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[LeoLeonardoIII]

The dev notes mention Toady making a new workshop for soap making.

During the American prohibition of alcohol, many breweries turned to soap manufacture because the facilities and tools used were the same.

I'd suggest, since a Still is used to make beer, that the Still can be repurposed to make soap. The still has a label as "alcohol" or "soap". In order to change the still type you need to set a job on the still to toggle it. This means the dwarf who runs up and changes it is cleaning it out and making it ready for the other type of operation.

A soap still won't have alcohol jobs, and an alcohol still won't have soap jobs. The soap still might have other jobs associated with it. I don't know.

Any dwarf can change the still, it's an unskilled job like Pull Lever, of the type Cleaning.

Soaper would be used to make soap and brewer to make alcohol, just like before.

I suggest this simply to reduce the number of different workshops. Downside? Newbies will have trouble finding the "Soap Workshop" on the build workshop list. And everyone will have the occasional hiccup when the booze runs out yet there is nothing wrong with their (soap) stills.

But there's plenty of letters left in the alphabet for the build workshop list I guess. Really the only reason for this suggestion is that it sort of makes sense in-game.

(BTW I think when I tell people how complex and specific this game is, I will mention that in the game, eyelids clean off your eyeballs but if your eyelid has been damaged you may need to use soap to clean if off)

[Footkerchief]

During the American prohibition of alcohol, many breweries turned to soap manufacture because the facilities and tools used were the same.

Interesting.  Does that just mean they both boiled stuff in big vats, or was the similarity deeper than that?

[Impaler[WrG]]

If we used a room-system for workshops with one or more furniture items needed to form a workshop then its entirely possible that Brewers and Soapmakers would both be defined from a 'tub' or some such similar piece.  That said I can't really support the idea in its current form as it would be far too confusing for the player.

[Footkerchief]

^^^ I agree -- it wouldn't really make sense until workshops and production chains put more emphasis on individual steps using specific equipment.  It might make sense to the player that you can use a Large Copper Kettle for both mash-boiling and soapmaking, but just turning a still into a soapmaker's shop is confusing.

[profit]

Beer making equipment is very similar to that of soap making, however, distilleries are not.

Anyhow... I think for the sake of simplicity it might be best if we keep the current method of deconstructing a workshop and just using the materials it gives back to make a new one... 

[MuonDecay]

During the American prohibition of alcohol, many breweries turned to soap manufacture because the facilities and tools used were the same.

Interesting.  Does that just mean they both boiled stuff in big vats, or was the similarity deeper than that?

I've made beer, and know how to make soap (but a sudden stint of unemployment stemmed the money for that sort of hobby). It's logistically similar, yeah.

To make beer you add ingredients, thoroughly stir a solution, pasteurize (heat) it, add an organism that initiates a transformation, then sit and wait.

To make soap, you mix up a solution, thoroughly stir it together, then sit and wait as the reagent you add (lye) saponifies and stiffens the solution. Heating it carefully is also usually involved.

Really the only specialized tool involved at all is the molds for blocks of soap... at least given the methods of DF's time period. Everything else involved is a fairly flexible tool that can be used for either role just as effectively. The process gets even more similar with castile soap (made from oils like palm and olive oil), as opposed to sodium tallowate soap like the dwarves make.

Dwarves are probably using nothing more than a cauldron and a big wooden paddle to brew things, which is exactly what they'd use for large amounts of soap.