Some time ago I got beaten in rated and after the game we had a short conversation. I think he was about 1850. When I asked him about his hotkeys he said he didn’t use any. I was surprised because I played a good game and still lost against someone who didn’t use hotkeys. Can you get so high without hotkeys? I don’t know, but assuming he wasn’t lying I told him he would have been 1950 if he did use hotkeys. If you have not noticed, the point is quite simple: use hotkeys.

Chichiri wrote an article on custom hotkeys in the early days of AoM. His settings are better than the default hotkeys for 2 reasons. They are very easy to remember because the hotkeys are assigned systematically. His hotkeys are also easy to access because he uses the left hand side of the keyboard, unlike the default hotkeys which are all over the keyboard. My old hotkeys were much like Chichiri’s hotkeys, but I was looking for a way to make them even more comfortable. I succeeded, at least in my case, as hotkeys are said to be very personal. However, the only way to achieve this was by paying a price: my new hotkeys, though very comfortable, were not so easy to remember. In other words, it takes some time before you master them, but once you do they’ll be very comfortable. Again, there’s no such thing as the “best” hotkeys because it’s different for everyone, but maybe I can inspire you.

In AoM there are many hotkeys that are often used together. Examples are: Find Town Center and Create Villager, Find Longhouse and Create RC, etc. It’s obvious you’ll want these hotkeys close for each other. Most people are aware of this. However, there’s also another thing of which few people are aware. The best way to explain this is by showing you some pictures:

In the first picture the keys R and G are encircled. Notice how you can easily reach both keys at the same time with your left hand. You don’t need to make strange moves with your fingers to reach them. This is not the case for every key combination. In the second picture the keys T and F are encircled. As you can see they’re not so easy to reach at the same time with your left hand. Of course it’s possible, but you’ll have to move your fingers in a less pleasant way. It’s clear the combination R and G is better than the combination T and F, but does it really matter that much? Well, first of all, comfortable hotkeys have a positive effect on your speed, if only it’s just a small effect. Secondly, less comfortable hotkeys are not very stimulating to use. Why? Because laziness is a habit all humans have in common, some people more than than others. Unconsciencely you may avoid using hotkeys that are not very pleasant to use. This effect occurs without noticing it so it’s easy to underestimate this.

If you haven’t thought about this, would it be a reason to change your hotkeys? For me it was, but I don’t think think many people are willing to learn new hotkeys if they’re used to their current settings. For those who want to take it into consideration I will describe my own settings because you will come along some difficulties.

Just like Chichiri’s hotkeys you don’t want them to be spread all over your keyboard. It’s better to put them as much as possible on the left side of your keyboard. You’ll now see it’s a real puzzle to find suitable settings if you also want to take into account the concept I just described. A good way to solve it is by assigning the Find Building hotkeys to the keys W, S, X, R, F, V. Take a look at where these keys are situated on your keyboard. We can now assign the keys around them to the Create Unit hotkeys. These are the keys Q, A, Z, E, D, C, T, G, B. Again, take a look at where these are situated on your keyboard. Note that you can use these keys for several tasks as long as they’re from different buildings. For example you can use Q for both Create Villager and Create RC because they’re not created from the same building.

Now, let’s see how we can assign them exactly. Let’s assign Find Town Center to W. Using Norse as an example we have to assign the Create Gatherer, Create Dwarf, Create Ox Cart and Create Ulfsark hotkeys. Which keys are comfortable to combine with W? Q, E and D are for sure. A and Z are very uncomfortable and the others are a bit far away. So let’s assign Q to Create Gatherer, E to Create Dwarf and D to create Ox Cart. Create Ulfsark is left, let’s assign that one to C as you won’t be using this one as much as the others.

The other buildings are done in a similar way. Here’s a short summary:

Find building key S is comfortable with the Create Unit keys Q, A, D and C.
Find building key X is comfortable with the Create Unit keys A, Z and C.
Find building key R is comfortable with the Create Unit keys E, T, and G.
Find building key F is comfortable with the Create Unit keys E, D, G and B.
Find building key V is comfortable with the Create Unit keys D, C, and B.

6 Find building keys have been listed in total. I use them for the TC, academy/barracks/longhouse, stable/counterbarracks, archery range, fortress/migdol/hillfort/palace and dock. For the temple I use autoqueu so it has a lower priority than the other buildings, but that’s just my choice.

Finally you’ll need to assign the Build Building Hotkeys. For them you can use the same keys as for the Create Unit keys. For example, if Find TC is W you can use the key to the left (Q) for Build TC. I don’t recommend using Ctrl+key because it’s a lot slower than simply using one key to build a building.

I’m not going to discuss the other hotkeys. It’s obvious you assign important hotkeys (e.g. idle vills, idle military) to keys such as Tab, Space bar and Mouse 3. By the way, it’s a pity the middle mouse button can only be used for one task. In AoK both Wheel up and Wheel down could be used for different tasks. I wish ES could bring that back.

Well that’s about it. Comments, suggestions and questions are welcome

NS_Cymophane

Links:
http://aom.heavengames.com/strategy/articles/19 (Chichiri’s hotkey guide)
http://www.mrfixitonline.com/usercon_hotkeys.asp (Article on advanced custom hotkeys with user.con by MiCroSlave)