So, as far as I can tell, if you're playing with KB+mouse controls, the game targets the enemy the camera is pointing at. Whereas with a gamepad, it also takes into account the direction you're pushing the left analog stick in, which is a lot more intuitive. Here's an example to illustrate this behaviour.

There's a guy on the right side of the screen within striking range, and another guy straight ahead, and a million miles away.
If you push D + left click to strike to the right, you'll still try attacking the faraway guy.
If you'd do the same on a gamepad (right + X), you'd attack the one in range.
What you'd have to do on keyboard is turn the camera to face the guy on the right, and then click.

Are there any plans to patch the game so targeting works intuitively on KB+mouse as well? Or is there a mod that already does this?

I don't know but this would be a welcome addition.

as long as you could toggle the system. i was quite happy with how the targeting was set up for m+kb, i never had any problems with it, and think it IS set up intuitively... not sure why id want a scenario where i might attack someone who im not 'aiming' at with my mouse.

perhaps its down to pc vs console users *grin*... ive grown up with systems in which where im looking is where i want to attack, and i think console based games, with their analog sticks, tend to use systems where you direct your attacks independently of the camera...

so i think its unfair and almost a little insulting to call this system unintuitive.. it just depends on what youre used to... and personally i found it worked exactly how i wanted and expected it to.

The targeting system works fine with kb/m. Imo much better than with the gamepad. By targeting the one you're pointing the camera at it allows for quite a fluid and quick targeting.

The targeting was not set up for KB+M. It was set up for a game pad's analog joystick.

When I was escaping the La Valette dungeon, I would sneak behind a guard... just as as I was about to knock him out, the auto-targeting would pick up the torch on the wall, so I'd go into the "light a torch" animation, and apparently you just can't stop animations in an analog setting, so before I could get out of the "light a torch" animation, the guard detected me, and with one quick blow, killed me. Happened to me 3 times. So, I started to "lock" onto my target by pressing the ALT key. But then, on fights against multiple opponents, when I usually dispatch the easy ones first, I have to position the camera until the auto-aim decides to aim at the one I want, then lock on it... of course, many times, in the "heat of battle" , another NPC would get in my way, which would make me have to "unlock", then re-aim, then lock on again...

..yep.. intuitive indeed...

oh come on, you cant call a system unintuitive just because you have a problem with it.. i never had that problem or ANY problem where the game didnt target and attack something i did not intend it to..

and if this kind of thing is happening a lot for you, then perhaps its a problem with you and not the game.

i do agree that not being able to cancel or 'escape' for animations, especially walking through doors, is a problem, but not the targeting system itself.

"Toggling" the system would simply involve not pushing a direction in addition to the attack button. I'm not sure why restricting your attack direction to "forward" would even be needed in this game, actually, this isn't Mount and Blade.

but that's the thing.. "targeting" does not refer to combat alone. It refers to doors, containers, items, etc... the intuitive PC tool for targeting is the hardware mouse. Digital, not analog. Cursor, not directional.

... just like "targeting" a file on your desktop to open it. You could use the arrow keys to eventually get to it, but with a mouse, is move cursor to file, click.