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MW3 Unveils Massive Update for Multiplayer, Zombies, & Warzone

Experience enhanced gameplay, new maps, and fixes in the latest Call of Duty update for MW3 multiplayer, zombies, and Warzone.

Call of Duty MW3 Season 1 Patch Notes

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) and Warzone players are diving into the latest update with eager anticipation as it marks the commencement of the first season, introducing a slew of enhancements. MW3 enthusiasts can now explore a variety of fresh content, including new maps, modes, weapons, and an additional chapter for Zombies. The addition of a fourth Zombies chapter promises an exciting narrative that is sure to keep players on the edge of their seats.

Simultaneously, Warzone players are in for a treat with the unveiling of Urzikstan, a brand-new Battle Royale map designed to provide an expansive and dynamic landscape for intense battles. As the terrain unfolds, players are navigating strategic locations, engaging in firefights, and adapting to the ever-changing dynamics of this fresh Warzone arena.

However, amidst the excitement, the gaming community has faced challenges, most notably the use of Modern Warfare Zombie's Ray Gun Wonder Weapon by cheaters in multiplayer matches. In response, Sledgehammer Games swiftly implemented a temporary fix, now punishing cheaters with damage when using the Ray Gun. This serves as both a deterrent and a just response to maintain fair play and safeguard the integrity of the gaming experience.

Another significant concern related to Breach Drones causing unintended damage in multiplayer has also been effectively addressed. Sledgehammer Games, committed to delivering a seamless and enjoyable experience, has implemented fixes to ensure that the impact detection of Breacher Drones aligns with intended game mechanics, alleviating frustrations within the community.

In a move towards transparency, Sledgehammer Games released comprehensive patch notes, detailing the intricacies of the update. These notes cover changes and improvements tailored to the MW3 multiplayer experience, along with significant alterations to the Warzone landscape. Beyond immediate fixes, the update introduces enhancements to the progression system, allowing players to actively contribute to the destruction of enemy field upgrades and advance challenge requirements related to destroying enemy equipment.

In Warzone, eleven weapons, including iconic ones from MW3 and the Fennec 45 SMG from Modern Warfare 2, have undergone meticulous adjustments. Focused on balancing gameplay, these adjustments include reductions in max damage and headshot multipliers. Notably, the Haymaker shotgun and Tyr handgun have experienced significant adjustments to maintain equilibrium within the diverse weapon arsenal.

Call of Duty MW3 Patch Notes:

GLOBAL

STABILITY & PERFORMANCE

  • Addressed an issue experienced by some players that caused items previously unlocked to become unavailable to equip.

WEAPONS & ATTACHMENTS

Assault Rifles

  • RAM-7 (MWIII)
    • Speedway v5 Short Barrel Attachment is now available to equip in the Gunsmith.

EQUIPMENT

  • Breacher Drone (Lethal)
    • Improved impact detection to prevent inflicting more explosive damage to players than intended.

CUSTOMIZATION

  • Crimson Fate and Carbon Fate Laser Attachment Skins will no longer appear as default Skins when equipped to Shotguns.
  • Players who purchased the GG EZ Weapon Vault Bundle will now be able to use customizations on the Houndeye Integrated Optic Attachment.
  • Animated Emblems are now properly rewarded upon reaching Prestige Levels 1-5.
    • Note: In the coming days, we’ll retroactively grant these items to players who met the requirements prior to today’s fix.
  • The Stormender's Priceless and Interstellar reward Emblems will now display the correct Emblem art.

MW3 MULTIPLAYER

UIX

  • Bug Fixes
    • Kills column on the Scoreboard will now track properly in War Mode.
    • Conversion Kits Attachment slot for certain Weapons will no longer appear locked despite requirements being met.
    • Exiting a Blueprint Preview will no longer kick the player back to the Multiplayer menu.
    • When using a Controller, hovering the Santa’s Slayground Battle Pass sector will no longer kick the player back to the Multiplayer menu.
    • Clicking the ‘View Bundle' button on a Battle Pass Bundle in the Operators tab will no longer kick players back to the Multiplayer menu.

PROGRESSION

  • Challenges that require enemy Equipment to be destroyed will now progress upon the destruction of the following Field Upgrades:
    • A.C.S.
    • Comms Scrambler
    • Deployable Cover
    • Med Box
    • Munitions Box
    • Portable Radar
    • Suppression Mine
    • Tactical Camera
    • Tactical Insertion
    • Trophy System
  • Fixed several challenges where progression wasn’t tracking.

WEAPONS & ATTACHMENTS

  • Ray Gun

    • Implemented measures to prevent illicit usage outside of support Modes.

