LadyWYT

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As far as I'm aware, stuff disappears when picked up in creative mode. Whatever was in your personal inventory will still exist though when you switch to creative, save for anything discarded from the hotbar.
 
Creative mode is...creative mode. The player can retrieve anything they need from the creative menu while in creative mode, so whatever stuff is picked up isn't really a problem. What is a problem, is dropped blocks and items lingering after getting dropped. Dropped stuff is clutter that is a real nuisance when building, and creative mode is primarily for building or otherwise freely messing around with the game.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!
Cattails are found near bodies of fresh water. On default settings, most water you see on the map will be fresh water; if it's a huge body of water then that's likely an ocean, which is currently a rare thing to find on the default settings.
While cattails are important, if you are starving then your first course of action is to find food. Any food, provided that it isn't poisonous. Cattail roots can be dug up and cooked as an emergency food, however, that will destroy the cattail plant in the process and if it's a spawn with few cattails then searching specifically for them as a food source isn't the best course of action. I'd recommend looking around for some berries or mushrooms, or make a spear and go hunting(or fishing, if there's a sufficiently stocked pond).
If you're not having any luck finding food to forage though, you may want to start over on a fresh world that has some better options at spawn. Most spawns tend to have several cattails nearby, as well as berry bushes or mushrooms to forage for your initial food.

Maybe rivers, but I've not heard of any major world-gen changes actually being confirmed, aside from traders getting upgraded to something more interesting than wagons.
As to whether it's a good time to start a forever world...maybe. The devs have been pretty careful to account for old worlds prior to releasing an update, so old worlds are usually able to be updated to stable versions of new updates. That being said...there's also no guarantee that a future update won't implement a massive change that requires the creation of a new world. Consider also that the more updates a world gets put through, the more risk there is of something eventually breaking due to all the changes it's been put through.
Personally, I would go ahead and start a world intended for long-term play, but at the same time don't get too attached to it at this stage of development. 

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The typical method I use for locating most ores is using the density search mode on the propick to take samples across a wide range of territory. When I find a spot that looks promising for whatever ore I'm looking for, I'll do a few more density searches in that specific area to get an idea of the best digging spot, then sink a shaft straight down with ladders and sample every 12 blocks or so with the propick's node search to see what's actually there. If I don't find any leads in the shaft itself, I'll sometimes dig a few branches outwards and take more node search samples to see if there is any ore that I missed by a hair; if no luck I return to the surface and dig somewhere else.
When it comes to picking a spot to dig, you generally want a reading that is Decent or better, but if it's a rare mineral like chromite or otherwise the only lead you have on that mineral, it doesn't hurt to check Poor or Very Poor readings as well, especially for common minerals like tin.
Do note that when it comes to tin, you really only need tin bronze to make the pickaxe for the treasure hunter's quest, and even then tin bronze picks can be purchased from other traders so making one isn't a hard requirement. Bismuth bronze and black bronze are options as well, though black bronze isn't very feasible since it's an alloy of gold, silver, and copper. Bismuth bronze is an alloy of bismuth, zinc, and copper, so if you're having trouble locating tin it's a good idea to keep an eye out for those minerals instead.
Iron can be a bit harder to track down due to the sheer size of the deposits. I want to say there's some bit in the code that's meant to keep too many iron veins from spawning near each other since each one is so massive, but I'm not 100% sure. In any case, if there's one at your dig site, it will be easy to find, as they are pretty hard to miss. I would say the more important thing to consider here is what kind of iron ore you're looking for. Hematite tends to be the easiest one to find, while magnetite is very hit or miss. I'd recommend checking hematite readings before magnetite readings, unless the rock layers are predominantly andesite, as magnetite is the only iron ore that andesite can host. Limonite I've only found once, and that was purely by accident, so I don't recommend searching for this one specifically unless you have an actual reading on it.

It's not a vanilla mechanic, so my guess would be the Butchery mod, perhaps. It's definitely a mod of some sort though.

Not currently. The best you can really do is pick a dark block, like basalt or slate, and chisel that in as a border. It's not the same, but it will have a similar look.
 
You can't combine slabs, but you can combine material type via chiseling and have two different "slabs" stacked that way instead.

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No, it's not normal. Your stuff should be at your death point, unless there was a water stream to carry it away, and shouldn't despawn unless the timer is up or you quit the game. 
If you're playing with mods, it's most likely mod interference, but if it's the vanilla game then it's more likely a bug of some kind. Are you playing singleplayer or multiplayer? I'm not sure how likely it is, but if the client/server is struggling to keep up with the game's demands that could be causing some odd behavior to occur.

