Simplifying Responses: Making more Decisions with Less Effort [Age of Empires 2]

[@beckbaibai]

This is probably the best video I’ve watched on decision making in AoE 2. It provides a framework rather than giving specific knowledge. I found it immensely useful for an average player like me, who has played hundreds of hours and memorized many small details from watching pro games but still constantly feels lost in the game. Thank you and keep up the good work!

[@DorvoG]

You really hit the nail on the head. That feeling after the initial castle age play. Now what!?

[@ipconfigearth102]

I m still lost after playing hundreds of hours of game.

[@prathamesh5497]

I've probably watched this over 10 times and still keep coming back for revisions! Thanks Surv! Started at ~900, currently at ~1100 with your help.

[@alejandroromero6464]

This one goes hand to hand with the one talking about defending a sudden eagles attack. So much value in these videos

[@alexxx4434]

Getting faster is essentially creating stored procedures by training/drilling them into your memory, which will get activated in certain scenarios without thinking much if at all.

[@singalongwithtom]

Survivalist: "Once you can't keep track of your economy, this is the time to click auto-reseed" Me: *Builds mill*, turns on auto-reseed

[@SurvivalistAoE]

That's why I worded it this way. The best time to turn on auto-reseed is different for everyone.

[@The_WatchList]

@@SurvivalistAoE exactly. Depends on your level of apm and how much you can concentrate on at once

[@keithtreco8851]

@@SurvivalistAoE oh bro you flamed em 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@nostalji93]

@@The_WatchList why would you not turn it on right away?

[@The_WatchList]

@@nostalji93 Because there are times when you don't want that wood automatically used for farms. To play at max efficiency, you are supposed to use all resources as soon as they come in on the thing you want. If you are saving for Castle Age, you click Castle the second you can. Not a minute later unless something forces you to, like a decent Feudal Archer push. That is an example not about wood. As for wood, imagine if you have 7 farms with auto reseed on, but there is a late drush (dark age rush) or feudal infantry push coming. You are trying to use the 210 wood you have to build house walls and repair your palisade to block enemy militia, but as the first house comes up, your first, second, and third farms run out and burn 180 wood. Now you only have 5 wood and no way to fill the hole in the wall where enemy infantry are going to pour through. That's why in a competitive game you would not want to use auto reseed. It can and will burn resources early that could be needed elsewhere. Does that make sense? Also, great profile name

[@Hjoerleif]

Brilliant video! One thing I couldn't help but note though was at 01:52 building a house actually has five actions required, the first one you assumed already done. Namely, selecting a villager :D

[@thearianrobben]

Very informative, I bet most pros hide these stuff from us the commoners and they always focus on fancy micro/ quick walls all those visible stuff or doing meme strategies. Reality is those does not win games with consistence, its a strategy game at its core after all.

[@SurvivalistAoE]

Flashy plays are what most people notice. It's difficult to put thought processes into words.

[@wh4t3v3rrr]

This is a gold mine of information. Considering dropping a castle before the enemy gets here.

[@fs23]

11

[@Zoltoks]

So good this is helping me as a mid ranged player. Everything you said is common sense yet I find myself doing all the bad habits. This video is a good refresher and reminder to actually follow common sense instead of playing "dumb" thank you!

[@Muzlibuck]

Excellent content. Your videos hit that sweet spot between concrete examples and abstract concepts that are widely applicable!

[@MikeEmpires]

That’s a really great video. Sometimes, I watch a whole video without improving, but this one definitely made a difference.

[@yunusokmen]

Those videos are awesome. There is no other content that reaches this level of useful details. It felt like my elo increased by 100 after only watching it :D I appreciate it.

[@FacundoTupac]

The MVP in AoE education strikes again with a completely unique and valuable video. Thanks a lot for this Survivalist!

[@gustielteso]

I have to be honest, this is one of the best strategy videos I ever seen, really great job man, Keep bringing up this kind of quiality content

[@omvachhani7715]

Best tutorial video by anyone yet.....

[@John11747]

These videos should be highlighted by in-game tutorial...👍❤️

[@diosn6909]

This video is gold! Thank you so much! Will see it 4 to 5 times to absorb the ideas.

