The best hotkey-layout for Age of Empires 2.
In the folder “C:\Users[yourUserName]\Games\Age of Empires 2 DE” find the folder named with a very large build-number. At the moment it’s “76561198351380172”. Not sure if this will stay like that or it’s that for everyody. Then simply paste TwentyGrid.hki into the profiles-folder. Start the game and select the layout in Options>Hotkeys>select in “Hotkey Profiles”.
Install AHK and run the script before you start playing. In the bottom right you can exit the script, once you’re done playing and miss using alt+F4.
If this page should be inaccesible you can always get everything at my GitHub-repo, too: GitHub - DavidGretzschel/TwentyGrid: The best hotkey-layout for Age of Empires 2.
more on the official AgeOfEmpires-forum:
https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/presenting-the-twentygrid-hotkey-profile/64704
added German-QWERTZ version "ZwanzigNetz.hki" Swiss German would need yet another modification of the backtick-character. Might add that at some point, once I get around to it.
I'd be happy if this profile was integrated into the game itself. At the moment that wouldn't make sense, since alt+F4 would still open up the "quit game dialogue" instead of showing control group 20.