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[SMASH!]

Is there a way to buy soap from the caravan? If negative, can I edit raws to do so?

[Arx]

I think you would have to order it from the outpost liasion, but I'm not sure even that much is possible. I don't think there's an associated raw either.

[smeeprocket]

no but you can buy lye. You can't buy tallow either. But you could buy rock nuts to make oil from and do it that way;

[Wheeljack]

I don't believe you can. I don't remember seeing the option to request it. I've requested lye before, though. It's helpful if you don't want to bother with burning logs and that whole half of the equation. I usually always have some sort of meat industry so tallow is never a problem. Buying or even bringing lye to an embark is a good way to get soap earlier on without too much hassle.

And it lasts surprisingly long if you set your pop cap lower like I do.

[Thisfox]

I think it's the same as the embark preparation window: Lye is available, animals you could immediately butcher and thus render fat from is available, but soap is not. More importantly, the caravan doesn't bring lye unless you specifically request it.

Does anyone know what price you get if you trade the soap away with the caravan? Is it a good export, or a poor one?

[wierd]

rocknut soap used to be fairly expensive as a tradegood, but not nearly as economical as giant discs.

For a long time, the only kind of soap that elves would accept was rocknut soap, because of the animal products issue. (Although, ironically, they dont seem to care about lye being made from ashes, being made from wood)

I havent played with making oils and or presscakes from other seed oil crops lately though. 

[Wheeljack]

I could never be bothered to mess around with the oils or cakes, but that may be my frustrations over it when I first started playing this game. My rock nuts seem to disappear en masse, even now. I have to babysit the field, the process plants to bag, and then make sure the rock nuts make it to their stockpile. Too much work. When DFHack is up-to-date, I use workflow just for that one thing. It's the only time they don't go poof. (I suspect they may be rotting before the process to bag order is seen to by a dwarf. Freaking lazy dwarves.)

I always have tallow on the map, though, and it just seems a waste of dwarf power to me when I already have the other option. The very few times Ive bothered to create everything, I just toke my chosen soaper and gave him all the relevant skills, made enough soap to kill a caravan, and never had to worry about running out again during that fort's lifespan.

Needless to say, I never trade my soap away. XD I wonder, though... Bubble bath drowning chamber? I may have to do this next fort.

[Larix]

The only millable seed you can order are still rock nuts. You can make oil from several other seeds (and from olives), but good luck getting hold of cotton- or linseed. As far as i can tell, the oils all have the same value of 5☼ per unit (made rock nut, hemp and olive oil in .40.x).

Tallow soaps fetch 5☼ (more when using tallow of exotic animals), oil soaps 25☼ per bar. Considering the effort that goes into them (grind, press, burn wood, make lye, make soap - five jobs) even plant oil soap is a very poor export good compared to say, boring old rock mugs (30☼ minimum for a single job, closer to 100☼ with a decent stonecrafter using cheapest stone, about 500☼ when letting a good crafter loose on obsidian).

[wierd]

Agreed.  Thats why I said it did not even compare to giant discs.

Greenglass disc export takes something that is completely non-scarce at all-- (sand), and if you use magma furnace, costs nothing to melt-- and turns it into pure profit.  Labor is 2X jobs-- 1x sand collection, 1x make giant glass disc.

plant oil soap has many levels of jobs required to produce.

planting
plant processing
pressing
ash making
lye making
soap making

The profit to labor ratios of the two don't even compare.  If you happen to have too much soap sitting around though, I can think of worse things to sell off.

[smeeprocket]

plus soapy baths give dwarves happy thoughts.

I swear my dwarves used to leave soapy footprints on their way back from whatever water source they bathed in. Usually somewhere in the caverns and never where I told them they could.

[GavJ]

I only make the finest castille soaps for my dwarves and make sure to age them for the full 2 months for total saponification and the mildest, creamiest lather.

Filthy mountainhome scum doesn't deserve my artisan soaps. They don't even bring me what I ask for in trade agreements (cram the wagons full of other junk no matter want), so screw them, they can take cold water baths in pond grabber territory and be thankful for it.

[StagnantSoul]

Imagine if soap had images on them.

[wierd]

I only make the finest castille soaps for my dwarves and make sure to age them for the full 2 months for total saponification and the mildest, creamiest lather.

Filthy mountainhome scum doesn't deserve my artisan soaps. They don't even bring me what I ask for in trade agreements (cram the wagons full of other junk no matter want), so screw them, they can take cold water baths in pond grabber territory and be thankful for it.

You need to mod in glycerine soaps.  Added ingredients are refined distilled alcohol and sugar.  Mill the castille soap, and heat over gentle heat with the distilled alcohol and melt the soap, but dont boil. When the soap melts, add 1tbs sugar per gallon of soap. Stir well. Soap will clarify.  Cook over low heat until alcohol is evaporated and soap gels when drizzled over a cold spoon. Add any amendments you desire, such as plant extractives or fragances, then pour into soap molds and mold for at least 24hours.

[utunnels]

If you can engrave on a soap wall/floor....

[The Bard]

I send Emu soap to the mountainhome hoping they'll take the hint.

I also send saltwater crocodile soap to the humans and elves to warn them what waits for them if they siege (Saltwater crocodiles)