You have to enable cheats by entering cheat in the Launch Options.  You just need those 5 letters, nothing else.  After you do that and start a game, you can activate the console by using the "~" key.

When you're in the console, you can enter help to get a list of all commands.  One such command is fowtrans.  To find out more about it you need to enter help fowtrans.  Using help with other commands will give you information about the other commands.

Note 1:  some commands take a while to execute, so wait for a response to appear before giving up.

Note 2:  all commands are lower case.

Exit the console with the Esc key or clicking on the X in the upper right of the console.

Hi, There are many posts over the years to this issue but as this post is the most current I thought I would post here.

I'm running GC3 ver 3.96 and I cannot for the life of me get the console to work. I have put cheat in the launch options and I have also created a new shortcut with the TARGET DIRECTORY like so "D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Galactic Civilizations III\GalCiv3.exe" "cheat" I also created another shortcut with "D:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Galactic Civilizations III\GalCiv3.exe" -cheat.

None of the above work, when I load a save game and press the ~ key (top left on a UK keyboard under the ESC key) nothing happens.

I have quite a few Stardock games but have not tried enabling the console before. I can get the console to come up in other games on Steam like Stellaris and CIV V.

Any help appreciated.

Dead Meat

Excellent, thank you for the correct answer. The issue was somewhat frustrating.

Thanks again.

Dead Meat

For epic version -> open epic games launcher go to settings on left side bottom and then scroll down to galactic civilization 3 select additional command line parameters and "-cheat" without quotes and play it works for me