Chapter 15
Sandbox, cheats and quick reference
The sandbox for experiments, the cheat console for testing ideas, the log, the mistakes that sink congregations, and every number worth remembering, all on one page.
The sandbox
Sandbox, on the title screen, gives you no goals: any of the 80 traditions (listed under their faiths) and its variant, any lot, any money, and any number of people (see Getting started). It's the place to:
- learn a tradition's needs: choose it, build a worship room (a nave, a sanctuary, a prayer hall, a zendo), and read the building check, then look at Staff and Church → Tradition to see how its leaders come and what its wider body asks;
- test a design before you try it in a scenario: sound, sightlines, flow through the doors, which way the seats face;
- found your own tradition and see how it plays (see Faiths and traditions).
The books open at once, so building costs money: give yourself $10 million to experiment freely. Building needs no approval until the building first passes the building check.
The cheat console
Press Alt+C to open the console, type a command, and press Enter. Esc or Alt+C closes it. It's meant for testing ideas in the sandbox. Cheats are off in scenarios: there the console won't open, and the game says so.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
help | Lists every command and what it does. |
skip <days> | Fast-forwards that many days (1 to 3,650). |
clear | Clears the console. |
close | Closes the console. |
cash <dollars> | Sets the operating cash to that amount. |
money <dollars> | Adds that much to the operating cash (negative takes it away). |
endowment <dollars> | Sets the endowment to that amount. |
debt | Forgives every loan and anything unpaid to the wider body. |
satisfaction <0-1> | Sets everyone's satisfaction. |
people <count> | That many new people join the church, in households, as members. |
visitors <households> | That many new households start visiting. |
condition <0-1> | Sets every building system's condition (1 is new). |
standing <0-1> | Sets the wider body's regard for the congregation. |
community <0-1> | Sets the church's standing in the community. |
neighbours <0-1> | Sets how the neighbours feel about the church. |
staff <0-1> | Sets every staff member's skill. |
rest | Clears every volunteer's burnout. |
finish | Finishes every installation and all building work, damage included, now. |
approve | Approves every project waiting for a decision. |
dilemma <id> | Brings up a dilemma now (its id, from Content/Dilemmas), whether or not it fits. |
milestones | Reaches every milestone, with its grant. |
Try an idea with the console, then play it straight. For example, satisfaction 0.45 shows you how fast households start drifting away, and condition 0.3 shows how a worn building feels at the main service.
The log
Messages pop up above the build bar. Important ones (a problem, a decision on a project, a conflict) stop the clock until you dismiss them; routine news fades by itself. Every one goes to the Log, saved with the game, so nothing is lost when you look away.
Common mistakes
- Leaving the maintenance budget at zero. Deferred maintenance is the slow killer: failures, repairs at a premium, overdraft interest, and finally the building costing everyone 0.2 at every service.
- No greeters. A visitor who isn't welcomed starts at a 0.25 disadvantage and rarely comes back.
- Counting seats against the average week. Count against the busiest service and the holy days: Christmas and Easter, the High Holy Days, the Eids, the Buddha's birthday, Diwali, Vaisakhi, Samvatsari, the shrine's New Year, the Lunar New Year.
- A full-time leader in a small congregation. Under about 75 people, it's the fastest way to overdraw.
- Spending the endowment. Drawdowns above about 5 to 6% eat the capital that pays for the future.
- Sitting in overdraft at 12% when a loan costs 6.5%.
- Proposing the unaffordable. Members vote against work the congregation can't fund from cash and campaign; wider bodies and boards refuse it. Raise the money first.
- Ripping out pews on authority. One household in four of the opponents leaves. Consult first, do it in one go, or add seating instead.
- Ringing new bells in town before building. Complaining neighbours block planning permission. (Most American mosques give the call to prayer indoors, and the game's minaret makes no noise.)
- Overworking volunteers. Burned-out volunteers quit everything and drift away.
- Ignoring the tradition's requirements. Each missing required item costs everyone 0.08 after every service: more than a great preacher earns.
- Facing the wrong way. Where a tradition wants a direction (the qibla for a mosque, east for a synagogue or an Orthodox church), facing it is worth +0.04 to everyone at every service, and facing away costs 0.04: a swing of 0.08, and a red error in the building check where it's required. Turn the lot before you build, with Face the qibla on Church → Church for a mosque (see Faiths and traditions).
- Too few for a minyan. Where a quorum is needed, a service with fewer than ten (men, in an Orthodox shul or a Chabad house) costs everyone at it 0.08. Grow the regulars before adding daily minyanim.
- Dropping a required obligation where the wider body approves or consents to your projects. Below 0.7 regard, it won't; below 0.3 for three months, it acts against the congregation or its leader.
- Calling a costly candidate to a small congregation. Voters weigh the salary against a year's income; a skilled candidate at a modest salary carries the vote.
- Letting a small congregation stay small under a wider body that can close them. Below 20 people for a year it warns you, and a year later it closes it.
- Proposing what the board is against where it advises the leader. A Catholic priest turns down work most of the finance council opposes, as do a Chabad rabbi, an ISKCON temple president, a Tenrikyo head minister, and a Vietnamese abbot with their boards.
