Please give us smarter targeting and an optional alternate targeting mode
This game is a masterpiece and I love it - let's be clear about that - but it still has its flaws. And my number one source of frustration is the horrible targeting when playing with keyboard and mouse.
Free targeting is a complete mess, because the way the target "sticks" (or doesn't) seems completely arbitrary at times. Occasionally it works the way you want it to, sometimes it keeps jumping from one enemy to another without any apparent reason, sometimes it's incredibly hard to change target when you want to. This is especially egregious when you do things like parrying to stagger the target: its sudden backwards movement breaks the targeting, which means that instead of taking advantage of the opening, Geralts just turns 90+ degrees and attacks someone else.
On the other hand, the actual Lock On Target mode is much, much worse. Locking the camera might be a good idea when using a controller (I wouldn't know), but with a mouse, it's not. It's a really, really bad idea. Not being able to look around and to use mouse for directing dodges and rolls makes this functionality almost useless. It's a handicap, nothing else.
Now, I have two suggestions that would make the combat in this game vastly less frustrating, i.e. more enjoyable:
Firstly, a setting for an alternative targeting mode, in which pressing the target lock key only locks the target, nothing else. Free camera, free movement, exactly the same as no target lock, except that Geralt always targets that particular enemy with his strikes and signs.
Secondly, smarter targeting in free target mode. My idea in its simplicity is this: landing strikes on an enemy should increase the "stickiness" of the targeting indicator for that particular enemy (up to a set maximum value). This is almost always desirable behaviour: it's usually a good idea to deal with multiple enemies by killing them one at a time. Staggering or knocking your target down should raise stickiness by a significant amount: when you create an opening for a strike, you almost never want to change your target.
CDPR, please do something about this. This game is fantastic and so is its combat system. Even the controls per se are great and I have no problems with them, but this targeting BS is what causes > 90% of my deaths in Death March. I love difficult games, but when I die, I want it to happen because of a mistake I made.