If you’ve got an eye for a deal and want to craft your own unique style and military identity in World War 3, be sure to explore the Shop regularly. Take a look at the latest Weekly Shop Spotlight, available to buy now from the World War 3 Shop!
The winter field uniform for the United States Marine Forces Special Operations Command (MARSOC), an elite force specialized in counterterrorism, counterinsurgency, foreign internal defense, and security force assistance. This Operator Blueprint features a MARPAT design, a helmet with ballistic goggles and a headlight, active ear protection, and a SPARTAN modular vest with various pouches for magazines, grenades, and other necessities.



Be sure to check out the other new items currently on offer, including:

• Operator Blueprints: Royal Marine and GROM
• Weapons: Beryl Night and AK-15 Modernization
• Strikes: Anders Snake and Marder Winter Escalation
• Identification Sets: Night Vision and One Shot

Hit the Shop before it refreshes on November 14!

Play World War 3 this weekend to enjoy +50% bonus player XP, gun XP, and strike XP in all matchmaking battles!

• Starts: November 4 at 17:00 UTC 
• Ends: November 7 at 05:00 UTC 

Have a great weekend!

Sometimes outgunning your enemies isn’t enough. You may need to outmaneuver them, and knowing where and how to move could make all the difference between victory and defeat. Join us as we take a closer look at traversal in World War 3 in our latest Feature Spotlight!



Any FPS worth its salt has a smooth and responsive movement system, and like every other aspect of World War 3, we set out to achieve a tangible level of realism in player movement. We wanted players to consider their loadout by having dynamic factors in play, including armor and loadout, which can impact their speed and stamina.

Your mobility, which is your ability to easily and swiftly get around on the battlefield, can be affected by your weight. Depending on your loadout, you might be able to sprint quickly through dangerous hotspots. With a heavier approach, you could also move slowly yet methodically from cover to cover, waiting for an opening to launch a counter-attack. However, while heavier armor will protect you at close range, it will also make you vulnerable at long-range, and an easy target for faster players to outflank.

Try to optimize your loadout for the best approach!


Whether you’re fully upright, crouched, prone, or on your back, there are a wealth of tactical traversal options and positions available to you:

• Sprinting (Press ‘Shift’): Run like the wind.
• Fast Sprinting (Press ‘Shift’ twice rapidly): Hotfoot it out of danger, or even towards it… but watch your stamina.
• Crouch Sprinting (Press ‘Shift’ while crouching): Move faster while remaining cautious and covered.
• Prone Sprinting (Press ‘Shift’ while prone): Get moving quickly from a prone position.
• Vaulting (Press ‘Spacebar’ while close to an obstacle): Don’t let obstacles stand in your way. Effortlessly vault over obstacles and ledges while walking, sprinting, or fast sprinting!
• Climbing (Press ‘Spacebar’ while jumping towards a ledge): Clamber up on ledges or towards the higher ground for a better vantage point, or to make your escape.
• Leaning (Press ‘Q’ or ‘E’): Need to get a better shot or check out potential danger around the corner? Lean into it!
• Freelook (Press ‘Alt’): Survey your entire surroundings while you’re vulnerable to watch out for enemies.
• Prone Position (Press ‘Z’): Keep a low profile to avoid enemies’ lines of sight or get the jump on them.
• Prone-to-Back Position Change (Press ‘A’ or ‘D’ while prone): Feel like someone’s watching you? Quickly switch from a prone position to lying on your back to cover your six.

Use your knowledge to tear enemies a new one in close combat, or silently stalk the shadows and strike decisively when the time is right. Combine what you’ve learned to become a master of traversal in World War 3!

The Farm 51 is actively working on new improvements for World War 3 to ensure all players can enjoy a technically stable and solid gameplay experience. The Technical Roadmap showcases what we’re working on, what we’ve been working on (and fixed), and our technical plans for the near future.

Scroll down for more details on each section, and keep an eye on the latest news and official World War 3 social media channels for progress updates.


Improved Database Communication

The main database is one of the most important elements of the game's technical infrastructure. It contains information about players' stats, progress, actions, and more. A well-optimized database makes fewer requests to the master server, putting less stress on the server system. By carefully optimizing the database and its requests, we greatly reduced the number of timeouts and authorization issues and generally improved the play experience for a majority of players.

Timeouts

Timeouts occur when the master server is overwhelmed by requests from the game or database. Careful optimization work greatly reduced the occurrence of issues experienced since the Open Beta launch.

Authorization Issues

Authorization issues create an inability to log into the game. This issue was prevalent during the launch and was mainly connected to the number of players joining the game. It was caused by the fact that the authorization process was actually a part of the game's initialization screen. Splitting these processes up and performing additional optimization work resolved the issue.

