When I enter the bronze doors map the client slows to a crawl and is pretty much unplayable.  I have 1.5 Gb of RAM of which only 850 Mb are being used while on the map so I don't understand why this is happening.

I guess you're right.  I'm lucky to be crafting anything at all in a pre-alpha.

I was just curious if the crafting system is limited to the 3 swords (shortsword, longsword and claymore) that I know are possible to make or if there are ways I have not discovered to make other swords (falchions, broad swords, etc.)  Also, is it possible to make variations of these swords (broadsword of fire, iron shortsword, etc.)  I don't want to know how they are made, just if they can be made.

In my opinion there are two things that should be changed to the matallurgy crafting system.

1) In physics there is something called conservation of mass.  If one iron ore weighs 6 (whatever) and I put it in the furnace I obtain molten iron that weighs like 4, I think.  This makes sense as I have separated the iron from the impurities.  However, If I proceed to make an ingot out of the molten iron, I obtain an ingot that weighs like, 1.5.  Why would I throw away molten iron?  This does not make sense to me because I think the cast iron should weigh as much as the molten iron put into the cast.  This is what completely boggles my mind though:  When the ingot is melted back to molten iron, somehow, by the power of Talad I guess, the molten iron weighs 4 again.  My suggestion would be to have the same weights for molten iron and iron ingots, and stocks would, of course, be a multiple of that.  This way no laws of physics are broken.

2) Currently the only way to make steel stock is by combining original iron ore and coal lumps which makes it very impractical and also wouldn't make sense in the real world.  It makes much more sense to me to combine coal lumps with molten iron.  This way steel stocks and iron ingots become a way of storing iron for making steel.  It just makes more sense to me.

Just a thought.

First of all, let me say that I think the way progression points are gained right now does not make sense to me at all.  I don't see why one should have to kill an infinite amount of npc's to become a good miner or whatever else (I know mining gives some xp but it's a joke really).  I imagine this will change as the game matures but for now I am dealing with the following problem:
There are hordes of people in the arena so that it is hard to get an easy gladiator or a good rouge anymore.  The solution I have found to this is to go to a certain spot where there are several of a certain monster who will automatically attack me again and again without me even having to initiate the attack.  I may or may not get up from my computer, go to sleep, do homework, mow the lawn, go to school, etc. while I am being repeatedly attacked by monsters.  The point is that, while I am gaining less xp from these monsters, my character is there longer because I do not have to make him interact with his opponents.  My concern about doing this is that some of you may think I am destroying the RP of the game.  I really don't know if I am or not that's why I am asking your opinions.
If someone comes that wants to have those monsters I think it is very clear that I don't deserve all of them and I feel they are more than welcome to stand closer to the monster than I am.  At least one of them will still get through to me most of the time.  This is different from those very rude players who, while in the arena, although one is standing almost on top of the npc, will insist on trying to attack it before I get my first blow in.  There is a certain individual who I am extremely fed up with because of this and this is one of the main reasons I have taken the approach of leaving my character by some monsters and leaving the client open while I go about my real life.
As I said it is easy for me to RP this but it may get in the way of other players if they wanted to, for example, group with me or, fear that I may get angry if they start killing some of the monsters that have been attacking me.  Am I a bad gamer for playing this way?