Title it’s been a long time now and there’s still no hot keys designed for wasd
On Aoe4 you just one click switch and it’s that simple with prebuild keybinds
Oh and the hotkeys saved are not locale and it’s based on each account individually which is horrible, since if I switch to a different pc I have to enter all keybinds manually again, unlike Aoe4 where you can transfer the keybinds easily
Almost all games in modern nowadays even strategy games uses wasd to move, total war, coh3, Aoe4 and many others
Games need more keyboard presets. I’m left handed so I have to manually rebind keys in every single game I play. The only game I ever encountered that actually had a left handed preset was Starcraft 2, not just the only strategy game, the only game ever. Though I can kinda understand why that’s hard to do. If you want to use your right hand on the keyboard you want to use your numpad but not all keyboards have that.
That’s also why I think sync should be an optional feature and not forced on. Some people switch between a laptop and a desktop computer and laptops tend to have smaller keyboards. Unique devices like a Steam Deck are another case where you likely want different keybinds.
You can save your hotkeys as a profile to easily switch them. Also, each hotkey profile is saved as a file on your computer so, although it’s a bit more complicated, you can copy a profile that way too.
Well, it is not really forced, you can have multiple presets, so if they synced your hotkeys files between machines, you could have a preset for an specific one. An even better thing they could do is allowing to share your preset as a mod (similar to steam input layouts), so people could share popular and specific layouts.
For now until/if they decided to do it, the easier solution is to manually move the file where the hotkeys are saved between machines.
It’s not that it doesn’t have WASD support, it’s that WASD are used for hotkeys.
So in a game where those types of keys are used for building shortcut, there is no logic on giving WASD as they sit in the middle of the three-row key span.
HOWEVER, I’m oftenly trying to move my camera with WASD ahaha.
Yes and no, because the goal is having the gride where it is, is intended for the natural position of the left hand on the keyboard.
Natural keyboard hand position is:
Pinky on A, in range of Q and Z
Annular on S, in range of W and X
Middlefinger on D, in range of E and C
Index finger on F (with that small shape on the key), in range of R and V.
That’s why they are where they are. I’m not saying it’s good, but if you move this gride toward the right, then either you’re stretching your muscle too much with that left hand, so it’s not conftable, or it’s just too far from the WASD so you’re not using it correctly.
The point is that, currently with how the game hotkey system is done, having WASD would be pointless, cause you also have to remember that numerical keys are used for control groups so you can’t push any of the building shortcut on those keys, which restrict even more the possibilities.
Isn’t there rebinding method currently ? I’m not using that much shortcut as I’m a solo player that likes chill historical games so I’m not that much into strong key usage, even the arrows I never use them honnestly.
If there is no key rebinding, then it’s more that we should aim to, because everyone’s body is different so the way your muscle works and what is comftable for you could be diffrent from what is to me, so yes key rebinding would be perfect if it’s not already there.
Your right hand is on your mouse, the left hand is on you grid keys and your middle hand goes onto the arrow keys. That is how RTS are supposed to be played.
Jokes aside but I unironically considered using pedals to play RTS because I don’t think fingers are enough (even with 16 buttons on my mouse).
I use mouse for camera moving plus clicking, the left hand is there for group controlling. (but I’m not a ranked player, I’m purely there for the solo gaming campaigns etc)
My post was a joke, referring to the current AoE2 key binds.
Besides Stronghold none of those games are really comparable to AoE2. They all don’t have an economy and are just about controlling units, at least in the RTS part.
Stronghold is kinda of in the other direction with a more complex economy.
But I never said that there shouldn’t be a WASD preset. Because why not. It doesn’t cost much an has 0 negative impact on people that don’t like it. “Oh no one more button in the UI, I will die!”
The inherent problem of an RTS like AoE or Stracraft is that you need to use hotkeys to be competitive. You can’t afford the delay of pressing buttons with your mouse. But how can you simultaneously move the camera? Since pro players rather have the ability to quickly access all unit and building functions then being able to move their camera they don’t use WASD nor the arrow keys to move it.
