AoE2 in one sentence "I did not notice"

I started playing AoE2 DE in February. I used to play the ogirinal game when I was younger but not with a competitive mindset.

When I started playing, the game felt overwhelming, so many things to do, so many things to think about, so many clicks that are hard to execute, so many civilizations, so many units, so many units that are viable counters but not always.

Most importantly, so many things to be aware of.

I played some Starcraft 2 when it came out and something I loved about it is how easy it was to be aware of everything that was happening. There are less unit types, the workers need little to no micro the maps are less open and more importantly the UI is way more clear.

When a unit gets attacked in Starcraft 2 you get a sound warning you about it, just like in AoE2, except the sound does not repeat too often and it is different when a building is under attack and when your units are under attack.

The alert can also be seen on the minimap while in AoE2 there is a small square that appears on the map but it disappears very fast and the same square is used for any other event. For instance here you can see two squares, one for the unit being attacked and one for a unit being created. This last example is a very simple situation with units fighting at the same place and yet it is already confusing.

I found that all my defeats can be summarized to one thing, "I did not notice".

I did not notice one of the scout hitting a different wall.

I did not notice the hole in my wall.

I did not notice the villager doing nothing after building a quick wall.

I did not notice the scout running into the enemy TC.

I did not notice the hussars into my base killing half my villagers.

I did not notice the units doing nothing.

I did not notice the tower being built in the middle of my base.

Don't get me wrong. I love this game, I love how many options there are, how many styles we can adopt but it feels like this is something I will be able to enjoy in many years once I'll be able to follow what's happening on the map.