has a 30X40 lot, 3 = 20X30 lots, and 2 = 20X15 lots.

In Windenburg, I built on the 20X20 lot and bulldozed the residental empty lot and made a vet clinic there with litter boxes, food bowls, and scratching posts. It was on the island with my house I built.

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@crinrict wrote:

OK.

By repro steps I mean the description what you did above.

The second cat I made did go away all on her own but the litter box didn't break.

I've seen quite a few posts about it on the officials though. Not sure what's going on.

I'll add this to the list of inconclusive atm.

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Sorry @crinrict  to keep bothering you with this but I was thinking if I uploaded the cats that I was playing with when I experienced the litter box issue, maybe you could test your game with them. I'm not saying I expect you to do it, only if you want to. I ask sense you're a simmer who does this to help Maxis and other simmers. Here is the link for the cats.

https://www.ea.com/en-gb/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/181A4973CC3A11E78D1161C9B1A42A59?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=downloads&time=all&searchquery=INDYANNA2&max=50&maxis=false

I will try on Monday. Have some RL stuff this weekend and not that much time.