Moved from Steam to Origin, can't play

[EleintArgonian]

Hi all!

 

A couple of years ago I had access to Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition through a friend's Steam, and I had a few mods running (extra dog slot, some hair mods, assorted dialogue fixers). I no longer have that access, and I'm convinced I deleted all game files to make room for some other game at some point. Now I have Dragon Age: Origins on Origin and I was beyond exited to play, but... the mod manager isn't working.

Or rather, the mod manager can't find the game file. The game itself plays as it should when I launch it from Origin, but I really want that extra dog slot and hair that actually looks like hair. The error message I get is "failed to launch 'daorigins.exe' The system cannot find the file specified."

 

I'm not actually good at all this mod stuff (it's a wonder I have running mods in Dragon Age Inquisition at all) but it looks like the NMM is looking for the game in the wrong place, and I don't know how to change the file path. I've tried changing a few of the file paths in the Settings, but nothing has worked. What do I do?

 

If I have to delete and reinstall the game, that's no problem. But I have over 100 running Skyrim mods I'd really like to keep (my poor, poor laptop. Yes I get frequest crashes), so preferably I won't have to reinstall the Mod Manager. The NMM for Skyrim is working brilliantly, it's just that the Dragon Age part of it can't/won't launch.

 

Any and all help appreciated. I play on a pretty decent 2yo Lenovo Y50, if that's relevant.

[Thandal]

If your rig can play the game at all, then that's not an issue for the mods. (Well, except for JB3 Textures and IA maybe. :wink: )

 

What are you seeing when you run the "Rescan Installed Games" command within NMM?

 

[EDIT: Also, there's no need to use NMM at all for the mods you appear to be using. For one thing, if you have more than one "appearance" mod, NMM will not be able to handle those correctly.]

Edited November 28, 2017 by Thandal
Additional information.

[Seraphym100]

I'm having a similar problem, in that I just reinstalled Dragon Age: Origins with the Origin client and now it says it can't load my saved game without "missing content", and then it lists the mods I had active while I was playing before. I've tried everything I can think of to get DA:O to "see" that NMM is right there with all the mods I was using. I rescanned using NMM. (Side question: does it matter which of NMM and NMM (Trace Mode) I use?)

 

Any ideas what I should do?

[Thandal]

@Seraphym100;

 

Check the game files path under "Settings" in NMM. Probably still pointing to the (which should now be uninstalled) Steam version.

 

If that wasn't the issue, update to the latest version of NMM. (That'll do a full un-/re-install of the mods it knows about.)

[Seraphym100]

@Thandal, thank you so much for taking the time to help me out.

 

I didn't actually have the Steam version first; I had installed the game from physical discs. That version was still installed when I downloaded and installed Origin, which then downloaded and installed DA:O + DLCs + Awakenings. So now I have two shortcuts to DA:O on my computer. Only the Origin shortcut actually launches the game. The original shortcut no longer works if I click it. Also, when I go to Control Panel to uninstall the original installation from the disks, there is only one entry for DA:O and that appears to be the Origin version.

 

So because there are two (possibly) installations of DA:O on this PC, I'm not sure how to double-check that the game file paths in NMM are pointing to the Origin installation.

 

I already have the latest version of NMM. Do you think it would help to un/reinstall NMM?

 

Thanks again, I appreciate it so much. I'm desperate to get back to the game and finish it.

[valerie1972]

The Origin version of dragonage.exe will be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Dragon Age\bin_ship by default.

 

I doubt that un/reinstalling NMM would do much; making sure it's pointing to the right place is the best first step.

[Seraphym100]

@valerie1972 Thanks for your answer!

 

I'm kind of scratching my head here. I have my PC set up a little strangely when it comes to where things get installed. I got it a few years ago and I don't really know what I thought I was accomplishing with that LOL.

 

Anyway, there is no Origin Games folder in the path you described above. This is likely because most things on my PC are installed on another drive called E:.

 

But even on E:, it's not there where you described. The Origin Games folder is empty.

 

However, this path: E:\Games

has two folders in it: Dragon Age and Nexus Mod Manager (so E:\Games\Dragon Age and E:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager)

 

The Dragon Age folder has folders that seem like it must be the game, such as the bin_ship folder (so E:\Games\Dragon Age\bin_ship). It has an application in it called DAOriginsLauncher. So is that it?

 

The Nexus Mod Manager folder has one folder named DragonAge, which has two folders, Install Info and Mods. (E:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager\DragonAge\Install Info and E:\...\Mods)

 

In Nexus Mod Manager (the program itself), the paths are as follows:

 

Mod Directory: E:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager\DragonAge\Mods

 

Install Info: E:\Games\Nexus Mod Manager\DragonAge\Install Info

 

Dragon Age Mods Directory: E:\Users\Shari\Documents\Bioware\Dragon Age\Packages\Core\Override

 

That last path is also a little confusing: there is no "Documents" folder that I can see in that path. Instead the rest of that path can be found in "My Documents". (So E:\Users\Shari\My Documents\Bioware\Dragon Age\Packages\Core\Override

 

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

[valerie1972]

It does sound like you've got the game installed in E:\Games. A good way to check if it's the Origin version is to go into the Origin app and under the Origin menu, choose Application Settings and then choose Installs & Saves. Scroll down and check "Game Library Location."

 

---

 

I don't use NMM for Dragon Age mods, so unfortunately I'm not the best person to help sort that issue. My guess would be that you should change the Dragon Age Mods Directory from

E:\Users\Shari\Documents\Bioware\Dragon Age\Packages\Core\Override

to

E:\Users\Shari\My Documents\Bioware\Dragon Age\Packages\Core\Override

but if that doesn't work maybe Thandal will have some ideas?

[Thandal]

a. Check your EA/Origin game installation path under "Origin ==> Application Settings".

 

b. Check your NMM game installation path under "Settings ==> Dragon Age".

 

c. If they don't match, "There's your problem lady." :laugh:

 

Plus, the mods you identified don't really need NMM anyway. Just install EDS as the author instructs, and use the CharGenMorph Compiler for any/all appearance mods.