I’m using Nvidia’s Dynamic Super Resolution to play AoE2 in 3325x1871 (Enhanced Graphics) and have the “Ludicrous Zoom” option checked for AoE3. To me, the extreme zoom abilities really bring the games together.
First, a somewhat larger zoom is making controlling an RTS a lot easier, because the common zoom is sufficient only, as long as I know in my head where everything is. I need to remind myself to check on things like redoing lumber camps, finding newly made gaps in my wood line or noticing trapped units, but simply doubling the amount of squares displayed along the length of the screen makes all this slide into my peripheral view when I’m doing something else. Even things like my ratio of barracks to archery ranges to stables or reminding me of finished tech buildings just naturally pops out at me.
But secondly, I really think it supports the theme/feel of the series. If one walls themselves in, then there are always zones of secured “civilian” spaces growing out of each other in accordance with the opportunities provided by the terrain. Even the changing terrain of chopped down wood lines. Occasionally zooming out really far and seeing the whole of my evolving city on my screen has such a synergy with the history setting. Having all the buildings only unlocked later, in the later added districts of my city, as well as seeing military buildings used to counter a specific enemy clustered together in a district made in that specific time really turns the city layout into a historical artifact.
And to me, there is a huge difference between having a working memory of where I but the buildings and seeing them about ten at a time versus actually seeing the city as a whole. I can’t spare the mental capacity to visualize the city in my head by piecing together the fragments I see, since in an RTS there is always something to pay attention to.
While I know, the original AoE series succeeded without the extreme zoom options, the zoom became AoE to me in its later editions. Thus Relic, in my opinion, just doesn’t get AoE. I thought about it a lot by now, and the lack of far out zoom massively diminishes AoE4 in my eyes compared to 2 and 3.