One thing that I didn't mention in the video is "Go To x Production building". I have them set up so that it's "ctrl + the select all version of that hotkey". For example, Select All Archery Ranges is on T and Go To Archery Ranges is on Ctrl + T. This is consistent for all production buildings.
"Best hotkey layout" depends on what you are comfortable with using. This is a great example video on how you can adjust the hotkeys to your own advantage. Personally I find there is too much crossing of hotkeys in your setup. Researching techs can all be in the grid format and no need to memorize each specific hotkey by DE default hotkeys.
There are a bunch of extra units (condottiero, huskarl, tarkan, genitour, etc...) that take up some hotkeys that you don't expect normally. You are correct in stating that there isn't really a "best" hotkey layout. People should start with the grid and then adjust things from there.
Great video! Always find it interesting when others share their hotkey setups. When I started playing Age, when DE came out, I spent a lot of time thinking about my hotkey setup and afterward, further developing the hotkeys with more experience. I am very happy with the result and really believe that it gave me an edge in multiplayer. What I find also really helpful, is to merge the economy and military building menus. No matter which one you choose, you can always build everything by assigning all military building hotkeys to free hotkeys, which do not overlap with economy buildings. (For me, it's Z to M). I also use less popular hotkeys like "Go to last notification" or "Select all idle military/tradecards etc." on my mouse.
I'd like to share my hotkey system. Since my finger is not so flexible, my basic idea is to use the left side as much as I can. I change hotkeys from DE version. First, select all x building is so crucial. So asdf for archery/castle/siege/stable, b for barrack. To deal with the overlap keys, I change asdf to ctrl + qwer for buildings and units. ctrl+af for monestary/dock. I also use mouse extra button for all tcs. Second, use x for all blacksmiths, c for all universities. Similarly, change all xc in buildings to ctrl + xc. Third, tab for lumbercamp, ` for mill, ctrl+` for mining camp. (It's weird that there's no select all for economy buildings.) Now we have functional keyboard areas on the left side of keyboard: 1234 for ctrl group, qwer for building/unit function, asdf for select all buildings, zxcv for hybrid function. This system is way more easier to memorize and learn. One more idea inspired from your coaching video, I change some key funcion of buildings overlap with building hotkey themselves. i.e. tab for lumbercamp and lumber tech. f for all stables and knights. In this theory, if you wanna produce a knight, just double click f. In the same way, double click extra mouse button will produce a vill. It's more efficient than click two diffrent buttons in human-computer interacting theory.
How do pros put walls doors in different positions so fast? We i see that they want to block some units somehow the doors always “spawn” in the desired position whether I have to use the ctrl + mouse wheel to rotate it… is it the same but they are just insanely fast?
I've changed mine to just mousewheel (ctrl + scroll up/down is swapped to be the zoom commands). It really comes down to being fast. I struggle to get the right orientation sometimes as well
Thank you for this instructive video. I tried to use Q for rally point but it overlaps with default hotkey for queing vils in TC. Which hotkey do you use for queing vils ? Couldn't find the answer in the video nor comments.
I use Omni pedals for my production builds. 6 foot buttons so my left foot has barracks, range, and stable while my right foot has monastery, workshop, castle. All on select all. I was able to set them to F19-24 which the game actually accepts.
The grid setup is great. So, why change it at all? You could have it in all production buildings and in TC. It would work just as well. No need to have "w" for Eagle or "x" for loom or whatever that was. You just remember where the thing is located and you automatically know which key is wired for that thing, if you're using the grid keyboard layout for everything. Then, loom is under "a", and Eagle is under "r", going age up is "z". Your solution makes an easy thing much more complicated than it needs to be. And it's clear by looking at the number of mistakes you're making, even after so many years of playing. With grid layout everywhere, you wouldn't be making them.
This would involve putting most unit production on the top row on the keyboard which is not as comfortable as resting the fingers on the middle row. If your fingers rest on the middle row, then you can more easily jump up or down 1 place instead of having to jump 2 places down if you're resting on the top row.