Players Stuck in Lobbies

Many players became stuck in the lobby indefinitely while trying to find a match. This was caused by slow request times related to communication between the master server and the database. Additional optimization performed on the database allowed us to drastically improve this process, and now this issue is affecting a very small number of players. We are working to eliminate it entirely.

Game Crashes When Accepting Friend Requests

This was one of the most annoying bugs for team players. It was fixed so no more crashes like this can occur.

Infinite Loading Screens (Steam)

Players were unable to pass the loading screen if they did not run the Steam application. We have changed the .dll file to fix the problem, so now players can run the game without also having Steam running in the background.

Party Issues

Party functionality suffered a number of player issues after the Open Beta launch. Players could not invite their friends to a party, and sometimes a party would be disbanded right after the match, and we also had instances of players being kicked during a game if another party member left. Most of these issues have been resolved by tweaking the server settings. We are still monitoring any issues connected to the party system to ensure players enjoy a seamless multiplayer experience.
Increasing CCU Peak (More Players In-Game)

Server optimization is important, but the challenge is to find a way to better distribute the load that the master server must handle among the cores used by the master server. Currently, we have four cores, but the stress is directed through only one of them. The more cores we use, the less stress on each of them. Distributing the load gives us the potential for a much higher player capacity.

Increasing Number of Dedicated Servers

Extensive hardware expansion gave the team the opportunity to raise the hard cap of players, allowing for shorter queues and overall faster waiting times to get into the game.

Improving Matchmaking Geolocation

The proper geographic distribution of players is one of the key ways to ensure all players have the same seamless experience. Changes made to matchmaking logic drastically improved players' ping and reduced the number of complaints related to server-side issues such as rubberbanding, faulty hit registration, and others.
Increasing Data Load Capacity (More/Upgraded Database Hardware for Smoother Communication Processes)

The distribution of load is possible not only with the master server itself but with the database too. The distribution of requests made by the database to the master server is another way of optimization that is currently under development.

UNC & Inventory Transfer Issues

Resolving missing UNC and item transfers from the World War 3 website and Inventory is one of our most pressing issues, and we will strive to provide all affected players with their owed content as soon as possible. 

Items Progression Locked / Missing Profile

Many players experienced progression loss or realized that some items were locked despite the necessary level requirements to unlock them being reached. The team is hard at work on solving this issue and will provide compensation to any affected users.

Active Boosters Lost During Maintenance

Boosters do not currently stop their countdown if the game undergoes maintenance. The team is working to fix the issue so players are not penalized for downtime beyond their control.
Server Performance & Optimisation

Continued work on server optimization.

Game Stability

Continued work on improving game systems and infrastructure.

Minor Fixes

Eliminating any remaining bugs.

Here at The Farm 51, we were thrilled to finally release World War 3 as a free-to-play Open Beta on September 29. The game has been under development for years, welcoming new players into its community across different phases such as Early Access and Closed Beta. Even after all this time, the response to the latest phase of our journey was beyond anything we could have imagined.

We want to thank all the players who helped us get to this point and everyone who’s played World War 3 in Open Beta. Your support means the world to us, and we are grateful to have such a passionate, dedicated community cheering the game on.

As you know, the launch wasn’t smooth for us or for you. We quickly became aware that our servers were not equipped to handle the demand we were facing, and required more technical adjustments. This caused critical issues affecting processes such as server connection, general gameplay, transferring items from your Inventory, and more (we’re tracking the status of most known issues in this article).

Our team has been diligently working to track and report player feedback, find bugs and issues, and resolve them as quickly as possible. The game has undergone regular maintenance to deploy critical patches, and we will continue to take these measures as and when possible to ensure World War 3 is constantly improving and stabilizing.

We achieved major breakthroughs with the patch released on October 7, and have continued to make great progress in subsequent updates, including the recent deployment of additional servers.

In addition to our ongoing work fixing all known issues, we are currently focused on three main goals:

• Game optimization
• Database optimization
• Improving the distributed master server

In a nutshell, addressing these three issues will allow for a smoother, more stable play experience, let us better track and handle user data, progression, actions, and items, and greatly ease the load distribution of the game and its database.

Let’s delve a little deeper into these focus points, and see what it means for the game and for your experience.
For every action a player makes in World War 3 — for example, shooting an enemy — the game sends a request to the database to update information, with those requests being handled by the master server. The more requests, the more stress loaded on the master server. The more it gets loaded, the higher the chance some requests may be left unregistered. If that happens, those requests will be sent repeatedly without action, artificially raising the number of requests. If the master server cannot handle requests, different subsystems (including authorization, information display, and matchmaking) could fail.