[@polarwarfare8522]

Very well done video. Now watch as I watch this 30 times and still dont understand it 11

[@lewisnelken1966]

just caught your stream for the first time and came and saw this, nice stuff dude I also love your pyramid style way of teaching the fundamentals of the game

[@zachschmidt9861]

Your perspective is amazing to listen to.

[@DCBMusic]

Definitely going to be taking these tips into consideration when I'm trying to climb the ranked ladder again once I get a moment from covering the AOE2 themes! Thank you.

[@davidkiss8845]

Awesome stuff. Our brains like to make practiced methods more automatic to free up energy for other things. If you are more aware of this it makes multitasking easier and learning new things an easier effort.

[@NelsonSKA]

Great tutorial. Very complete and useful. Buen trabajo!

[@alexxx4434]

Such in-depth great analysis!

[@santiagorestrepoc.5804]

Right to the core of my problems! Thanks!!

[@Polux77]

Utterly good content. I need to print the thought processes of this video to help me!

[@allbaugh04]

Always invest in stonks 🙂 Also great tip on stopping villy production. I have a bad habit of producing villies while being raided. When i just need a few skirms or pikes.

[@Crusadxr]

fantastic video man, really learned a lot!

[@tkzsfen]

such a well put video, very educational!

[@whoami50313]

department of economics of AOEII

[@nachosaenz1828]

This is gold. Thanks a lot!

[@dillongreen3397]

I can tell you are a musician by the way you approach improvement and practice

[@PizzaHandhelds]

This is what I need! Thanks Survivalist!!!!!!

[@lelanddyke8386]

If you're going to spend 30 minutes watching AOE content, it's this video and 5 minutes of memes

[@justxavier9999]

Gonna watch tomorrow morning but gonna leave a like and a comment for my man first

[@erickendoka2953]

Amazing Bro keep it up !!!!

[@roym2185]

Simplifying Responses.... Step 1: Consider if you need the building Step 2: Balance your eco to produce continuously Step 3: Remember to macro behind Step 4: Micro like a god ... Step 69: Win Great logic. Not sure if I'd go with it as simplifying responses as much as decision-making logic? Lots going on in this. Might be worth breaking it down further to shorter, more simplified videos for all us noobs.

[@SurvivalistAoE]

True, I feel like I could've gone a little bit more in-depth in some areas.

[@andym87]

Awesome and super helpful as always! Thanks!

[@joeyroyer3195]

bro i feel like you're rewiring my brain

[@dimpie1000]

great info , well done and thx, many good learning points

[@madeiraislander]

16:47 JESUS! O.O 48!!! Awesome video, will watch it again because i saw myself in it lol Still have a lot to improve xD

[@EliasHasle]

15:20 Saracen siegemishers... 🤩♥️

[@johnbambridge1882]

Awesome content Surv,

[@baumiphil]

awesome. thx and keep doing what u are doing!

[@joshpeacock4236]

this was a great video. new to your channel. love the style. v useful

[@mysteriousshadow395]

This is why I typically resign at feudal in 1v1

[@thesippedsapper]

amazing insights as always

[@beetoven8193]

This was a great vid. I know it's been awhile, but any chance you'll do more like this?

[@SurvivalistAoE]

Here's where all of my best videos are: kzbin.info/aero/PLQ8BgSJQQkY3XiYdhsAp1tcPAAJob9CJb It really takes me like a month to make these scripted videos so they're coming, but slowly.

[@beetoven8193]

@@SurvivalistAoE Thank you, Survivalist!

[@youcanthandlethetruth5433]

Great teacher

[@BodkinArrow]

Excellent as always!

[@BlueBirdgg]

Great video!

[@thomasgoldwater2082]

Quality video - thanks mate

[@rafaelbaldin4560]

24:50 If you are playing with the Spanish, you don't need to genocide your villagers.

[@SurvivalistAoE]

True, 30 supremacy + sappers villagers is like a free ram push!

[@Halvtooth]

I used to defend xbows with dropping siege workshop, stable and archery range, then I didn't get enough units of any to do anything and then I died :).

[@SurvivalistAoE]

All 3 of these things are great to kill xbow as long as you just choose 1 of them :)

[@Halvtooth]

@@SurvivalistAoE Doing that now and it helps :-)

[@devilhearts007]

good work

[@ArjaaAine]

Thanks!

[@dirkauditore8413]

Watched this late but, amazing content!

[@PhotonTrooperGaming]

great video! Thank you!