@@SurvivalistAoE There are 4 slots for units in each production building*. Normally, a person is able to hold 4 fingers on asdf. It's just one quick movement to create any of the four units in the qwer row. The asdf row is for upgrading said units to better ones. And the zxc often have additional upgrades. And it works in every production build*. And the exact same principle hold for building buildings. Each building has a slot that directly corresponds to a key on the keyboard. No need to remember some weird exceptions. You just remember where a thing is on the grid and you automatically know how to do it, because the grids correspond directly to the keyboard layout. *) Let's ignore the dock...
Grid setup is much more intuitive. You dont have to force yourself to adapt some hotkey design. You just press the key you see and by the time your reflexes automatically develop.
Veeery helpful and interesting. A bit unsure why you would remap many of the e.g. barracks/range upgrades to other keys that would be anyway bound within 'grid keys'? But I definitely need to use the 'select all x' more!
Unit production is on the middle row which was the default in HD edition. It makes sense to rest your fingers on the middle row so it actually feels quite efficient this way.
In a post-imp game with tons of production buildings, how would you go about changing gather points when multiple places need units? Shift+click each building by looking at their location then set the gather point? Select all (ie Baracks), then deselect some from lower menu, then set gather point?
I select all stables, set the rally point, then go to the sneak stables and set those ones separately by double clicking them. This is that 1% case where select all buildings is not as good as binding them to a control group.
@@SurvivalistAoE thank you. I guess its just usually impractical to have production buildings in the same location rally to separate locations anyway. Probably GG at that point
I dont understand the attack move, when i do it my units move after the issued command then fire. So they stop when i give the command, then move a litte and then they fire. Whats the trick to make them behave like ur units?
This is normal behavior. You just have to anticipate the movement delay and issue an attack move command a bit earlier than you're expecting. It's not very intuitive.
I use my right hand on my keyboard but still use the default keybindings, I'm very used to it by now but I can only image how weird it would feel if you've never done it before XD
@@SurvivalistAoE I don't think it really matters? I've never had an issue with it and it's not like it'd ever be the difference between winning and losing XD
@@Spunney ooo I see. I think I've heard of people who take their hand off the mouse to use some hotkeys and I thought you were one of those. Turns out you're just left-handed!
Question: why is this better than the DE all grid default hotkeys? eg. differences -- Q/W for economy/military buildings. Q for Rams instead of Z p.s. still learnt stuff, thanks!
Some things don't fit perfectly into a grid, but for the most part these are grid hotkeys. It's basically grid with some modifications. As long as your hotkeys are easy to press then the actual layout doesn't matter too much.
I can't help but point this out since it's in the first 10 seconds of the video. "We have villager build, which is on A, so A for villager build" *Proceeds to press S*
bro you get confused every 2 micro seconds about yout hotkeys while trying to make a hotkey video.. I dont wanna be too rude because I like your videos but this one is a really weird one. Just let them all on the default grid and you know EXACTLY what buttons are which. Q W E R T Z A S D F G Z X C V B and now you just have to look at the row and you immediately know they button without looking what its set too... why make it weird af for no reason lol?
You should never look at your keyboard when you're playing. Eventually you get to the point where it's all muscle memory and you forget which key you're actually pressing, which is why I don't remember the letter that my hotkeys are on easily. It's much easier to rest your fingers in the middle of the keyboard, so for grid hotkeys for unit creation, it would end up being a bit more awkward.
Why dont u have a link to ur hotkey set up? could just link the file and people could drag it into their game folders and be good to go, or at least show the hotkey settings on screen... this is like a 22 min video that dosent really help anyone do anything, just hey check out my hotkeys this is how hotkeys work.
@@SurvivalistAoE Some more questions: How is your hand placed on the keyboard? do you point your hand toward the escape button or towards the middle? do you place your fingers near home row keys? is your keyboard tilted or straight? and also how do you position your wrist? Thanks.
@@ns-islandsroblox I think my natural position is to have my fingers on shift, a, w, d, and b I guess my hand is at maybe a 30 degree angle to the keyboard. I'm definitely not completely lined up as if I were typing. My wrist is just straight.
How i did my hotkeys (as someone returning to game this year from b4 when id never use hotkeys) is by having house, palisade wall, stone wall only have one key in both economic/military. What i mean is house is q, so in military section i have no building for q, so when i press military (w), then q its still a house. This helps when mixing in walls/houses so u dont need to go back menus again. There quite a few other things i changed but. Like go back to work is the same as garrison hotkey.
