How do I enable console commands in Dragon Age Origins?

These links should be replaced with working links where possible, and tutorials edited to remove reliance on BSN.

Up in the View Menu other windows you will see one called "Console".

This is where you would enter console commands that allow the toolset to interact with the game engine. It is mostly (if not always) used when you have an area open in the Area Editor.

The console commands were built to work with the game not the toolset but some of them do work with the toolset alone.

Your toolset will crash when using some of them so make sure you save your work before trying them.

Using the console in-game

The in-game console is normally not accessible. To enable it run the game with a command line parameter "-enabledeveloperconsole". Then, when the game is running, press the tilde key (~) to bring up the console. This is a prompt in the upper left corner of the screen. The console was used extensively in development for debugging and testing purposes, but in the finished version of the game there's only one console command available; "runscript".

The runscript command does exactly as it says - it runs a script, given as a name typed after a space. So for example:

>runscript killallhostiles

will cause the script named "killallhostiles" to be run.

You can pass the script additional parameters if you like. These parameters will be stored in the module variable RUNSCRIPT_VAR. RUNSCRIPT_VAR is a simple string, your script will need to parse it itself.

Caution: Using scripts like killallhostiles may break scripted plot situations, so you should avoid using it outside of custom content testing.

For example,

>runscript usespecificobject demo100pl_lever

calls the script "usespecificobject" and puts "demo100pl_lever" into the module RUNSCRIPT_VAR. The script can then call

to retrieve it.

If you need more than one parameter, pick a separator (a space is usually most appropriate) and split up the string in RUNSCRIPT_VAR appropriately. For example:

Console text is invisible in some game installs

This problem is caused in some systems by the DVD's installer failing to install the fonts.erf file. Fonts.erf is included on the game disk, so you should be able to redo this part of the installation and properly install fonts.erf by running datasetup.exe manually (which is on the game disk in the "data" directory). This should not be an issue for Steam users since a different installer is involved in Steam installations.

If you still have trouble obtaining fonts.erf from your installation, install the Character Creator and then copy fonts.erf from Dragon Age Origins Character Creator\packages\core\data.

Alternatively, install the free 7-zip program, right click on data\DataSetup.exe, select 7-Zip -> Open archive, and then extract fonts.erf from $0"\packages\core\data\".

Back in the Xbox 360 era, Dragon Age: Origins took RPG fans by storm. It was the latest iteration of the BioWare RPG style first seen in games like Knights of the Old Republic and refined in Mass Effect, and it bought a dark and corrupt world filled with magical racism and a lot of blood decals all over the place. The game is over a decade old at this point, yet it’s still pretty fun to revisit from time to time. Though, if you’re planning on doing so, you should consider using console commands.

Dragon Age: Origins console commands can help you to become the most powerful Grey Warden who ever lived, or make everyone around you love you unconditionally. Hell, you can even become a giant magical bowling ball and just destroy your enemies for 20 seconds. Read on to discover the wonders that await you in DA: Origins.

Enable the Console

Before you start going crazy with power, we’re going to need to actually enable the console. If you’re playing an older PC version of the game, you can simply make a shortcut to the Dragon Age: Origins executable file by right-clicking it and selecting the option. Then you right-click your shortcut, select ‘properties’ and then add the code below to the target field, making sure to leave a space after the text that’s already there. Now when you’re in the game, you can launch the console by pressing the key underneath your Escape key.

If you’re using the Ultimate Edition on Steam, then you’ll have to right-click the game in your library, and once again select properties. Now you just add the text below to the Launch Options field. Once again, you can get to the console by pressing the key underneath your Escape key. However, in both cases, you’ll need to download the Make Console Commands Visible mod from ModNexus if you want to actually see the command console.

Dragon Age: Origins Useful Console Commands

There are quite a lot of console command options available to you in Dragon Age: Origins, so we’ve split them up a bit to make it easier for you to find them. These commands below probably don’t count as cheating, at least not to us, but they might have a big impact on your gameplay experience, so maybe consider making backups of your save files before you use them.

Dragon Age: Origins Cheat Console Commands

Now that you’re done tinkering and debugging, you can get into the real fun stuff. All of these console commands do fit into the category of cheating, so make sure you’re okay with that before you use them. Even more than the last set of commands, you need to save and back up your saves before typing in these commands, as they can really mess with your files.

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