Member Plus Headquarters: How to Play

The chapter links below explain how to play Community Patch 1.6 on Voobly.

Select both, the v1.6 RC user patch, as well as the v1.6 Game Data mod in your game settings.

Please make sure, you enable the following settings:

• Enable: Force Desktop Resolution in Game
• Enable: Disable display scaling on high DPI settings
• Enable: Render in 32-bit color
• Enable: Start in Window-Mode

With the v1.6 Game Data mod, you can set the language in the patch options.

After changing the language, start the game on your own. The game will close inmediatly which means the patch changed the language.

In case you don’t use english, make sure to start the game on your own after every update before playing with others.

When the Community Patch is installed, the new hotkeys are deactivated so as not to introduce conflicts with your setting. This means that the mod will use the default hotkey file “player1.hki” located in the root AoE2 folder, see picture.



Since the Community Patch comes with a lot of new hotkey entries for technologies, you may not be able to access them with your default hotkeys file. To be able to use the new hotkeys, navigate to the mod’s folder and rename “player1_tech_HK.hki” to “player1.hki”. This will make the game use this file instead of the default one.



Start the game in Single Player mode, go to the options and configure your own hotkeys.
When you are done, the hotkeys will be saved in player1.hki. If you leave your hotkeys there, the file will be deleted with future updates.
Take this file and overwrite the default one in the root AoE2 folder. This hotkey file will also work on other mods, regardless of the new hotkeys, and will not be erased by updates.

The technologies still share hotkeys in some of situations. The buildings affected are Barracks, Stable, Archery Range, Siege Workshop, Castle and Market. They share hotkeys with Monastery ones, following the grid like distribution of the default configuration in Definitive Edition. If you wish to change a hotkey for some of these buildings, set the corresponding Monastery hotkey. The following table lists all the technologies that share hotkey, alongside their default key in the grid distribution:

The patch now includes the posibility of selecting multiple walls. Multiple selection of walls can be done in two ways:

• Double clicking on walls works with foundations but not finished walls.
• Square selecting works with all walls. If you select a wall alongside a villager, the game will prioritize the villager and its interface.

This two multiple selection options can be enabled simultaneously in the patch options in the game room.

Resource Interface​

The Community Patch now has two different resource interfaces:

• The original resource interface that only display the resource amount.
• The new Advanced Interface, that adds villager distribution per resource and idles counte.

Both interfaces should be compatible with any computer and don’t require the overlay program.

You can activate the Advanced interface in the patch options.

Global Queue​

Aditionally to the resource interface, you can activate the Global Queue, which displays the units and technologies being researched in all your buildings. This global queue uses an additional program called “AOC Overlay” that only runs in modern and up to date computers.

Command bar position​

If you want to use the Advanced Interface, you also have to enable the UserPatch position of the command bar.

The patch now includes several “select all” hotkeys, such as idle villagers, Town Centers, military buildings, etc.
Depending on wether you have the global queue activated or not, these hotkeys are handled in a different way.

WITHOUT global queue​

The select all hotkeys are disabled by default for performance reasons. Activate them in the patch options.



The patch now includes hotkeys to select all units or buildings of a given type. The options are:

• Select all idle villagers
• Select all idle military
• Select all idle trade carts
• Select all Town Centers
• Select all Barracks
• Select all Archery Ranges
• Select all Stables
• Select all Siege Workshops
• Select all Docks
• Select all Markets
• Select all Monasteries
• Select all Castles
• Select all Krepost
• Select all Donjons
• Select all military buildings

Bear in mind that the function that detects the hotkeys works properly if you have villagers working on any resource except for wood. This won’t be an issue in a normal game but keep it in mind if you are testing. If you don’t have villagers working, hotkeys are linked to the presence of the score and take longer to respond.

Modifying hotkeys​

If you want to set up your own “select all” hotkeys, bear in mind the following:

• You must not have the same hotkey for different buildings, as this may produce odd behaviours and bugs. The only exception to this is the Donjon and Krepost, as in a normal game you can not build both.
• Hotkeys that use the key Shift may conflict with “create five units” hotkeys.