After watching this I realized I could replace my Select all docks with a single Y, instead of Ctrl+T. I haven't utilized the right half keyboard at all.
Seems like you could easily accidentally over-queue vils with this setup. Having extra units queued is the same as floating those resources so it's not great sometimes.
I don't think you need a hotkey on any upgrade that you do only once a game (university, monastery upgrades). It's a bit more handy when you are making the same kind of an upgrade several times but that's still not that important (eco upgrades, blacksmith). What is the most important are the production hotkeys and go to production/control groups and then build hotkeys.
It's still better to have them than not. It feels so smooth when you use hotkeys to get certain upgrades. For example getting ballistics quickly while microing your crossbowmen.
I tried to map everything to QWER and ASDF rows so I don't need move my hands at all. I have the select all buildings and train the most common units is mapped onto the same key. Q for select all TC Q for training vills. A for select all ranges, A to train archer. S for select all stables, S for train knight, W for select all barracks and W to train pikemen, and so on. The rest of the units are on the top row, so SQ is scout SE is camel, AW is skirm, etc. In a scout opening you can just QQSQ and a vill and scout is queued without changing the camera view. When you have many conflicting keys the ones on the button bar on the left-bottom takes priority always. This can be exploited when you build because build eco and build military are on different panels so this allows mapping the building of 16 buildings to the first two QWER and ASDF rows. So for me QQ is build farm, QA is mill, AA is palisade, AQ is range, etc. The rarely built buildings are mapped out of the two main rows. You need only one blacksmith, market and university so their building are mapped to Q1, Q2, Q3 for me respectively. QE for monastery, QR for dock, because they are on the eco page although they don't belong there. Docks are tricky because it has two panels. R selects all docks, so QWER used to train ships that are available on the first page, but second page ships need to be out of the main rows, because they don't have visible buttons and cannot conflict with other select all hotkeys, so I assigned TZGH for them, so that have to be awkward. For military units line/flank formations are switched by mouse wheel, A for patrol, S, D, F is for stand ground, defensive and aggressive (F for fight) stances respectively. R for follow (I use it to push deer).
![Simplifying Responses: Making more Decisions with Less Effort [Age of Empires 2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JttHxrNJ8e0/mqdefault.jpg)
![10 Tricks I use to play faster [AoE2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DGUGkEfQjKE/mqdefault.jpg)
One thing that I didn't mention in the video is "Go To x Production building". I have them set up so that it's "ctrl + the select all version of that hotkey".
For example, Select All Archery Ranges is on T and Go To Archery Ranges is on Ctrl + T. This is consistent for all production buildings.
What hotkeys do you use to create groups or add units to a group? I think you didn't mention. Thanks!
Just the defaults (ctrl + number)@@davidep.498
"Best hotkey layout" depends on what you are comfortable with using. This is a great example video on how you can adjust the hotkeys to your own advantage. Personally I find there is too much crossing of hotkeys in your setup. Researching techs can all be in the grid format and no need to memorize each specific hotkey by DE default hotkeys.
There are a bunch of extra units (condottiero, huskarl, tarkan, genitour, etc...) that take up some hotkeys that you don't expect normally.
You are correct in stating that there isn't really a "best" hotkey layout. People should start with the grid and then adjust things from there.
Great video! Always find it interesting when others share their hotkey setups. When I started playing Age, when DE came out, I spent a lot of time thinking about my hotkey setup and afterward, further developing the hotkeys with more experience. I am very happy with the result and really believe that it gave me an edge in multiplayer. What I find also really helpful, is to merge the economy and military building menus. No matter which one you choose, you can always build everything by assigning all military building hotkeys to free hotkeys, which do not overlap with economy buildings. (For me, it's Z to M). I also use less popular hotkeys like "Go to last notification" or "Select all idle military/tradecards etc." on my mouse.
FALSE! My keyboard layout is the best keyboard layout for Age of Empires 2. I challenge you to a hotkeys-off
Fight me! :D
This is objectively false. Everybody knows that the *my keyboard layout* layout is the best layout
The best hot key layout is no keyboard at all. Get an Azeron Cyborg, it will change your life
I'd like to share my hotkey system.
