LadyWYT

Welcome to the forums! Do you have a screenshot to share? Otherwise, my guess is that your house isn't lit up enough to stop rifts from spawning inside. A few lanterns should fix it, though make sure you light up the area around your house as well. Rifts that spawn right outside your house can still sometimes spawn a monster or two inside.
Depending on how far you've progressed in the game, there is also a device called the rift ward. It's a late game tech item that will stop rifts from spawning in the nearby area, provided that it is kept powered with temporal gears.

Terra preta is terra preta--there's no functional difference there. The advantage to using high fertility soil to craft it though, if I'm not mistaken, is that you get two pieces of terra preta for each set of ingredients you input, instead of just one, making it a more efficient crafting choice if you have it available.

Welcome to the forums(and the game)! The biggest piece of advice I have to offer is that the handbook is going to be your best friend, and the best place to start is reading through the Guides section in order to get a general idea of what you need to pursue in order to progress. A good time to read through the handbook is while waiting for the night to pass--just make sure that you hit the Unpause option in the handbook so that time will actually pass while reading.
Vintage Story is a very meaty game, with most gameplay loops overlapping with one another in some way. The learning curve, as a result is very steep, and the game isn't very forgiving of mistakes, so it's best to take things slow and cautious, even if you have prior experience in similar games. There are three basic difficulties: Standard, Exploration, and Wilderness Survival. Standard offers a good balance of everything the game has to offer, but if it feels a bit too harsh you might play Exploration until you have a better grasp of how the game works. I don't recommend Wilderness Survival for new players given that mode has increased difficulty and is incredibly unforgiving of mistakes, but that being said, some players enjoy that kind of challenge right out of the gate. There is also Homo Sapiens mode, however, this mode removes all lore from the game and reduces the experience to pure survival, which I will note removes a lot of content from the game.
There are also several individual settings that tweak various aspects of the game world and difficulty, so you can also customize the world and experience to your liking. Most of those settings can be changed at any time after the world's creation, though you will need to familiarize yourself with console commands to do so and may need to reload the world for the changes to take effect. There is also a plethora of mods that can further customize your experience, however, I recommend picking one of the premade gamemodes and learning the game basics first, so that you have a better idea of how things work and what you would like to change.
It's a good idea to stop every once in a while and take a good look at your surroundings. Doing so allows you to spot potential threats, or resources that you may have otherwise overlooked.
Regarding the main story content, be on the lookout for a treasure hunter. They offer a special quest to start you on the game's story.
Last but not least, if you have questions or need additional help figuring out something, don't be afraid to ask about it on the forums. There's a variety of players here who've all been through the same trials at one time or another, who are happy to help newcomers learn the ropes. 😁

Just to rule out this possibility--I know it's not due to some tracks being seasonal, as the issue isn't limited to seasonal tracks. 
The only solution that's crossed my mind is backing up files and doing a fresh install of VS, but that's typically the last resort method to fix a thing. 

Welcome to the forums!
They function the same. You just need to make sure the slab is flush to the inside of the greenhouse, and not the outside, in order for it to function.
 
There's no functional advantage to it; at that point, it's a purely aesthetic choice.

Hmmm...good question. My best rough guess is around 15-20 blocks, maybe 30 but I think that's pushing it. Shivers and bowtorn are a little easier to notice, as they make harsher noises than drifters do.
In any case, I don't think you'll need to dig very far in order to find whatever cave they're lurking in.

Welcome to the forums! Looks like a bug, or at the very least a typo. I would submit a bug report on it, if the issue hasn't already been reported.

Lamellar in a nutshell. The other metal armors will cost you two ingots per unit of metal armor pieces, whereas only one ingot is required to make one unit of lamellar. You also don't need leather to make lamellar armor--you just need a few pelts.
Chain offers great protection while allowing you to retain more accuracy and healing ability. If you plan on focusing on ranged combat, chain is probably going to be the best armor choice in most cases.
Scale is similar to chain--it offers a bit more protection than chain, but less accuracy and healing as well.
Brigandine has the worst stats of the late game metal armors, however, the main advantage to brigandine is that it's a lot cheaper to make. If resources are a bit thin, brigandine is a good choice. Personally, brigandine is what I make as soon as I acquire iron since it's cheap but protective, and I upgrade to something better later once I have steel.
 