- One priest for a long price list. Where families book rites (a Hindu temple's pujas, a gurdwara's paths, a shrine's prayers), the leader can't be at the temple and in three homes at once: a rite put off more than a week lets the family down, and one not held in four weeks is income lost. Hire a pujari, an assistant granthi, or a negi.
- Too few cooks for the free meal. Langar, the Sunday Feast, and the other free meals need a cook for every 40 who eat; those left unfed mind (−0.02), and a meal not held costs its regulars more (−0.04).
- No head scarves at the gurdwara's door. A visitor left bare-headed minds (−0.03); one who finds a scarf to borrow is glad (+0.02).
- Offering what the code of life frowns on for the rent. A tenant your tradition frowns on costs members a little after every service for as long as it stays.
- A band in a Gothic nave, or an organ in a carpeted box. Match the room's sound to the music.
- A characterful item the tradition dislikes in a small nave. With few items to average against, one red score drags the whole building's fit down.
Numbers worth remembering
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Satisfaction settles at | 0.5 + half the sum of the factors |
| Regulars / visitors move toward it | 15% / 60% a service |
| Give nothing below | 0.25 |
| Drift away below | 0.45 |
| Visitors return above / become regulars at | 0.5 / 0.55 after three visits |
| Joining (Christian traditions) | baptized where recognized: received after the tradition's wait (a week to six months); unbaptized: prepares its months, then baptized and received together (Easter for Catholics, Pascha for the Orthodox); 35% a month once ready, at 0.5 or more |
| Joining (other faiths) | a content regular is received after the tradition's wait (six weeks at a Reform or Conservative synagogue, six months at a Sunni or Shia Islamic center, a month at a Buddhist Churches of America temple); three months where there's no formal membership |
| Baptized, confirmed, or received | +0.1; family there +0.05; everyone else +0.03 |
| Rooted here | drifts away 0.6 times as often; if it falls away, 25% at each great day (Christmas Eve and Easter, or the tradition's own) to come home, for 10 years |
| Full giving at | 0.8 |
| Greeted / not greeted | +0.15 / −0.1 |
| Seat / standing | +0.05 / −0.15 |
| Late to their seat | −0.08 |
| Missing required item or room | −0.08 each, everyone, every service |
| Missing expected / discouraged present | −0.03 each |
| Building fit | ±0.15 × the average fit of characterful items in the worship rooms |
| Building below 0.5 condition | up to −0.2 |
| No leader | −0.1; −0.04 where the tradition holds a lay-led service instead |
| Preaching | (performance − 0.5) × 0.16 |
| The sermon's message | +0.015 neutral; +0.04 matching, −0.02 to a neutral tradition, −0.05 opposed (× strength) |
| Leader's reach | 150 (bivocational 75, associate 100, lay leader 60; +50 with a secretary, +30 each deacon, elder, or other assisting order, +40 a resident monk or nun, +75 a couple; half for a shared leader) |
| Applicants | 3 (2 where clergy are scarce or from a list, 4 where plentiful; 1 nominee) |
| Parsonage | $900 a month; candidates ask 12% less |
| Shared leader | below 60 at worship (or the tradition's line): half the pay, half the care, −0.03 at later services |
| Visiting elder | $150 a communion |
| Called elsewhere / retire | 0.4% a month after the tradition's years / 8% a month after 25 years (4% after 35 for life) |
| Yearly review move | 8% + 3% a year served + discontent below 0.6, up to 60% |
| Vacancy | sent: 2 months; called: 9 months (+4 scarce, −3 plentiful, +3 with an interim) |
| Ask for a move | after 2 years, at 0.7 regard; costs 0.05 |
| Approval needed from | $25,000 (new construction from $150,000) |
| Decided in | leader at once (a week with advice); board 2 weeks; members 4; wider body 6, consent on top |
| Board | the 7 longest-serving eligible members |
| Consensus | no more than a tenth against |
| Loans / overdraft | 6.5% / 12% a year; Islamic financing (where interest is forbidden) 7.5% |
| Endowment returns | about 6% a year; draw 4 to 5% |
| Pledge drive | every November, where the tradition pledges |
| Tithing | expected +15%; not emphasised −10% |
| Walked offering | members +15%, visitors +50%; boxes alone −10%, nothing from visitors |
| Dues | 70% of a member household's capacity (±15%; 35% for a shrine's sukeikai), taken up in November as a pledge would be (0.9 × engagement), then paid monthly, nearly always; regulars pay none |
| Holy-day seats | $150 an adult who doesn't belong, on a feast drawing twice the usual |
| Ramadan / zakat | giving ×1.8 through Ramadan; zakat up to 30% of a year's capacity the month after, passed straight on to the needy |
| Online giving | +8% of last month's offerings |
| Rites asked for | at the tradition's prices ($10 to $501), each household at the rite's rate a year (members ×1.5, regulars ×0.75, more the more engaged); put off over a week −0.02; a long reading broken off, the fee returned and −0.06 |