Since my finger is not so flexible, my basic idea is to use the left side as much as I can.
I change hotkeys from DE version.
First, select all x building is so crucial. So asdf for archery/castle/siege/stable, b for barrack. To deal with the overlap keys, I change asdf to ctrl + qwer for buildings and units. ctrl+af for monestary/dock. I also use mouse extra button for all tcs.
Second, use x for all blacksmiths, c for all universities. Similarly, change all xc in buildings to ctrl + xc.
Third, tab for lumbercamp, ` for mill, ctrl+` for mining camp. (It's weird that there's no select all for economy buildings.)
Now we have functional keyboard areas on the left side of keyboard: 1234 for ctrl group, qwer for building/unit function, asdf for select all buildings, zxcv for hybrid function. This system is way more easier to memorize and learn.
One more idea inspired from your coaching video, I change some key funcion of buildings overlap with building hotkey themselves. i.e. tab for lumbercamp and lumber tech. f for all stables and knights. In this theory, if you wanna produce a knight, just double click f. In the same way, double click extra mouse button will produce a vill. It's more efficient than click two diffrent buttons in human-computer interacting theory.
How do pros put walls doors in different positions so fast? We i see that they want to block some units somehow the doors always “spawn” in the desired position whether I have to use the ctrl + mouse wheel to rotate it… is it the same but they are just insanely fast?
I've changed mine to just mousewheel (ctrl + scroll up/down is swapped to be the zoom commands). It really comes down to being fast. I struggle to get the right orientation sometimes as well
@@SurvivalistAoE thanks for answering and for the tip! Great content as always!
Thank you for this instructive video. I tried to use Q for rally point but it overlaps with default hotkey for queing vils in TC.
Which hotkey do you use for queing vils ? Couldn't find the answer in the video nor comments.
I just use the HD defaults as the foundation so villager is on a
How can you make the keys visible like you did left to the minimap? Is there also a version including the mouse buttons?
This was just some editing magic in my streaming software. I downloaded an on-screen keyboard and then displayed it on screen while I was recording.
How did attack the building w archers, move, attack, move, attack … without clicking the building?
Stop command, attack move, patrol, of guarding your own unit will give this behaviour.
May i ask the old aoe2 (the conqueror) do not have select all hotkey, right ?
Select all hotkeys were added in DE. Before DE we didn't even have upgrade hotkeys. The game was much more limited.
I use Omni pedals for my production builds. 6 foot buttons so my left foot has barracks, range, and stable while my right foot has monastery, workshop, castle. All on select all. I was able to set them to F19-24 which the game actually accepts.
This hotkey issue on the last patch was so retarded. I wish they'd have left hotkeys alone.
The grid setup is great. So, why change it at all? You could have it in all production buildings and in TC. It would work just as well. No need to have "w" for Eagle or "x" for loom or whatever that was. You just remember where the thing is located and you automatically know which key is wired for that thing, if you're using the grid keyboard layout for everything. Then, loom is under "a", and Eagle is under "r", going age up is "z". Your solution makes an easy thing much more complicated than it needs to be. And it's clear by looking at the number of mistakes you're making, even after so many years of playing. With grid layout everywhere, you wouldn't be making them.
This would involve putting most unit production on the top row on the keyboard which is not as comfortable as resting the fingers on the middle row. If your fingers rest on the middle row, then you can more easily jump up or down 1 place instead of having to jump 2 places down if you're resting on the top row.
@@SurvivalistAoE There are 4 slots for units in each production building*. Normally, a person is able to hold 4 fingers on asdf. It's just one quick movement to create any of the four units in the qwer row. The asdf row is for upgrading said units to better ones. And the zxc often have additional upgrades. And it works in every production build*.
And the exact same principle hold for building buildings. Each building has a slot that directly corresponds to a key on the keyboard.
No need to remember some weird exceptions. You just remember where a thing is on the grid and you automatically know how to do it, because the grids correspond directly to the keyboard layout.
*) Let's ignore the dock...
Grid setup is much more intuitive. You dont have to force yourself to adapt some hotkey design. You just press the key you see and by the time your reflexes automatically develop.
Veeery helpful and interesting. A bit unsure why you would remap many of the e.g. barracks/range upgrades to other keys that would be anyway bound within 'grid keys'?