Gambeson is the best armor for surface exploration and general daily use. It's lightweight, so it won't slow you down or penalize your healing and accuracy much at all. It's also decently tough and protective, being tier 2 armor, so you'll be safe from most threats you encounter, and it'll buy you enough time to escape should you encounter something really nasty.
I'd really only recommend leather armor or other similar non-metal armor if you really need the protection but don't yet have access to anything better. It's better than nothing, but it's not going to hold up in a fight; it'll just buy you enough time to hopefully escape.

Welcome to the forums!
It depends on how much content is slated to be added, what kind of content it is, and how much trouble there is in implementing it. I would say that generally it's only a few weeks from a pre-release to a stable release, but the mileage varies depending on many issues the devs have to sort out.
The current pre-release for 1.21 is still unstable, as far as I'm aware. It is playable, but updating old worlds or creating new permanent worlds isn't recommended, as it's very likely you will encounter major bugs and that some major changes may occur that may not translate well to a newer version.
I would say no, what you see teased in the 1.21 pre-release news is the content that is slated for that update. Aside from bug fixes and particularly troublesome content being potentially pushed back to a later update, there shouldn't be any changes to what's planned for the release.

Welcome to the forums! Which version are you playing on? There's been a couple of bugs recently regarding monsters spawning in daylight; one of those bugs was tied to turning off temporal stability, somehow. I don't recall if it's been fixed yet or not, but that's likely what's causing the issue.

What quality were the gems and what quality was the trader after? If the gems you have don't match the quality the trader wants, he won't buy them. My guess is that's what happened here.

They do not drop their horns currently, though they might in a future update.

Welcome to the forums! Sorry to hear about the bad luck with the treasure hunter, but Vintage Story be like that sometimes.
If I understand correctly, your head and leg slots are equipped with iron armor, and the body slot is equipped with leather? That's probably the crux of the issue right there. Iron armor(tier 3) is sufficient for completing the Archive, as the recommended minimum tier is bronze(tier 2). Leather, however, is only tier 1, so most all attacks in the Archive are going to punch right through it. Additionally, your body is more likely to get hit than your legs or head, so if you put your worst armor in this slot it's going to be a bad time. I'd recommend replacing that slot with iron--you should have a much easier time. If resources are a concern, brigandine will be the cheapest option, as it only requires 7 plates and a leather jerkin to create.
Now granted, good equipment isn't necessarily a guarantee of a safe clear, and you don't necessarily need the recommended equipment in order to clear the place. A lot of it hinges on skill and world settings, but for standard skills and settings I would recommend bronze armor minimum, though full iron is ideal.
As far as other tips, I would just bring the ingredients for poultices, and make them as needed. Poultices only stack to 16, but the raw ingredients can stack much higher, so it's more efficient use of inventory. I'd also invest in a lantern, if you have the resources, or otherwise bring an oil lamp. Neither one can be extinguished by water, which is useful in some areas, and the lantern itself will have a much larger light radius than a torch.

I'm guessing it's probably luck of the draw on what size antlers a deer will grow that year. I'm not sure if the size is locked to the individual creature, or randomized per year. In any case, I'd assume it's coded that way so that there's more variety in antler drops, as well as ensuring that the largest horns/antlers are proper trophies.

That's odd...sows should give similar drops to boars. If they aren't dropping anything at all, and assuming you aren't playing with mods that could be affecting the drops, sounds like you've found a bug to report.

Welcome to the forums! What you're seeing here is a snippet of one of the story locations in the game. You can begin the story by talking to a treasure hunter about interesting places.
Of course, if you just want to teleport to the locations without doing the story, I believe the command is /tpstoryloc, followed by the appropriate location name that you would like to teleport to.
Edit: The specific place pictured in this screenshot is...
 

Welcome to the forums! The recipe should be the first two slots occupied by eggs in the cooking, combined with optional vegetables or cheese. However, this is for the vanilla recipe. If you're using the Expanded Foods mod, you'll need to crack the eggs into a bowl first, then add the liquid egg to the cookpot(0.2 L per serving).

Just a side note on temporal stability--as @wildforester mentioned, some chunks are unstable and will cause you to lose stability. Likewise, some chunks are stable and you'll gain stability instead, and some are neutral. The deeper underground you go, the more unstable it gets. Generally, you want to build in a stable chunk, so that you're not losing stability while loafing around your base. Otherwise, you don't really need to worry too much about your stability unless it drops to about 33% remaining; I forget the exact percentages, but that's when the bad stuff starts spawning around you.
To recover stability, the simplest method is to just hang around in a stable chunk for a while. However, you can also sacrifice a temporal gear and a few hitpoints(put the gear in your offhand and use a knife with your main hand) to recover a decent chunk of stability immediately. Likewise, killing monsters will also restore some stability--the tougher the monster, the more stability that gets restored.

