I feel like the overhead view at the view distance we have kind of hurts my experience. It feels like the environment is too big for the camera, and I'm always fiddling with the view in order to feel comfortable about my surroundings. The environments are large and intricate and I feel like I can see too little of them at a time, which is frustrating.
The camera in this game is the most annoying one I have ever dealt with. We need to be able to look up. Especially with so much emphasis on using the high ground. Wandering around while being unable to look higher than chest level does not lend itself to proper scouting of an area. Detaching the camera from the character doesn't fix this issue.
Some areas (I haven't checked EVERY area) would lend themselves very well to an optional over-the-shoulder ARPG style camera. Not permanent or for everything, but when it comes to the part where you are experiencing the world I have found it to be very fun to angle the camera this way. The areas I have tried seem to be completely built up with geometry, so it looks like this could just be a matter of making a camera mode with no additional geometry work. Rotating the camera down is a close approximation, but adding some features that native over-the-shoulder games have might just add a nice experience.
We have a crude version of this already but I would like to see it improved. I play almost always in this manner because it is more immersive other than the inability to look up. Anything a normal person can see by moving the head and neck needs to be visible in game the same way.
I had a few fights where is was impossible to attack the characers because they were either above or below me and my camera wouldn't travel to that point. To be able to move the central point of focus on a vertical axis (by pressing +/- for example) would make manouvering the camera during a fight much better.
The only way to deal with this is to move the camera separately from your character, and even then this doesn't always work. Something like your idea for the detached camera would be good, would like to be able to use the mouse to look up and down while camera is attached to character.
