Is it just me or is everyone playing the game zoomed out all the way?

It's just you. I play the game on a normal zoomed level.

Zoomed out all the way? That's crazy talk . . .

It's not just you. I also prefer the "Strategic Map" for playing the game.

Well, not entirely just you. I use the mouse scroll button to go back and forth a lot, but find the "icon level" (not entirely the way out, but enough to get the icons and see more territory) most helpful for strategy. Then I scroll in to see local action when appropriate. Also, when you don't scroll out, I often miss the anomolies.

I usually play zoomed out but just below strategic level, switching to strategic from time to time to get an overview, then switching back to enjoy the graphics.

( Plus I'm not all that good at recognising the different icons )

It is just you. I play it all willy-nilly.

I use both.

I played zoomed up close, it looks to generic from zoomed out.

I don't play zoomed all the way out, but I've set the tactical view to cut in earlier, so I can see the icons without all the parsecs being tiny.

I'm much better at recognizing a ship's funciton by looking at the icon than by looking at the rendering.

Well, sorry let me make it more clear about the way I usually play. I play by zooming the map out to the exact point where everything has just turned into icons. Of course, not all the way out; just enough so I can see the icons (also the exact point where I can finally run the game smoothly ).

I zoom out to see the icons at the beggining and end of each turn.. and when im moving between planets and such.. all other times i zoom in far enough to see the models.

I play by zooming the map out to the exact point where everything has just turned into icons.

Me too.

i only zoom out all the way when i need to get a quick overview of where all my forces are, then i zoom back to medium range, and i'm playing a gigantic galaxy! i could never play completely zoomed out all the time. there would be no eye candy!

I use both. Close view gives planet/ships names and you see the directions of ships. Tactical view is good to see enemy movements since the game doesn't focus on them and if you have *many* detailed ships it helps the framerate

I use both as well:
I zoom in when it is my turn, and then when I'm done I zoom out so I can see the entire map, or at least all the zones I control and/or without fog of war. I find that it is easier to see enemy ships movements when zoomed out: you take note of any ship not matchin your color, then go check if thats some neutral guy, or a danger to the inner systems.

I think it's probably a matter of getting used to it. Because the game has not been running too smoothly on my PC when I played the game zoomed in, I usually just play it through the tactical map. In fact, now I can play the entire game zoomed out, and I can tell, without zooming in, which icons are what ship and what direction they are facing.

Of course, every once in a while, I zoomed in to the normal view to admire the graphics and stuff.

I use a mix of views. I like to zoom out between turns (especially once I have a few sensor "drones" in place) so I can see ship movements on a larger scale. During my turn I'm usually zoomed further in since everything looks so good, with some zooming out for larger strategic decision making (and locating stuff).

I play zoomed out to the level that I can just see the starships and everything else well enough to tell what they are.