OK, then why not say so? And why do they say they spawn wriglers if they don't absorb the spores? And what's with the damage to trees thing?

Hello,

As we know, spores are absorbed by egg rafts, big and small. Small egg rafts are supposedly capable of spawning enemies, but only wriggler types.

Under the pollution tab, you can see where the spores went (referred to as pollution). If a chunk has pollution on it, an egg raft will absorb it ...

After more experience with the game, I think I understand the "bug" better:

Chunks that have:
* Never been polluted
* Never been subject to bombardment
* Not in the vicinity of the player

Will "turn off" biter AI. (Worms still active)

This explains why in normal runs, the biters are alive and ...

That might be related, but not 100% the same thing.

From my experience in previous saves, biters are very well active and attacking the base on Nauvis while I'm on a different planet. But under these circumstances, they do not. (It's as if the bug in the reference was imperfectly fixed)

Apart from ...

Biters just froze in place. Even the nest does not animate. Here are the conditions:

Build no radars, nor roboports. (Do not even research radars)
Build a rocket silo, and a landing pad.
Depart Nauvis with the engineer.

Indefinite remote view to Nauvis is somehow still possible. (unclear why ...