Some Issues:
It seems a bit redundant that the SHIFT / SPRINT key (on PC) essentially has the same effect on the target unlocking as the MMB (middle mouse button) by default. It also seems redundant and clunky to be using the mouse movements to both aim your swing direction AND potentially swap targets during soft-locking. Soft-locking in general seems like a bad system when you already have the option to hard lock, especially considering that you NEED to be locked to the target in order to access you directional swings (which is fine I’m not saying allow us to swing directionally when not locked on, the changes I’m proposing are more feasible than a combat overhaul like that). Something else to note - considering that scroll up and scroll down are supposed to be used for changing targets, why do we need the mouse movements to also be used for this during soft-locking? The only reason I see for that is maybe because scrolling up and down seems EVEN clunkier currently (as in it seems unresponsive / slow), so they wanted an alternative way to change targets. I personally feel the best way (in the current game) to change my target quickly is to hold shift to break target, move and aim at who I want, then release shift, at which point the the game auto soft-locks me to the target, then I hit TAB in the same second to ensure a hard lock and begin my attacks (even if I’m just going to hit the guy once). The current system has me pressing what feels like an unnecessary amount of buttons just to control the targeting system optimally, but also in a redundant way. I’m not shy about pressing lots of buttons, I played WoW when 60 active keybinds were a thing in wrath arenas, but the keys shouldn’t overlap too much and should assist the complexity and fluidity of the combat system. Using your hard-locking system is more predictable and gives the player control, but it is annoying that using shift to move around reverts the targeting back to soft-locks each time. this brings me to my suggestions.
Solutions:
Get rid of soft locking altogether. Focus on toggle-able hard-locking and free-aiming, not all three. The current press and hold to unlock target button (MMB on PC) should be changed to a “toggle automatic-locking (automatic target acquisition) on/off” key. When toggled off the game will never choose a target for you, so as not to interfere with your movement. This way you can get into your ideal position without worrying about remembering to hold down the OTHER target unlock key (MMB) if you decide to release SHIFT / SPRINT, but aren’t ready to lock onto something yet.
In this system, when auto locking is toggled on you will always hard lock to the target you are facing, instead of soft locking. It’s very weird that the same function (moving the mouse) used to aim your swing can also be used to switch your target and ‘sort of’ swing your camera a bit. That doesn’t seem like a good overlap, as it can easily have some unintended consequences.
So in my suggestion, whenever auto locking is toggled off you’ll be using the TAB / HARD-LOCK key to lock onto whatever target you’re aiming at manually (and yes technically you could just press toggle/mmb again to target whatever you’re aiming at as well, the difference being if that target goes down / dies and you don’t toggle it back off it’s going to select the next target immediately for you). Because hard-lock will be the only form of targeting (aside from free-aimed shots/slashes/stabs as we currently have and would be keeping), you will not have to fear your attack swings messing with your camera angle or potentially swapping your target for you. I basically use this now anyways, but the intermediate step of the game soft-locking me before I am necessarily ready to engage is annoying. Let me take the hit to the face if you want to punish me for not being ready, but don’t make me hold down a target unlock key (shift or MMB) all the time, allow me to perma toggle.
Onto target-swapping. As explained above I would say that in the system I am proposing, SHIFT/ SPRINT would still temporarily unlock you from your target while held, regardless of whether you have auto-locking toggled on or off, and when auto-locking is on, upon releasing sprint you would return to hard-locking onto whatever you’re aiming at immediately. I don’t think this will cause much annoyance because you can’t actually sprint while strafing, so players aren’t going to really be using up stamina unnecessarily most of the time, and sprint stamina is relatively minor in short bursts anyways in the event that you want to run in a straight line to re-position, so the old MMB function shouldn’t be missed - and it will still exist in toggle format. I also find it unlikely that if you’re trying to move in a forward direction in combat (while intentionally not locked on) that you’d even want to be doing so without sprinting anyways. So that’s why keeping the sprint key as the only means of an ‘unlock while holding down’ key should be fine, you still have the TAB/Hard Lock key for targeting, it’s just that it requires one press to release and another to re-target your next guy.
^If we go this route, MY preference would be that we change the new MMB/AUTO-LOCK TOGGLE function to an entirely different key by default on PC, or maybe change it to scroll up toggle on, scroll down toggle off, and then use MMB as a press and hold button which allows the player to, while maintaining their current target in front of them, swing their head left and right (by moving the mouse while holding down MMB) in combat to look around in either direction (up to maybe an 80-90 degree angle), similar to how you can look around on horseback without actually moving your whole body/the horse. This would give advanced players a means of keeping track of multiple enemies, and in the event that you see an enemy to one side that you want to switch to, press TAB while briefly free looking at them, in order to switch directly to that target. So as I’ve explained, in normal combat TAB would either hard lock to a target you’re looking at, or drop the target, BUT -when holding MMB, aiming with the mouse AND tapping TAB once, you could quickly snap to the new target (rotating your body quickly as you would when acquiring a new target) rather than having to press tab, look, then tab again. This would allow you to quickly look around with MMB without dropping your current target, but also quickly switch in the event that you see a reason to while checking your sides. I realize this might be a little too deep for the system, but I do think it could be made to feel very fluid, and makes more logical sense than the current system IMO. It will probably increase the skill cap.
Hopefully this isn’t totally difficult to understand. As for story events which drop you into a fist fight or battle. I’d say just default the start of all of these engagements to having a hard-lock on the target you’re facing off against, while leaving the players’ current auto lock toggle preferences on or off however they had them.
Another possibility although this may have balance ramifications, is to ALSO remove auto-locking altogether (along with soft-locking) and force the player to always select a target with TAB (except in situations where you’re coming out of a cutscene and into a fight, then you would just pre-lock the target for the player and they can de-select it if they want). In this system you use TAB to select and deselect your targets, same as above, or press and hold MMB (or press and hold TAB and throw out MMB altogether) to temporarily suspend your target for free aiming as you do in the current game, in the event that you don’t like pressing TAB twice to select new targets. So press and hold, aim, release, voila new target (however TAPPING TAB would still simply drop the target). the difference with this press and hold system is that you’re not going to auto lock after you release, you’ll either hard lock onto the target you’re looking at when you release, or you’ll stay in free aim if you aren’t looking at anyone when you release. The ultimate reason for doing something like this would be so that the SPRINT/SHIFT key NEVER unlocks the target and is only used for sprinting. this is so that you can charge at your opponent while planning/aiming for your attack swing direction once in range. I currently find it a little odd that if my opponent is backing into a corner and I find an opening that I can’t quickly rush forward a few feet without having to unlock then reacquire the soft lock, it’s not very fluid and the delay gives the enemy time to recover from the brief staggered animation that they may be in due to the previous hit and then block. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the difficulty in a sense, but I don’t appreciate difficulty that appears to be as a probably unintended result of weird UI limitations.
Let me know if you think it’s stupid or would improve the current weird targeting system. Maybe I’m misunderstanding something as well. I had some other ideas too but I think they got lost while I was typing this lol.