Control Groups

[iNcog]

Having to do more makes you worse at thinking. Making the apm you play at lower, while basically performing equally well in most games, is not worth it. It absolutely affects your decision making since you are more occupied with mechanics. Do what you need to do with as little effort as possible, thats best.

Of course not.

Korean professionals with thousands of dollar on the line (or their team in Proleague) are forced to make tough calls and even make second-guesses (in the case where they can't scout what's going on) based off map, race and the history of who they're playing against. They're doing it with apm well over 350.

My point is after a while, apm becomes second nature; when that happens apm very little effect on your decision-making abilities. In fact if you play slower than you normally would (cold hands, or just not warmed up), it's actually distracting. I know that to be the case for me and I'm sure other players can relate.

[momuuu]

But nobody here plays full time and professionally, so you want to lower apm where possible. Its basically like driving a car: the actions on their own are easy, the combined effort takes a while to learn, and is more about brain capacity (not being able to do a lot of simple things at once). The only way to really be able to multitask is by automatizing certain aspects. Yet, they still clutter your mind.

When I have to do very complex things, for example for school, I can even get distracted by music, even though listening to music seemingly doesnt take any effort. Even the smallest things can make thinking and decision making harder.

Yes, you can learn it with the find building setup, but thats like learning to drive a car manually. If you had to learn how to drive quickly, which is basically what most of us have to do with aoe mechanics since we dont play full time, you should always learn to drive in an automatic car. Slightly less control but you'll learn quicker. You'll learn quicker to mind the traffic properly because you need less of your mind to worry about how to drive a car. I even think you never reach a point in your life where driving manually doesnt slightly reduce your traffic knowledge, but it starts offering advantages over automatic driving that outweigh that disadvantage.

I dont think the find building hotkeys offer enough advantage for being that much more complex, which is why Id advise against it.

[S_I_D_aoe3]

I really like Veni's control group tutorial video, that's what got me to actually start using hotkeys. I think Veni does a great job with it and I recommend it to anyone that wants to get better and learn hotkeys.

[yemshi]

You could do like me and have a hotkey/control group for everything and don't use it.

[[Armag] diarouga]

I disagree Jerom. When you play with a good apm, it becomes normal and doesn't distract you. If you lower your apm, that means that you won't improve mechanically, that's just dumb.

[Mimsy for President]

You don't need high apm in AOE3.

[forgrin]

IMO high APM comes naturally to a certain degree. When you're more confident in your game decisions, know how to react to more situations, you don't hesitate and this raises your APM. Eg in age 3 deciding to ship/train skirms or goons-if you've done this tons of times, you know what to make almost immediately, so your APM is higher. Things like a good hotkey setup help alot too, but won't produce immediate results- you still have to be confident in your decisions/key presses, so you need to practice your hotkeys alot first.

[Garja]

IMO high APM comes naturally to a certain degree. When you're more confident in your game decisions, know how to react to more situations, you don't hesitate and this raises your APM. Eg in age 3 deciding to ship/train skirms or goons-if you've done this tons of times, you know what to make almost immediately, so your APM is higher. Things like a good hotkey setup help alot too, but won't produce immediate results- you still have to be confident in your decisions/key presses, so you need to practice your hotkeys alot first.

+1

[Cocaine]

I never grouped my builings nor use control hotkeys,, It takes a split second to minimap click on your base, and shift tap tap tap the production, then go back to fight view.

[thebritish]

I never grouped my builings nor use control hotkeys,, It takes a split second to minimap click on your base, and shift tap tap tap the production, then go back to fight view.

That seems impresive..

[sdsanft]

I'm only a 1st/2nd Lieutenant but I only use hotkeys for buildings and units. If I don't know a hotkey I will actually hover over the icon to see the hotkey, then press it. It sounds annoying but once you get good at hotkeys it is so much faster. You honestly don't even realize how much faster it is until you can actually do it. I also use control groups for my buildings. You are able to react so much faster this way. It is so nice to be in a battle and be able to queue up units from every single one of your production buildings while still being able to micro.

[Garja]

I never grouped my builings nor use control hotkeys,, It takes a split second to minimap click on your base, and shift tap tap tap the production, then go back to fight view.

Point is a split second is too much. In a split second you should do like 3-4 actions not one.

[momuuu]

you lol you need like 120-180 apm minimum to be decent really. Preferably be up somewhere in the 200s