Mariilyn

Or make a closed room by building a door at the entrance. They will stop laying eggs.

I don't think the effects were implemented before the latest version. I now think the two animations are just two iterations of the same disease. Probably inspired by the « Zombie ant » fungus. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fungus-makes-zombie-ants/

Those germs are called Zombie spores, so maybe the mind-controlling animation was intended for something else? Also :

Sneezing is similar to the slimelung symptoms so I would bet on some headache, dizziness and/or fainting effect, that doesn't last for very long. Edit : It could also work like sunlight. For example, Floral Scent could give a stress reduction bonus but prolonged exposure (exceeding a certain amount of particles absorbed) triggers a negative status. The « germs » particles are more analogous to a strong smell emitted by the plant, rather than pollen. Like perfume or essential oil.

Maybe the Floral Scent main use will be to prevent the proliferation of other, more harmful germs but too much exposure to it might cause some minor side effect.

One observation in an otherwise really great update : Those two mechanics are kinda contradictory.

Mine are often complaining about working.

Its normal, because they have a longer lifespan (75 cycles instead of 25 cycles).

Here comes the new bristle peppernut fusion poutine with melted gassy moo cheese curds : ... Yes this is honestly the first thing that came to my mind when I tried to figure out what this machine was about.

In the live branch? It would be more reliable if it was tested in sandbox with a whole bunch of bugs though.

It was fixed. I reloaded my old colony in the preview branch today, and everyone had (what I assume is their appropriate) skill level, but still no interest.

^This. No need to build a complicated setup if three simple consecutive doors do the work.

Existing bases with a minimum of resilience should have no problem being updated to QoL3 (barring big changes being made before the full release). With the current build, existing dupes experience is transferred into QoL3, but not the interests. Interests reduce the morale expectation of learning new skills, however the new morale expectation curve for early game and specialized dupes is way lower. In any case, you'll have the luxury of reassigning as much skills as you want/need. The new disease system should not cause any problem either, and new content is mostly new buildings, including a new steam turbine. Existing turbines that are built should not be affected by the changes, but I haven't verified that. Sounds like a bug.

Could it be that starved or overcrowded critters are trying to escape? I just started a squeaky puft ranch in my game and noticed the puft prince stuck in the door (a powered auto airlock) 2 times in less than 5 cycles, and just assumed he was trying to reach the polluted oxygen on the other side of the door. On the other hand none of my wild (fed and not overcrowded) bugs have ever escaped their room.