Welcome to the forums! The general information about server hosting can be found here: https://www.vintagestory.at/selfhosting/
I wouldn't see why you wouldn't be able to change the settings like you can in single player. The one thing you can't do with official Anego servers is install mods; you'll need a third-party hosting service for that. To my knowledge, official Anego servers are also EU-only at the moment, though I could be wrong about that.

Welcome to the forums! Crops and fences shouldn't be disappearing. The only thing that comes to mind is that there may have been a lit pit kiln somewhere nearby that was too close to the farms, or that otherwise started a grass fire that spread to this area.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!
Given what you've described here, I agree that it's most likely the server struggling a bit and causing some odd behavior as a result.
 
Playing on the same computer that you're running the server on will also add to the workload. In this case, you might want to either cut down on the mods a bit, or look into running the server on a separate machine. 

You can use any kind of sand, but the gravel type needs to match the rock type that you're trying to craft it with. For example, you're using peridotite here, which is an igneous rock, so you will need an igneous gravel type to craft this cobbelstone. Granite, andesite, or peridotite gravel should work.
Fanned cobblestone using sedimentary rocks will need sedimentary gravel, and metamorphic fanned cobblestone will likewise need metamorphic gravel.

I think it's possible to set spawn inside the Archive, though I could be mistaken. I know that I reset my spawn inside a certain other story location, in spite of the chunk protections.
 
I think you'll be okay, though I would have perhaps brought a shield to help block projectiles. The main thing to do is avoid getting slapped and, as ifoz noted, jump right before he does the ground slam in order to avoid getting launched. I will note though, that once the eidolon starts getting low on health he will start summoning locusts--at this point, focusing the boss is a priority, since focusing on the locusts is likely to get you killed. Only deal with the locusts if you absolutely have to.
 
If you haven't been to the bell workshop, then you shouldn't be able to fight the eidolon. There is at least one item there that you will need in order to fix the machines and open the library door.

Welcome to the forums! I'm thinking this is likely your culprit. Since you mentioned it was an issue with playing on a server, I'd recommend cleaning out the mod folder for that server so your client can download a fresh copy of the modlist, and see if that fixes the issue. Otherwise, it's likely an issue with the modlist itself, and the problem mod will need to be removed until the mod itself is fixed.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!
Make sure that you're cooking the raw ingredients into stews, soups, or pies, as those are foods that will be more filling. Bushmeat can't be cooked into meals, but is still a decent early game food source once cooked. As for cooking redmeat into stew and sealing it into crocks for the winter...yes, storing food for the winter is important, but it's just as important to ensure that you don't starve while trying to prepare yourself. Unless you're playing Blackguard, you should be able to pick off rabbits with a single flint spear, provided your aim is decent.
I would say perhaps focus a little more on hunting, and try to pen some chickens or pigs to use as livestock. Chickens can provide poultry as well as eggs, while pigs are a good source of redmeat and fat. Sheep and goats you'll want to acquire as well for dairy, but they're more difficult to catch and take longer to domesticate. Fish can't be farmed and aren't usually worth the effort of catching, but if there's a shallow pond stocked with several of them that's a protein source you shouldn't pass up if you really need the food.
One thing to check is make sure you aren't wearing armor/holding items in your offhand slot unnecessarily. Holding an item in your offhand will automatically increase your hunger rate by 20%, while wearing armor will also increase hunger rate. 
If you're only in August, you still have plenty of time before winter arrives, which on the default temperate start tends to be around late October to early November. Do keep in mind that while crops won't grow during winter, it's still possible to acquire food via hunting and foraging certain mushrooms(or traveling far enough to forage in newly generated chunks). Certain traders like the agriculture trader will also sell food for a reasonable price, but that does require you to both have lore content enabled as well as rusty gears to pay for it.
I'll also note that if you're really struggling with the hunger rate, you can adjust via the command /worldconfig playerHungerSpeed 1.0, with 1.0 being the default rate(make sure that you reload the world for the change to take effect). However, I would really only recommend tweaking it if you're struggling to the point of not having fun, and that doesn't seem to be the case here.

To my knowledge it's just a factor of temperature. Areas that are warm enough will have it, while colder areas won't. Temperature is a little finicky in that it does vary from block to block, though not enough that it will be inconsistent for the chunk as a whole. It's how you can have some crop tiles get damaged by the cold but have adjacent tiles of the same crop type be unaffected, I think.
As for exact calculations, that I don't know. 