[@armanditoetc]

This is the best vid ever!

[@DorvoG]

This is great! Thank you! Also, there's a typo at 5:45. Or maybe you are referring to the Indians civilization? ;)

[@SurvivalistAoE]

Ahaha, I didn't notice it. I did, however, notice a typo near the end. At 25:00, the text should read "Think of how to play the game without the stress of real-time". Just comes down to not triple-checking these things.

[@DorvoG]

​@@SurvivalistAoE Progress, not perfection. :D I'd love to see more, it will help me climb the next 100 ELO-points. :) I'm really happy I found your channel.

[@Mattonores]

Rad vid.

[@holyn8]

Good work! Thx

[@danielbentley7117]

Maybe this would need a separate video entirely, but do you have any tips on increasing APM? I watch the pro players like you with like 400 apm and I'm nowhere near that. Just wondered if there are any specific exercises you do (in or outside of the game) or scenarios we can practise to improve APM.

[@SurvivalistAoE]

The more things that you can do by muscle memory, the faster you will go. As you learn more about the game, you will naturally go faster as you'll understand all the little things that can be done to improve efficiency. I don't do any special APM training and usually the first game of the day is a bit slow while I'm warming up.

[@danielbentley7117]

@@SurvivalistAoE Thanks man, I will keep expanding my hotkeys! Does spamming go to TC / make villager / go to idle villager buttons help with APM? Even if they are essentially useless commands when you have no resources or idles.

[@SurvivalistAoE]

@@danielbentley7117 Spamming idle villager hotkey is good practice as sometimes there'll be an idle when you wouldn't think there'd be one. You should be using "select all" hotkeys instead of "go to" hotkeys for the most part as then you don't have to move your camera to the building to queue units.

[@ButtonBashOfficial]

Hi mate - good vid! How come your terrain looks so low-res? Is it a mod? Also - I recommend the "[PointiBoi] Plants Remover" mod to get rid of the useless plants :)

[@SurvivalistAoE]

I use mostly low settings in the options menu. The useless plants at least give the game some life :P

[@ipconfigearth102]

How to get better at ranked games? Or should I train with AI more before playing ranked????

[@SurvivalistAoE]

Training your opening with AI is the best way to get better before going to ranked. You can pause against ai and think about things, and you can even make saves and resume from them. For example, you could make a save just as you click to feudal age so you can practice eco rebalancing on the way up so that you can afford everything once you're up.

[@Diegotronics]

Great video! really useful for noobs like me haha

[@nikiffleser2599]

One thing that i feel gets more and more important is stonewalling against raids - fits under taking map control

[@SurvivalistAoE]

In the late game, stone walling should see more use!

[@AetherXIV]

sorry not very many people left likes! thousands watched it, so we liked it :)

[@cronos351]

19:20 rush the oasis xd

[@Brigada91RealBriggy]

fun fact: Playing only the campaigns and DLC campaigns I can just pause the game and can react accordingly :D Competitive/ PvP just isn't fun for me. I enjoy the campaigns a lot more.

[@SurvivalistAoE]

Competitive is definitely not for everyone. Nothing wrong with being only single or only multiplayer :) I haven't played any of the campaigns (except when I was younger in the CD version)

[@Alexlinnk]

cool!

[@mysteriousshadow395]

I simply don't have the brain cells to do that

[@ryanforgo3500]

Commenting for the sake of commenting 👍😅😂

[@mysteriousshadow395]

Who's yodit lol?

[@BlueBirdgg]

what a noob uhm?!

[@mysteriousshadow395]

@@BlueBirdgg Oh I didn't play HD lol

[@BlueBirdgg]

@@mysteriousshadow395 I mean. His score is so low. I was calling him a noob. But it is probably an AI name, I think.

[@mysteriousshadow395]

@@BlueBirdgg oh ok, yeah it was from a campaign introduced in HD if you search it up

[@SurvivalistAoE]

Some of the footage was against AI as I didn't have enough specific replays for everything (especially since old replays stop working when a new patch comes out)

[@mo_not_salah9752]

Or just play Saracens and put all villagers to gold and stone, abuse the market and hope the game finishes in Castle age

[@chester7744]

FIRST

[@dawood9390]

It's pronounced process not process ;)

[@SurvivalistAoE]

no it's pronounced "process"

[@ADCFproductions]

i thought it was process too