But I definitely need to use the 'select all x' more!
Unit production is on the middle row which was the default in HD edition. It makes sense to rest your fingers on the middle row so it actually feels quite efficient this way.
Great video! I am pretty bad at quick walking. Any hotkey setup that you can recommend to make it quick and effective?
I use up scroll wheel for stop and down for attack ground. One handed archer and mango micro!
My scroll wheel button is broken :(
Scroll up and scroll down is for rotating gates. Ctrl + scroll up/down is for zooming/unzooming
In a post-imp game with tons of production buildings, how would you go about changing gather points when multiple places need units? Shift+click each building by looking at their location then set the gather point? Select all (ie Baracks), then deselect some from lower menu, then set gather point?
I select all stables, set the rally point, then go to the sneak stables and set those ones separately by double clicking them. This is that 1% case where select all buildings is not as good as binding them to a control group.
@@SurvivalistAoE thank you. I guess its just usually impractical to have production buildings in the same location rally to separate locations anyway. Probably GG at that point
@@proper_noun436 Yep, it doesn't come up too frequently. Select all hotkeys are better in 99% of all situations.
I dont understand the attack move, when i do it my units move after the issued command then fire. So they stop when i give the command, then move a litte and then they fire. Whats the trick to make them behave like ur units?
This is normal behavior. You just have to anticipate the movement delay and issue an attack move command a bit earlier than you're expecting. It's not very intuitive.
is there any way we could download the file?
I use my right hand on my keyboard but still use the default keybindings, I'm very used to it by now but I can only image how weird it would feel if you've never done it before XD
It's really hard to relearn things if you learn them inefficiently. It's why even some pros don't have the greatest hotkey setups.
@@SurvivalistAoE I don't think it really matters? I've never had an issue with it and it's not like it'd ever be the difference between winning and losing XD
@@Spunney It's definitely way slower to take your hand off the mouse to do hotkeys.
@@SurvivalistAoE What? My left hand is on the mouse O.o
@@Spunney ooo I see. I think I've heard of people who take their hand off the mouse to use some hotkeys and I thought you were one of those. Turns out you're just left-handed!
Thanks for the video. Which mod/scenario is this?
I made a custom map. You can download it from the mods page if you search "Survivalist infinite micro"
Nice ! How about the keys that aren't related with buildings nor units. Like go to last alarm sound?
I don't use that one since I think if multiple come up quickly, you could probably get confused.
@@SurvivalistAoE thanks!
I like setting that one to mouse wheel click
Incorrect, I use a driving wheel for my hotkeys. That is the best layout.
11
Question: why is this better than the DE all grid default hotkeys?
eg. differences -- Q/W for economy/military buildings. Q for Rams instead of Z
p.s. still learnt stuff, thanks!
Some things don't fit perfectly into a grid, but for the most part these are grid hotkeys. It's basically grid with some modifications. As long as your hotkeys are easy to press then the actual layout doesn't matter too much.
Any chance you could upload the file to these bindings?
They're in my discord in the #hotkeys section
I can't help but point this out since it's in the first 10 seconds of the video.
"We have villager build, which is on A, so A for villager build"
*Proceeds to press S*
Is there a download of this hotkey profile available?
I posted the hkp file in #clips-videos in my discord. I hope this is the right file...
@@SurvivalistAoE You always read my mind!
ım still using wasd for travel in the map thats why ım 1300 elo.d
I just Q for everything.
I have the best HOTkey layout 🥵
bro you get confused every 2 micro seconds about yout hotkeys while trying to make a hotkey video.. I dont wanna be too rude because I like your videos but this one is a really weird one. Just let them all on the default grid and you know EXACTLY what buttons are which. Q W E R T Z A S D F G Z X C V B and now you just have to look at the row and you immediately know they button without looking what its set too... why make it weird af for no reason lol?
You should never look at your keyboard when you're playing. Eventually you get to the point where it's all muscle memory and you forget which key you're actually pressing, which is why I don't remember the letter that my hotkeys are on easily.
It's much easier to rest your fingers in the middle of the keyboard, so for grid hotkeys for unit creation, it would end up being a bit more awkward.