Improved communication with the main game database — which contains information about accounts, players, their actions, and progression — is key to improving the general World War 3 experience. Our goal is to optimize the database connection to the master server, and find the lowest possible number of requests that the database can send without impacting the functionality of the game. We have already deployed a number of great optimization mechanics in the last few weeks, which has drastically reduced the occurrence and intensity of many of the issues that players have experienced since launch.

There are a number of ways we are looking at improving in this area, including:

• Launching More Servers: Increasing the number of dedicated servers is a surefire way to improve server capacity. We launched two new servers during the week commencing October 17 and will review the need for more in the future when other optimization work is complete.
• Game Optimization: The database makes requests to the master server, while the game makes requests to both the database and the master server. The fewer requests being processed at any one time, the better.
• Distributed Master Server: Server optimization is important, but the challenge is to find a way to better distribute the load that the master server must handle among the cores used by the master server. Currently, we have four cores, but the stress is directed through only one of them. The more cores we use, the less stress on each of them. Distributing the load gives us the potential for a much higher player capacity. We have plans to deploy this in the coming week.
• Improving Matchmaking Geolocation: Some players may have experienced issues connecting to servers far from their location (for instance, EU players landing in US servers), leading to bad ping and other issues. While this redistribution can be helpful while certain servers are overloaded, or if certain servers don’t have enough players to start a match without pulling from other regions, this can create a frustrating and lower-quality play experience. Optimization and improving this process to ensure players land in the best place is very important for our targeted user experience and for handling server load.
• Increasing Data Load Capacity (Distributed Database): Similar to the distributed master server but on a database level, the higher the number of requests we can distribute to and from the database, the less stress this creates for the master server, and ultimately, the better the performance.

Creating a great game experience for everyone playing World War 3 is our number one priority. Here are the next steps we plan to take:

• Technical Roadmap: In the week commencing October 24, we will release a detailed roadmap showcasing what we’re working on, what we’ve been working on (and fixed), and our technical plans for the near future.
• Regular Updates: We’ve already made great progress with optimizing and improving World War 3, and we plan to keep on going. Keep an eye on our official social channels for details about maintenance, patches, and more.
• New Content: Ensuring everyone can play World War 3 without issue has taken our attention recently, but new content is also on the way. Stay tuned for more details!

Thank you for your patience and understanding. It’s been a difficult few weeks, and we apologize for the rocky start. We hope we can count on your support as we right the ship and set course for a brighter horizon!

Your Inventory is now available on the World War 3 website! This web-based interface is used to transfer purchased or earned items straight to your game, including the contents of Starter Packs, Twitch Drops, UNC, and more. Use it today with your preferred platform, including the World War 3 Launcher and Steam.

• Pack contents (including Starter Packs and Closed Beta Packs)
• UNC
• Twitch Drops
• Newsletter rewards
• Items from promotions, competitions, and special events

• Sign in to the World War 3 website using the account associated with World War 3.
• Go to your Inventory.
• Select the item(s) you wish to transfer, and verify that your details are correct.
• Confirm by clicking ‘TRANSFER’.
• You will receive any transferred items automatically in your in-game inventory (allow some time for your items to appear once sent).
• Enjoy your items! If you’re having trouble receiving them, please contact our customer support team.

IMPORTANT: The transfer process cannot be reversed. Ensure that your details are correct before confirming the transfer.

• Click 'SHOP' via the in-game menu (alternatively, go straight to the UNC Top-Up and Transfer page on the World War 3 website and follow the instructions there).
• Click 'BUY CURRENCY' and you will be redirected to the World War 3 website.
• Ensure you're signed in to the website using the correct account.
• Follow the instructions to purchase UNC (if you are playing on Steam, do not close the overlay).
• Go to the UNC Top-Up and Transfer page and enter how much UNC you wish to transfer.
• Click 'CONFIRM TRANSFER'.
• You will receive any transferred UNC automatically in-game (allow some time for it to appear once sent).
• You're free to spend your UNC in the Shop! If you’re having trouble receiving it, please contact Support.

Many of the items you receive in your Inventory are Blueprints. These can be accessed in-game by going to your Character Slots, hovering over a Slot, and customizing it by clicking the icon indicated in the image below.



Visit your Inventory to start transferring your items to World War 3 today!

World War 3 is now available in Open Beta. Although we strive to maintain a consistent and smooth gaming experience, you may encounter certain gameplay and technical issues while playing.

Many of these issues are related to an increased player count following the free-to-play release of the game.

