Thanks a lot! New version fixes everything you reported:
- Offline reward + nuptial flight: the offline reward screen now closes the flight confirmation and has to be collected first. Time that passes during the flight counts toward the new colony's production. No more starting with 1T cookies :)
- Instinct now buys scouts too. They're expensive, so it only picks one when it's the cheapest caste.
- Venom Trial: that was a bug, not a grind wall. Sting only unlocked after buying a soldier, and soldiers can't be born in that trial. Now your first bullet ant unlocks it.
- Incubation: you were right, levels past ~8 did nothing (the queen lays an egg every 0.25 s anyway). It now caps at level 8, and any genes you spent on extra levels are refunded automatically when you load your save.