Could someone help me on how to change the difficulty setting, outside of the when you start a new game. Thanks for any replies.

Seriously?

You're not being helpful. :P

Orion66, press ESC/Start -> Options -> Gameplay -> the first option from the top is the difficulty slider. You have to do this from within the running game, though. Seems they forgot to add that to the start menu options. :-/

Nevermind. I had been looking in the main screen's option choices. I did not realize that difficulty options were available only after you loaded a save game.

Hey cbar, thanks for all the help.

Thank you Audrey

You get the option when starting a new game and in the menu items as described. Why they allow this I am not sure as it seems to be a direct way to cheat playing the game on insane. You can drop the difficulty down to hard, save, and be able to load that save even if you die, and return the game to insane mode.

And you didn't even read: it's NOT in the usual spot in the start menu. You need to load a game first to get the option. That's not usual. Wrong: if you try to load a savegame in insane mode from a game on hard or easy, it will be marked dead if you died at any time in that game.

I for one am very glad that you can change mid game, because I started on normal on the first run and would've been bummed, if I wasn't able to change it to hard later on. Also, I had to dial down to easy one or two times in the first run and I rather do that than get mad from frustration.

Yes the insane difficulty saves will be marked dead, but you can still load a game that is only hard difficulty, as in, I am about to fight a boss on insane mode, I change to hard and save my game, go back to insane to attempt boss and die, I can now load my game on hard mode, return to insane difficulty, and try again.

Far as I know there isn't anything special for completing game on insane, that would be the only way to judge if it can tell you cheated it that way.

Seems you're right and I was wrong to repeat what someone else said. That basically ALL your savegames would be marked dead if you try to load a save out of insane mode and have ever died in that game. There was also this one guy whose saves were all marked dead, after he died in a different run after completing one on insane. Seems they didn't find a perfect solution for this insane business.

But it would still not be right to diminish the game for all players that don't want to play insane, but perhaps adjust the difficulty later in the game.
The demand for difficulty change in the game was there in the first Witcher, that's why Flash made a mod, which remedied the lack of the feature. And RED, who listened to their fans, thought it might be a good idea to implement the feature in the new game.

Anyway, if you cheat your insane play with the trick you mentioned, who are you actually cheating? Only yourself. Allegedly, the enemies in insane are harder than in hard, so that might be a reason to want to play that difficulty. BUT maybe you dont want to die at a point in the game that tends to be glitchy and thus lose the complete game. I'd be good with "cheating myself" at such a point. It's not like I need to compete against myself. ;)

Oh, that leads me to another question (since the first assumptiuon was wrong): can I load up a game in hard where I died in insane?

Are you saying there is a way to load a game into a difficulty other than what it was saved in? I have not done this, I am only aware of choosing the difficulty at the beginning of the game, and while playing it. I believe that once the insane saves are marked dead, they are untouchable.

I agree it would be nice to have a very hard difficulty that was same as insane without the permanent death. I am enjoying my current play through so far and I am not using the cheat I figured out for resorting a dead game, I want to get through it without dieing.

Thing I hate most was in the prologue getting Foltest across the walkway with the dragon trying to eat you. That while encounter is way too hit or miss with game reaction.

Well, I've played a couple savegames for someone who had a bug and could not get past some points. The saves were normal, I was playing hard. I guess that what I saved was hard and he had to change it back.

Too bad, if you can't salvage them at all. Except if you use that tool.

Yes and yes. Sure I want to manage a game without dieing. But I don't want to loose the whole game because of a glitch - of me OR the game. ;)

This sequence is clearly made for controller!
With the controller, all you have to do is push the left stick down (which comes more naturally than pressing "s") and not let go till the end of the walkway. I was terrified of that part the first time around, because everybody said it was so difficult. I thought my game was broken or something, I did it first try.

But I would be afraid to die at the Kayran fight. And to loose a game to that scene, would be really, really BAD. Of course there ARE ways to prevent that... *cough*xml-tweak*cough*...

That what I hate so much about it. The speed of the dragon seems to vary. There are times I do that sequence on the first try, other it has taken almost an hour. It can be really frustrating.

Oh yeah, I'd rather take the time to go online, post my query and hope that someone answers in a short amount of time. Much easier than looking myself.

-- ------ --------(Edited for politeness sake)

Whoa... you're a real fun person.