I've been playing SoC lately and after some members' recommendations I changed (mid-game) the difficulty level from 'stalker' to 'master', to get a more realistic experience and more importantly to not have to shoot 500 times an enemy before he drops dead. I noticed that this made absolutely no difference, but then I realized that, although the setting now is 'master', whenever I load my save it reverts back to the setting (stalker) I had chosen when I first started the game.

I read on a few places that changing the setting mid-game is possible. So is this a bug, or is it how it works? Any ideas? I don't really want to start from the beginning...

Does it actually result in more accurate shots? I've read on GOG/outside links that it's a complete myth.

Personally, I finished the game this past weekend on Stalker difficulty, and did not have issues with accuracy. Part of it is understanding you can't just run 'n gun like action-oriented FPS, and that when enemies are in their "hurt" animation, they don't take much (if any) damage.

I don't know if this was 100% about accuracy. Maybe on an easy setting the game just allows you take more bullets but same goes for enemies? Maybe not. All I know is that on stalker difficulty it was impossible for me to beat one of the last arena fights, until I managed to switch to 'master' and finally my weapon could actually kill the enemies. Master has been way easier for me.

Cheap weapons seem to be just as inaccurate as on 'stalker'.