Fixes are being actively worked on right now, and we provisionally intend to solve all known critical issues in the upcoming weeks. This article will be updated as fixes are deployed.
This week we are focused on further fixes, optimization, and resolving certain player issues, including:

• Failed purchase in the Shop
• Progression resets
• Server lag

• Optimized server infrastructure for a more stable game experience
• Temporarily introduced a cap for total online players (required in the short term to provide stability, will be expanded soon)
• Fixed most game server crashes
• Fixed infinite loading screen
• Significantly reduced the number of timeouts
• Significantly reduced occurrences of Error 151
• Significantly reduced the number of 53% timeout errors
• Resolved issues with Inventory transfers and restored Inventory functionality
  • We are still working on item reimbursement — please contact Support if you need assistance
• Players no longer stuck in lobby showing 55/40 players
• Fixed game authorization errors and reduced client authentication errors
• Button to purchase UNC works in Store (Steam)

• Server crashes*
• Accepting party invites causes game to crash
• Accepting friend requests causes game to crash
• Client authentication error*
• 151 Error: SOMETHING WENT WRONG*
• Gun appears locked despite player meeting the level requirements
• Players being connected to wrong server
• Players being disconnected from party service (cannot invite friends)
• Players experiencing progression loss, or a lack of progression
• Players kicked from server upon loading main hub (VPN users also experience a 53% timeout that will not progress)
• Players experiencing a 53% timeout, failure to authenticate, and failure of proxy and verification*
• Players or entire lobbies can be detected in different regions (triggering bad ping for all players)
• Players loading into matches with either the wrong loadout or lost gun progression with old attachments unlocked

*Italicized text denotes partially resolved issues.
Due to the number of requests being processed, you may experience some delays on receiving items and UNC transferred from your web Inventory into the game. Rest assured your contents are safe and will be available soon. If you continue to experience delays or missing items after a few days, please contact Support.
The developers are actively monitoring player feedback and issues in World War 3. As we work to address these issues, the game may undergo more frequent periods of maintenance. Patches and fixes will be released on a regular basis.

Follow World War 3 on Twitter for news about maintenance, and join the official World War 3 Discord channel to read patch notes, talk about the game with other players, and report feedback directly to us. If you need help and your issue is not addressed here, please contact Support.

World War 3 is now available to play for free on Windows PC! Download the game from the World War 3 website or Steam, squad up with your friends, and prepare to experience the new and improved World War 3 in Open Beta.

Switch your language via the in-game settings to enjoy fully localised text and interfaces, subtitles and voiceovers in English, French, German, Spanish*, Polish, Russian, Turkish, and Arabic.



World War 3 is a tactical online first-person shooter developed by The Farm 51. Engage in thrilling, team-based skirmishes on the ground, drive tanks and vehicles, utilize drones to survey the battlefield, and call in tactical strikes for maximum damage. Up to 40 players can battle in two core game modes—Tactical Ops and Team Deathmatch—across a range of stunning, realistic maps. Squad up and take the fight from the streets of Warsaw, Berlin, Moscow, and Polyarny, to the outskirts of Smolensk and beyond!
Countless improvements have been made to World War 3 on a technical, visual, audio, and gameplay level. Bugs have been squashed, crashes have been conquered, new features such as Mastery Achievements have been added, and many of the game’s weapons and strikes have been rebalanced in pursuit of a fairer and more competitive gameplay experience. Even if you played World War 3 in a previous testing stage, be sure to check out the Open Beta build and see just how far the game has come!

For a full breakdown of what to expect from the Open Beta build, check out the Patch Notes.
The Russian town of Smolensk has a long, embattled history. Drop in to discover a fully reworked version of this map in Tactical Ops featuring new combat zones, natural lighting and environments, improved terrain, additional buildings and cover, and much more.



To learn more about the development process behind the new version of Smolensk, check out the Feature Spotlight.
The in-game Shop is your sandbox for exploring a wealth of customization options and useful items in World War 3. Using UNC or SP currencies, shop from an extensive range of items and gear, including unique Blueprints to personalize your Weapons, Strikes, Vehicles, and Operators.
 
Learn more about the Shop in the dedicated Feature Spotlight.

• +100% XP Bonus (September 26–October 6): Receive bonus XP from every matchmaking battle fought during the first week of Open Beta!

Start the fight in World War 3 with the Starter Pack. Only available during YEAR 1, this bundle contains exclusive content you can't get anywhere else, including new Blueprints for your Operator and M416 assault rifle, premium currency, and XP Boosters.