The warm climate zone has the Mediterranean cypress that you're talking about, but the biomes you'll get will vary. If you want a world that overall feels more Mediterranean, you might consider using this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/floralzonesmediterraneanregion
There's also this mod too, though it focuses on plants with a more global distribution than regional: https://mods.vintagestory.at/floralzonescosmopolitanregion

It might be an oversight. If I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like you're playing on a Macbook rather than a desktop, left the game at the "You Died" screen, and closed the laptop instead of exiting the game and then closing the laptop. As far as I'm aware, the game does not pause on the death screen--only on the escape menu or the handbook, assuming you have it set to pause while the handbook is open.
Now why the game kept running after you closed the laptop, I do not know. I play on a desktop(Windows), and I'm not terribly familiar with how Macs operate. If the computer went to sleep though, it seems that most open programs should have been shut down automatically. You might check the settings to make sure it didn't hibernate instead of sleep; I don't know if that's a thing Macs can do, but the difference between the modes is that hibernate essentially lets you return to whatever you were doing upon waking the computer. Sleep mode simply saves power, but you'll have to reopen the programs that you wish to use.
In any case, I would make sure that you at least exit to the title screen next time, before closing your computer. I'm guessing that if it's not intended behavior, it'll be fixed sooner or later, but it's better to make sure that you're at a safe stopping point with your programs before closing the computer, in order to avoid potential issues.

You need to use fire clay to make one; otherwise, you make it the same as any other clay item, except without needing to fire it before using. Just plop down some fireclay and select the correct recipe.
Do note that you will need around a stack and a half of fireclay to make a clay oven. You can find deposits of fireclay in bauxite biomes, or sometimes under black coal/anthracite seams, and occasionally scavenge it from cracked vessels as well. However, it's much easier to calcinate flint, grind it into powder, and then add the flint powder to red or blue clay to create fire clay.

You should be able to just download the game on the new computer by visiting the Client Area at the top of the page. If you have worlds that you want to continue playing or don't want to download mods all over again, you'll need to transfer those files manually. In the case of transferring worlds, bear in mind that the map data is stored in a separate file from the world save itself, though I'm not exactly sure where. In any case, if you miss transferring the map data, you'll still have your waypoints, but will need to explore that portion of the map again to see the actual lay of the land.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)!
You should be able to make a forge from any cobblestone--granite is just one option.
 
Finding new rocks is really just a matter of exploring the world. If you happen to find a ruined translocator(this is only an option if lore content is enabled), you can repair it and teleport a few thousand blocks away in an instant, which makes it easier to find new rock types. Igneous rocks like granite, andesite, and peridotite are also found on the bottom rock layers, so it doesn't hurt to dig down or explore some caves to see what's available. If you dig near the mantle, basalt isn't an uncommon find either, and I've also heard this is where phyllite often spawns though I've never found it myself.

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By default, items are placed on the ground with shift + right-click, while tools are placed with ctrl + shift + right-click, assuming there is a wall to support them.
My guess is that you're probably hitting the wrong combination after rebinding the keys, but you might also try the solution that the OP in this thread figured out: 
 

Currently, no, it's not possible to tame raccoons in the vanilla game. You could try this mod, which adds that kind of option, but I'm not sure how well it works(make sure you have the PetAI mod to go with it, as that is a requirement): https://mods.vintagestory.at/raccoontaming

Welcome to the forums!
I'm assuming you're playing on Windows, but are you using any particular kind of gaming mouse, keyboard, or controller that could be causing interference? Any recent key rebinding?
In any case, the default combination to place tools on the ground against a wall(there must be enough wall to support the tool or it won't work) is ctrl + shift + right-click. By default, the ctrl key is what you press and hold in order to sprint, so I'm guessing what happened is that you rebound sprint to a button on a gaming mouse in order to make the action easier to use.

For now it's normal. The ice will eventually melt off completely in chunks that you frequently visit, since the chunks will be loaded long enough for the ice to melt thoroughly. But otherwise, lake ice is in kind of a goofy spot right now due to how slowly it melts, so it's not unusual to have random bits of ice in the summertime in areas that you're not frequently visiting.

This is part of the Better Ruins mod, and not vanilla lore. I'm not exactly sure what all it entails, but it is a structure separate from vanilla story locations.