I am veeeery sure there was no locking of zoom level prior to this patch. A lot of people demanded such a feature and since this patch it's finally possible!
It was one of the first things I noticed about the zoom. Went upsatairs in the Candlekeep in, zoomed in max, went down to see if it locked the zoom level, found out it didnt. Went back upstairs to loot the chests *bam* zoomed in max by default.
Yeah... mine sorta locked prior to this new patch, but you had to set it EVERY single time you zone into a new zone. Now it just stays locked at what you set it too... which makes me very happy =3
Yeah, to the best of my recollection now whenever you transitioned into an indoor area (even one you had been to many times, such as an inn or a store) the zoom went back to the default setting.
I like to be able to zoom in if I want to double check on something because I have terrible eyesight.
But I tend to zoom out all the way for tactical purposes. The more map you can see the more you can direct your party in combat. It just makes way more sense to me. Plus it lets you take things in and process it all a lot faster.
There's a sweet spot for the best resolution vis a vis size of the sprites. Whatever that is value-wise (i.e., how many zooms) is what I use pretty much throughout. I'll occasionally zoom in just a smidge although it's at the cost of making the sprites look less crisp. But that's just to have a little variety now and then.
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But I tend to zoom out all the way for tactical purposes. The more map you can see the more you can direct your party in combat. It just makes way more sense to me. Plus it lets you take things in and process it all a lot faster.
I also think it looks best zoomed out.