Get the YEAR 1 | Starter Pack today from the WW3 website or Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015840/WW3__Year_1__Starter_Pack/

The launch of the free-to-play Open Beta marks the start of YEAR 1, the first phase of new in-game content that will expand the world and gameplay possibilities of World War 3. Further down the line we plan to launch the first Operation, a large seasonal content update accompanied by a Battle Pass. We’ll have more to share soon, so please stay tuned for more information!
We’re thrilled that players worldwide can finally enter the fray and experience the game. The Open Beta launch comes after the tireless efforts of the development team, extended testing periods, and extensive player feedback. Closed Beta players and Veterans demonstrated impassioned levels of dedication to World War 3 that we could have only dreamed of—you helped bring this significant milestone to fruition, so thank you from all of us on the World War 3 team!

World War 3 is in active development, and our future pipeline is loaded with more improvements, features, and new content. Together with this fantastic community, we hope to make World War 3 a uniquely immersive and entertaining FPS experience to rival the best of them. Strap yourselves in and enjoy the ride!
Subscribe to the official World War 3 newsletter to get more of the latest news, events, special offers, and lots more like this straight to your inbox. You can also follow World War 3 on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube.

*Limited voiceovers are available in Spanish.

Start the fight in World War 3 with the Starter Pack! Only available during YEAR 1 from the official WW3 website and Steam, this bundle contains exclusive content you can't get anywhere else, including new Blueprints for your Operator and M416 assault rifle, premium currency, and XP Boosters.



The YEAR 1 | Starter Pack contains:

• First Response Operator Blueprint: Act fast and without hesitation. Customize your Operator with exclusive new gear!
• M416 Hunter Assault Rifle Blueprint: Hunt down targets with extreme efficiency using this exclusive configuration for the M416 German assault rifle (the base weapon can be unlocked for free via normal gameplay).
• 500 UNC: Spend this premium currency in the Shop to customize your loadout and push for victory.
• 5x Double XP Boosters: Make the most of your battles in World War 3 with two hours of double XP from each Booster.

IMPORTANT: Blueprints can grant limited access to new base Weapons and Strikes before they have been fully unlocked. Unlock them via free progression to make full use of purchased Blueprints for customization!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2015840/WW3__Year_1__Starter_Pack/

World War 3 is now available to download and play for free in Open Beta via the official website and Steam. Subscribe to the official World War 3 newsletter to get more of the latest news, events, special offers, and lots more like this straight to your inbox. You can also follow World War 3 on Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Instagram, and YouTube.

If you want to craft your own unique style and military identity in-game, the Shop is the place to be. Join us as we take a look at what’s on offer in-game in our latest Feature Spotlight!




The Shop is your sandbox for exploring a wealth of customization options and useful items. As World War 3 enters Open Beta and a free-to-play model, the Shop is one of the ways we can support the game’s ongoing development and the release of additional free content. 

Your gameplay won’t be impacted if you choose to buy (or not buy) anything here. However, we hope that players enjoy mixing and matching items bought from the Shop and earned from Battle Passes to create a unique look for their Operators. 

Explore an extensive range of items and gear to personalize your World War 3 experience, including:

• Operator Customizations (Patches, Flags, etc.)
• Identification Customizations (Banners, Emblems)
• Weapon Blueprints
• Strike Blueprints
• Vehicle Blueprints
• Operator Blueprints

Spend UNC or SP here in exchange for new content, then customize your loadout and show it off in battle! Content in the shop will rotate regularly, so keep an eye out for hot deals and new items.




There are two types of currency in World War 3 that you can exchange for content in the Shop:

• UNC: Premium currency that can be purchased from the official website and in-game.
• SP: Soft currency that can be earned through regular gameplay and progression (not available for purchase).

Blueprints are one of the most common items you will see in the Shop. They allow you to unlock weapons, gear, and strikes more quickly in specific configurations, along with exclusive skins. Combine different items and Blueprints available in the Shop to bring a sharp sense of style to your Operator, weapons, vehicles, and strikes!



IMPORTANT: Blueprints can grant limited access to new base Weapons and Strikes before they have been fully unlocked. Unlock them via free progression to make full use of purchased Blueprints for customization.


World War 3 is free to play for everyone, but it’s critical to us that it’s also completely fair to play for everyone too, regardless of whether or not you choose to spend money on the game. You will find no pay-to-win mechanics in the Shop; you can’t just buy the best guns and gear to get the edge in combat, you’ve gotta do it the right way through practice and perseverance!

There’s nothing in the Shop that will grant a permanent performance advantage. All items offer either purely cosmetic value, a temporary progression bonus, or are available in-game outside of the Shop. Additionally, items in the Shop related to gameplay performance are attainable to non-paying players through normal play and progression.

Explore the Shop today in World War 3!