Welcome to the forums! There's several to pick from if you search "voice" on the mod DB. Here's a few of them, your mileage may vary:
Id rather meow: https://mods.vintagestory.at/idrathermeow
Meme Scream: https://mods.vintagestory.at/memescream
Celeste Player Voices: https://mods.vintagestory.at/celestevoices
Alternative Seraph Voices: https://mods.vintagestory.at/cobvoices
Shiro's Voice: https://mods.vintagestory.at/shirovoice
Iconic Voices: https://mods.vintagestory.at/iconicvoices

Welcome to the forums! Lightning strike would be my first suspicion. If the option to allow them to start fires is turned on, one could've easily started a forest fire and caused something like this. Aside from that, it could have been a mod thing that a recent mod update might've caused. But I still suspect a lightning strike.

For armor and weapons, it depends on your playstyle. Tier 2 is fine if you're fairly skilled, though iron is perhaps the best choice since it offers more safety for relatively little extra effort to acquire. I do agree with @Zane Mordien, plate isn't the most ideal choice in singleplayer as it will greatly dampen your healing ability and it can be a hassle to try to unequip a piece in the middle of combat in order to heal.
You'll also want plenty of bandages. Honey poultices are the best, but horsetail poultice will do just fine. Bring the raw ingredients and craft a stack or two as needed to make optimal use of your inventory space.
For food, pies are the best, since you can carry multiple slices in one stack. Just make sure to slice the pies before entering the Archive, as you won't be able to slice them inside. Crocks aren't bad either, but crocks do not stack and will take up more inventory slots.
I'd also recommend bringing a trunk or two, depending on how much loot you want to take with you. If you want to take everything that's not nailed down, you'll need to make multiple trips, but the trunks will let you haul everything to the surface for easy retrieval later.
Depends. It's not the same as Minecraft's elytra, but it may just save your life later in the story. If you have access to one, it's not a bad idea to bring it with you while exploring.
Also depends heavily on what you're after. Lore books and fancy clothing items are the main things to find, though there are also several Jonas parts to find as well. If you're after unique knick-knacks, those are more found in chapter two of the story.

Welcome to the forums! It depends on your personal preference, really. If you have the resources for bronze and would rather have more protection when you go out and about, bronze armor is a decent investment. Which style of armor you choose is up to you, though for bronze tier I would recommend lamellar. It's less expensive and easier to make than the other styles, and though the protection might be a bit worse than other styles it'll be enough to get the job done while you work towards iron.
Not necessarily. All you really need to do is find a good ore reading with the prospecting pick, and then dig a shaft straight down until you find what you're after(use the Node Search mode on the propick every so often to make sure you don't miss anything). It's safe to dig straight down in Vintage Story, provided that you're placing ladders as you work. As long as you don't move off the ladder's blockspace(which is difficult to do in a tiny mineshaft), it's impossible to fall off.

Welcome to the forums! Rift activity can last for a while, though the lower values tend to last longer than high activity periods. How often do you check the activity levels? It's possible the activity could have changed, and changed back to Very High without your noticing. Though from what you're reporting here, it also sounds likely that you've encountered a bug. If you've been checking it frequently, and not otherwise messed with any time-altering console commands, I would go report the issue over on the bug tracker.

I think they were added in 1.16, and given how different they are from "regular" trees I wouldn't say they're a precursor to a tree overhaul. It's always possible, I suppose, but not likely.

I seem to recall something being mentioned quite a while back about it potentially getting added to the game at a much later date--closer to the game's completion. I think the reasoning was due to all the possible inventory tweaks that may take place between now and then, that probably break a system like carry-on. So it makes more sense to add that system later, once inventory is really set in stone proper, and not slated for any further changes.
Otherwise, I would guess it could be that the mod no longer fits the intended direction of the game. I can't say that I've played with it, but inventory space is at a premium in the early game, and one of the major challenges you'll need to deal with. Sticking a chest or storage vessel onto your back gives you a looooooot of extra slots to work with, which is a time-saver, yes, but takes a lot of that early challenge away.