Why dont u have a link to ur hotkey set up? could just link the file and people could drag it into their game folders and be good to go, or at least show the hotkey settings on screen... this is like a 22 min video that dosent really help anyone do anything, just hey check out my hotkeys this is how hotkeys work.
What finger do you use for ctrl? I can't reach with my little finger so i do it with the side of my palm, under my little finger.
Little finger works for me. Then I use my middle finger to set control groups 1-2 and 2nd finger for further ones.
@@SurvivalistAoE Some more questions: How is your hand placed on the keyboard? do you point your hand toward the escape button or towards the middle? do you place your fingers near home row keys? is your keyboard tilted or straight? and also how do you position your wrist? Thanks.
@@ns-islandsroblox I think my natural position is to have my fingers on shift, a, w, d, and b
I guess my hand is at maybe a 30 degree angle to the keyboard. I'm definitely not completely lined up as if I were typing.
My wrist is just straight.
Thank you, I still struggle to find some comfortable hot keys. Grid layout is sick for starters
Works for me at top 100 level as well :)
How i did my hotkeys (as someone returning to game this year from b4 when id never use hotkeys) is by having house, palisade wall, stone wall only have one key in both economic/military. What i mean is house is q, so in military section i have no building for q, so when i press military (w), then q its still a house. This helps when mixing in walls/houses so u dont need to go back menus again.
There quite a few other things i changed but. Like go back to work is the same as garrison hotkey.
This is what I use, it's so easy to turn this layout into muscle memory. PS. I'm -1200 ELO (Ultra Noob)
i never change the default hotkey, how to select the town center. it use to be key "H". i just started playing the game again.
After watching this I realized I could replace my Select all docks with a single Y, instead of Ctrl+T. I haven't utilized the right half keyboard at all.
Y is reasonable to press with your 2nd finger (which is what I do)
Hoardings-Sappers; OP Kreygasm
I have both "select all TC" and "train vil" on spacebar. I just need to diddle the space bar every couple minutes to keep my idle time super low
Seems like you could easily accidentally over-queue vils with this setup. Having extra units queued is the same as floating those resources so it's not great sometimes.
@@SurvivalistAoE thanks for doing this. What are your hotkeys for select all TC and idle vills? Assuming A is for train vil (missing in the video)
@@swaminaths4292 Select all TC is H and select idle villager is . (shift + . is select all idle vils)
Literally been needing a new video for this! Amazing! Your content is always so good!
I don't think you need a hotkey on any upgrade that you do only once a game (university, monastery upgrades). It's a bit more handy when you are making the same kind of an upgrade several times but that's still not that important (eco upgrades, blacksmith). What is the most important are the production hotkeys and go to production/control groups and then build hotkeys.
It's still better to have them than not. It feels so smooth when you use hotkeys to get certain upgrades. For example getting ballistics quickly while microing your crossbowmen.
I tried to map everything to QWER and ASDF rows so I don't need move my hands at all.
I have the select all buildings and train the most common units is mapped onto the same key. Q for select all TC Q for training vills. A for select all ranges, A to train archer. S for select all stables, S for train knight, W for select all barracks and W to train pikemen, and so on. The rest of the units are on the top row, so SQ is scout SE is camel, AW is skirm, etc.
In a scout opening you can just QQSQ and a vill and scout is queued without changing the camera view.
When you have many conflicting keys the ones on the button bar on the left-bottom takes priority always. This can be exploited when you build because build eco and build military are on different panels so this allows mapping the building of 16 buildings to the first two QWER and ASDF rows. So for me QQ is build farm, QA is mill, AA is palisade, AQ is range, etc. The rarely built buildings are mapped out of the two main rows. You need only one blacksmith, market and university so their building are mapped to Q1, Q2, Q3 for me respectively. QE for monastery, QR for dock, because they are on the eco page although they don't belong there.
Docks are tricky because it has two panels. R selects all docks, so QWER used to train ships that are available on the first page, but second page ships need to be out of the main rows, because they don't have visible buttons and cannot conflict with other select all hotkeys, so I assigned TZGH for them, so that have to be awkward.
For military units line/flank formations are switched by mouse wheel, A for patrol, S, D, F is for stand ground, defensive and aggressive (F for fight) stances respectively. R for follow (I use it to push deer).