| Open hours | a visit counts a quarter of a main service; $2 in the box and, with an amulet counter, $4 of amulets a visit (×1.5 on a feast day); newcomers settle after six visits |
| Lamps | $30 a household a year ($100 at the Chinese Buddhist temple), renewed at the New Year |
| Boli | the top 8% of member households bid 1 to 3% of a year's capacity for each honour; winning +0.03, losing narrowly −0.02 |
| Life membership | paid once ($1,001 at a Hindu temple or ISKCON, $301 at a Jain center), a chance of 0.15 × engagement a month; no vote until it's paid |
| Free meal | a cook for every 40 diners; the sponsoring household gives the cost and a fifth more (+0.05 to it); short of cooks −0.02, a missed meal −0.04 |
| System failure chance | 0.001 + 0.1 × (1 − condition)³ a month (a heating or cooling unit's, times its load) |
| Too cold / too hot | up to −0.2 / −0.15, by the need left unmet; +0.02 comfortable on a hard day |
| Unit broken down | repaired at once (10 to 50% of its price), out 2 to 9 days; beyond repair from 90% wear |
| Service a unit | $150 + its wear × its price |
| Solar panels | 5% each off the utilities (not the telephone) in an ordinary place's sun, more in sunny regions, to at most 30% (six panels in ordinary sun, seven in the Midwest); +0.02 for traditions leaning liberal |
| Telephone | $30 a month for each of the clergy and the secretary on staff (and a cantor, an executive director, an outreach director, a temple manager) |
| Communion | 6.5¢ for each who receives; younger than the tradition's age, blessed for nothing |
| Kosher / halal meals | ×1.35 (×1.2 with the congregation's own mashgiach) / ×1.1 |
| No quorum | −0.08, everyone at a main service of fewer than ten |
| Daily services | pass at 20 game minutes a second, unless Watch every service is on; people decide 15 minutes before |
| Replace a system at | about 3 to 4% monthly risk |
| Construction time | about a week per $25,000 (two weeks to a year) |
| Plumbing reach | 12 m from a plumbing stack |
| Sightlines fade | past 15 m (half at 35 m) |
| Full daylight | one plain south window per 10 m² |
| Neighbours complain below | 0.4 (until back above 0.5) |
| Wider body approves above | 0.7 standing (and helps, and moves your leader at your asking) |
| Wider body acts | below 0.3 for 3 months; expels below 0.15 for 6 |
| Regard follows | a fifth of the way a month (light presence half that, total half as much again) |
| Obligation not kept | arrears over 3 months of it; a voluntary one under half |
| Wider body's visit | +0.03 (−0.02 below 0.5 regard) |
| Aid | grant up to $30,000 every 3 years; loan at 3% over 15 years; 40% of the leader's pay for 3 years |
| Small congregation | under 20 for a year: merger offered or closure warned; closed a year later |
| Ministry emphasis | low 60%, high 140% |
| Code of life frowned on | −0.01 a service for a tenant; −0.02 once for a fundraiser |
| Designation | a fifth more newcomers for a year |
| Volunteer burnout quits at | 0.8 |
Controls
| Pan | WASD or arrows, middle-drag, or the screen edge |
| Zoom | Scroll wheel |
| Turn the view | Q / E, or the Turn buttons |
| Walls | V: full height, cut away round the pointer, or cut away |
| Turn an item | R |
| Undo / redo | Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y |
| Pause | Space |
| Cancel / menu | Right-click or Esc |
| Full screen | Alt+Enter |
| Cheat console | Alt+C (not in scenarios) |
Where to find things
| Screen | Tabs and contents |
|---|---|
| Church (named in the tradition's word: Parish, Ward, Synagogue, Islamic center, Temple, Mandir, Gurdwara, Shrine) | Goals; Church, likewise named (name, tradition, climate, style, orientation and Face the qibla, access and the hearing loop, cushions, growth, the lot and neighbours, land, damage to restore); Worship (the year, order of service, decor, conflicts); Services (the week's services, daily services, and the tradition's week); Projects (approvals: work, calls, leaving, designations); Beliefs (practice, stances, designations); Tradition (the wider body, its regard and visits, status, supervision, mergers and closure, its powers, what's owed, help, what it's done lately, leaving) |
| Community | Standing; Ministries (mailing, live stream, ministries, missions or giving beyond the congregation, small groups); Rentals; Weddings and funerals (and the tradition's occasions); Fundraising (fundraisers, auxiliaries, income beyond giving); Evangelism (the tradition's outreach, missionaries away) |
| Finances | Overview; Monthly; Weekly; Budget (maintenance, drawdown, required and voluntary obligations, system risks and replacement, staff costs, campaigns, loans) |
| Staff | How the leader comes; the Moves and Housing settings; on the staff (rank, spouse, shared charge, term); advertise and hire, call, or ask who'd serve; ask for a move |
| Volunteers | Each role, its people and burnout; ask for more; stand people down |
| People | Membership class; who belongs, with the tradition's kinds of belonging and missionaries away; how they feel; everyone, least happy first |
| Last service | The service report |
| Log | Every message this game |