The game is played almost entirely as icons.

The icons aren't a major problem, but it seems a shame with all the work put into the models and the graphics engine and they're hidden under icons 90% of the time.

Isn't it possible to design units in a way where they can be recognized at normal gameplay zoom, without needing icons?

The challenge here is that different people have very different standards for what is "normal zoom"

Well most factory's you can, but at a proper strategic zoom level, you need quick concise indicator of what a unit it and what it does.

If you need looks, then a smaller battlefield will let you play much closer in.

I guess what I mean is it impossible to design units that are recognizable at a distance?

Not when the nature of the game is to zoom out until the units are specks. They're visually distinct by profile right now, but that only maters when you are close enough to see them.

Best solution here is increase mouse wheel sensitivity, that way you can zoom in on all the prettiness, then zoom out to get the big picture, all without losing too much in between.

Also, making good use of the PIP can help with this too, if your computer can handle it.

They could increase the range from which the icon appear. they do seem to appear way before units actually become impossible to see.

But yeah. Its a shame there isnt more of advantage / disadvantage to be zoomed in or out.

But then again, if the game had a minimap that might help so you didn feel like you have to be zoomed out.

It would also help if like radar would like detect and like, enemy units incoming due east.

Well a small pip screen can be used as a mini-map.

I've recently been playing with icons turned off since they appear way too close in ImO and I wanna see my units battling it out. Honestly I've actually had very little trouble keeping track of what is where and have found I can indentify units at a pretty decent range.

Only thing I'm wanting for is some way to change at what zoom level the icons appear at. My own preference would be for them to only appear when you're zoomed far out past orbital units.

There is a setting for that in the options. I have turned it way down so I play mostly without icons.
What I also would love to see is an option to fade the icons in with increasing distance rather than them just popping in.

Ah geez how did I miss this before?! Just set mine to a further distance, gonna have to try this out! ^_^

The slider adjusts the distance at which the icons show up based roughly on the screen pixel size of the Dox. It's tuned so that sliding the bar to the left all the way means icons will appear anywhere not at the closest zoom level (on a 1080p display). All the way to the right and icons won't appear until you can see the entire planet and the full orbital unit orbit on all but the largest planets.