Introduction to Hotkeys

Article written by Chewmen_ldr
Published on 08-07-2004
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Introduction

I have taken the time to put down all the possible hotkey’s in this post, including some stuff not in the manual. I hope this will help a lot of the newcomers here, who need help with micromanagement skills.

Why should I memorize the hotkeys?

Well first, do not memorize the hotkeys, learn them. Learning the hotkeys will give you a faster feudal age/Castle age/Imperial age times. It will give you a boost when you need it, (I.e. When you’re housed you can save time to choose to build one) and will minimize mouse cramps from moving your hand up and down 50,000 times.

Do you help noobs on the zone?

Actually, I do. If you need help you may contact me at Chewmen_ldr on ZoneFriends (note that AoC is no longer played via the Zone — Ed.).

Custom keys

Custom keys are hotkeys that you set for yourself, for your personal preferences. You may access this option by:

  1. Going to the main menu.
  2. Clicking upon options.
  3. Clicking on “hotkeys”, underneath the name selection.

I suggest you learn the default hotkeys before trying your own combinations. Mainly because you may try to play on another computer, try to show a friend some hotkeys that he may not know, etc. And these hotkeys aren’t so bad, as mostly the letter corresponds with the buildings name leaving them easy to remember.

After learning these hotkeys, I would try to learn your own. Here are some good hotkey combination ideas:

Group/building Numbering

You may number a unit/building or group of them to find them easily. This may be done by:

  1. Holding the “ctrl” button on your computer.
  2. Pressing a number (1-9) on your keyboard.
  3. When trying to find them, press alt and their number (1-9) to move to them.
  4. When just trying to select them, just press their number (1-9).
  5. When trying to get rid of their number press “ctrl” and “0”.

Here is my list of what numbers are on what object:

  1. Scout.
  2. Raiding party.
  3. Main boar hunting army.
  4. Poor Boar lurer.
  5. My halberdier army.
  6. Monk(s).
  7. Misc. Army.
  8. Stables/Archery Ranges/Seige Workshops.
  9. Barracks.

Advanced commands

There are a few tips and tricks that you may use to make things go a little “faster”. Here are some of them.

  • Double clicking on a unit will select all of him that is on the screen.
  • A group is made of up to 40 units.
  • Shift + left click on a unit queue will make 5 of him.
  • Hold Shift and put a building down will allow you to make multiple of the same building.
  • When selecting a group you can select more by pressing control or shift and clicking or dragging around the units you want.
  • When selecting a group you can deselect 1 person by pressing on his face + control.
  • When selecting a group you can deselect the whole type of that unit by pressing control + shift + left click on the unit you want.
  • Right click during the placement of a building will cancel it.
  • You can also “add” units to a number group by selecting the units you want to add, do a Shift –> Ctrl –> , which will select the number group in addition to the units you want to add. With them all selected, just number as usual. (Lord_Fadawah)