Issue Description:
NPC Sims no longer autonomously take the cake lure from a hungry Cowplant. Whether an NPC is invited over via phone, attends a party, or arrives on the lot on their own, they will ignore the cake even when the Cowplant is actively displaying its lure. Previously, hungry Sims would autonomously approach the Cowplant and attempt to eat the cake.
Expected Behavior:
According to the game's intended mechanics, when a Cowplant is hungry and displays its cake lure, Sims who are hungry should autonomously attempt to take the cake. This is a core part of the Cowplant's danger and gameplay loop. NPCs should exhibit this behavior just as played Sims do.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Grow a Cowplant to maturity on a residential lot.
- Allow the Cowplant to go unfed for 12 in-game hours until it displays the cake lure.
- Invite an NPC over via the phone, throw a party, or wait for an NPC to visit on their own.
- Ensure the visiting NPC has low Hunger (or simply observe over time).
- Watch whether the NPC autonomously approaches the Cowplant and takes the cake.
Actual Result:
- NPCs completely ignore the Cowplant's cake lure.
- They do not approach the plant or attempt to eat the cake, regardless of how they arrived on the lot.
- The Cowplant's lure fails to attract any NPC attention.
Additional Notes:
- The Cowplant's cake lure is specifically designed to attract hungry Sims so the plant can feed on them. The first time a Sim is eaten, they are spat out with a Drained moodlet; a second attempt while Drained results in death.
- If you lock them in a room with the cowplant, they still won't grab it. If some do grab it, they will only grab it once and not twice to trigger their death.
- A community mod for Cowplant autonomy notes that "NPC sims will also autonomously try to eat the cowplant cake on their own if they [are hungry]", confirming this is an expected behavior that the mod restores or expands upon.
- This may be a regression introduced in a recent patch, as the behavior was previously functional. The Cowplant's autonomy tests for NPCs may have been inadvertently altered.
Impact:
Moderate. The Cowplant's primary function—luring and eating Sims—is broken for NPCs. Players who use Cowplants for storytelling, death mechanics, or Essence of Life farming must now manually direct NPCs to interact with the plant (which may not even be possible for non-household NPCs). The Cowplant becomes a decorative object rather than a functional hazard.