If you have the global queue disabled, the patch won’t check if you introduce these errors.
Here is the process for configuring the hotkeys when you don’t have global queue:

1. When you download the patch, the hotkeys will be disabled.
2. Start the game in single player and go to the hotkey configuration menu inside the game. There you will see a section for “Select all”.
3. Configure the hotkeys of your choice.
4. Once you do that, the hotkeys you choose will be saved with the rest of them in the hki file located in the mod’s folder. This is different from the way the patch with global queue stores them.

Error with the hot-key binding​

We recomend that, when binding the select all hotkeys, you configure them ONE AT A TIME, going back to the game to check that they work. If the hotkey doesn’t seem to work, open and close again the hotkeys menu.

This is because you need to make sure the game saves the hotkeys file and changing several hotkeys at once may result in them not being properly saved. Every time you close the hotkeys menu, they are saved in the .hki file.

WITH global queue​

Features of the patch with global queue.

Hidding and showing the global queue​

To hide the global queue, press and hold Ctrl+Shift+F. Use the same keys to show it again.
This does not disable the global queue, it’s intended for viewing recordings, where the global queue gets confused when you switch players. If you want the global queue never to appear, it’s better that you choose that option in the interface options in the game room.

“Select all” hotkeys​

The patch now includes hotkeys to select all units or buildings of a given type. The options are:

• Select all idle villagers
• Select all idle military
• Select all idle trade carts
• Select all Town Centers
• Select all Barracks
• Select all Archery Ranges
• Select all Stables
• Select all Siege Workshops
• Select all Docks
• Select all Markets
• Select all Monasteries
• Select all Castles
• Select all Krepost
• Select all Donjons
• Select all military buildings

Bear in mind that the function that detects the hotkeys works properly if you have villagers working on any resource except for wood. This won’t be an issue in a normal game but keep it in mind if you are testing. If you don’t have villagers working, hotkeys are linked to the presence of the score and take longer to respond.

Modifying hotkeys​

If you want to set up your own “select all” hotkeys, bear in mind the following:

• You must not have the same hotkey for different buildings, as this may produce odd behaviours and bugs. The only exception to this is the Donjon and Krepost, as in a normal game you can not build both.
• Hotkeys that use the key Shift may conflict with “create five units” hotkeys.

If you have the global queue enabled, there are two options for editing hotkeys. Through the game or through the file where they are stored.
Also, some of the symbols on the right of the keyboard (‘ + – ; ¡) may not work properly if you are not using an english keyboard. This is due to the symbols placed differently to what the underlying code expects.

Editing hotkeys through the game​

By pressing and holding Ctrl+Shift+O you will open the configuration window of the overlay. This window has a section for the “select all” hotkeys.

By pressing each of the buttons next to the hotkeys, the patch will let you choose a new hotkey for that “select all” command. The patch will prevent you from using the same hotkey twice and will warn you when you use Shift but will allow the hotkey. You can use Right-click to disable the hotkey.

When you press the button Close your configuration will be saved in the file OverlayConfig.ini, located in the patch folder. This is a text file that you can open with Notepad.

If you modify the hotkeys, make a copy of OverlayConfig.ini outside the patch folder to prevent loosing it when reinstalling the patch.

Editing hotkeys manually​

Alternatively, you can edit the file OverlayConfig.ini, located in the patch folder, although it’s more complex to use and prone to errors.
OverlayConfig.ini is a text file that you can open with Notepad. There you can see each of the hotkeys next to three numbers that correspond to keys. You can bind up to three keys and the value zero means the key is not used. You can check the key codes in this page. For example, “select all idle villagers” has numbers 46 (.), 341 (Ctrl) and 0 (unused).

Bear in mind that through this file you can bind any hotkey you want without the game complaining. Be aware of the restrictions above so as not to introduce bugs.

If you modify this file, make a copy of it outside the patch folder to prevent loosing it when reinstalling the patch.

The patch now includes the option to auto-save games while playing, to provide a secondary backup file in case of crashes.

This feature will save the game every 6 minutes and create a file called “Auto_restore.msz” in the folder “v1.6 Game Data\SaveGame\Multi”.
Some notes on the new feature:

• When the game is saved, you’ll notice a momentary freeze.
• The feature is disabled by default, you can activate it in the patch options as the interface or the language.
• As long as one of the players has the feature active, the auto-save will be in effect.