Matrix Games Forums

I use the Keybord shortcuts a lot.
One of my favorites is the "R"_Key to highlight roads/railroads on the map.

However, the visualisation is somewhat wierd:

1) The displayed network does not follow the road/railroad visual exactly, but rather add some hand-drawn visuals on the map, that add to the general clutter. In my opinion, the lines should follow the exact path of the Artwork.
2) Furthermore, the chosen colors for the highlighting of those visuals (the new lines) are rather too subtle and hard to see. (and yes, I do use a slightly modded map, but this is not a problem for this topic).

I use this "R"-key as a tool to helo me to easier find the road/railroad network on the map. This whole idea is to HIGHLIGHT the network, not to softly add additional lines on the map.

While I do understand that this is also a matter of art, style and taste, I still appreciate if this would better serve the intended fuctionality in the first place.

Cheers
Terry

terry1040 wrote: Mon Feb 02, 2026 11:37 am One of my favorites is the "R"_Key to highlight roads/railroads on the map.

However, the visualisation is somewhat wierd...

Weird is an understatement, it is really ugly. And was clearly a hang-over from WitP:AE, where it was often needed both to highlight the existence of the network in certain hexes and to confirm whether two adjacent hexes with roads or rail were actually connected.

I'm really not seeing why this function is necessary now though. The rail lines and roads as drawn on this map are very clear even in zoom level 0. Your own screenshot shows them better without the red and green lines. Even with all of the large LCU icons enabled (and they can be toggled off easily to leave just the tiny "traditional" icons), if you had any doubt about whether a particular road or rail goes through a hex or not then zoom level 2, never mind 4, should resolve it. In my view the winding lines like a child drew all over the map, actually make it worse to see where these are going. Especially as you have omitted that there are two types of railway line (major and minor), requiring a fourth set of coloured lines. If you look at Xativa going west, that is the major railway line from Valencia to Madrid and that branches just off the screenshot to connect to Alicante, the rest are minor. If you are using a modded map, then can the distinction major/minor rail be improved in the artwork rather than relying on the R hotkey overlay?