MAPS

  • Operation Spearhead (War)

    • Eliminated an out of map exploit in which players were able to access an unintended rooftop near the Launch Site.
    • Eliminated an out of map exploit in which players were able to get underneath the map near the Garage.

MW3 MODES

  • Gunfight

    • In Private Match, split-screen play will no longer cause DEV ERROR 12744.
  • Search and Destroy

    • Addressed an issue causing unintended XP rates for various match events.
  • Playlists

    • Increased Team Deathmatch and Kill Confirmed score limits in certain limited-time Playlists.
      • 12v12: 150
      • 10v10: 125
      • Small Maps: 125
  • Private Match

    • With CDL Rules enabled, restrictions are now accurate to the Competitive Settings v1.0 specification.
    • Training Course has returned, allowing players to learn basic movements and combat skills.

PERKS

  • Ghost T/V Camo (Gear)

    • Players can now be stationary for 2s before anti-radar effects are disabled.

Based on feedback, we’ve added a grace period to the movement requirement of Ghost T/V Camo. With this change, players remain detectable by radar while not moving, but momentary pauses will no longer cause their position to be revealed.

MW3 Zombies

MISSIONS

Act 4: Dead Signal

  • Adjustments to the Escape: Defeat Gorm'gant step of the Dead Signal mission.
    • Light Armored Zombies enemy types have been added during this step to provide a source of Armor for players.

GAMEPLAY

Contracts

  • Aether Extraction
    • Addressed an issue that would eliminate players who attempted to overload an ‘Aether Extractor' as the contract's time runs out.

ENEMIES

Zombies

  • Aether Worm: Greylorm
    • Addressed an issue that allowed Greylorm to instantly die when spawned.
    • Addressed an issue where getting eaten by Greylorm and grabbed by a Mimic at the same time could cause players to get pushed under the map.

UIX

Weapons

  • Addressed an issue that displayed incorrect Bruen MK9 attachment unlock descriptions in the After Action Report.

STABILITY

  • Resolved a PC specific crash players encountered at the start of Season 1.
    • This fix was released on Monday, December 11.
  • Added various crash and stability fixes.

STABILITY & PERFORMANCE

  • Addressed an issue experienced by some players that caused items previously unlocked to become unavailable to equip.

WEAPONS & ATTACHEMNTS

 Assault Rifles 

  • RAM-7 (MWIII)
    • Speedway v5 Short Barrel Attachment is now available to equip in the Gunsmith.

EQUIPMENT

  • Breacher Drone
    • Improved impact detection to prevent inflicting more explosive damage to players than intended.

CUSTOMIZATION

  • Crimson Fate and Carbon Fate Laser Attachment Skins will no longer appear as default Skins when equipped to Shotguns.
  • Players who purchased the GG EZ Weapon Vault Bundle will now be able to use customizations on the Houndeye Integrated Optic Attachment.
  • Animated Emblems are now properly rewarded upon reaching Prestige Levels 1-5.
    • Note: In the coming days, we’ll retroactively grant these items to players who met the requirements prior to today’s fix.
  • The Stormender's Priceless and Interstellar reward Emblems will now display the correct Emblem ar

WARZONE

GAMEPLAY

Battle Royale

  • Strongholds
    • A Blacksite key will only be rewarded the first time a Stronghold is completed.
    • Subsequent captures by other Squads will not reward a key.

Resurgence

  • Urzikstan Resurgence*
    • Redeployment
      • The Resurgence redeployment mechanic will now be disabled at the end of Circle 3 to bring it inline with other Resurgence variants.
    • Public Events
      • Disabled the chance of Occupation Scan event in circle 2 as it could conflict with the Loadout Drop, which remains.
      • Disabled the chance of Cash Drops during infil because during certain scenarios it may cause issues.
      • The chances for a Public Event to occur in later Circles has been adjusted.

WEAPONS

  • Looking at the breadth of Weapons and Attachments on offer, some outliers were performing above expectation. We have taken immediate steps to mitigate them to support a healthy engagement experience through the holiday break.

Assault Rifles 

  • DG-56 (MWIII)
    • Max Damage reduced to 32, down from 40.
  • FR 5.56 (MWIII)
    • Max Damage reduced to 35, down from 43.

Battle Rifles 

  • BAS-B (MWIII)
    • Max Damage reduced to 35, down from 39.
    • Min Damage reduced to 25, down from 27.

Handguns 

  • COR-45 (MWIII)
    • Akimbo
      • Max Damage reduced to 30, down from 45.
  • Renetti (MWIII)
    • Akimbo
      • Max Damage reduced to 22, down from 33.
      • Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.2, down from 1.4.

Marksman Rifles 

  • DM56 (MWIII)
    • Max Damage reduced to 41, down from 50.
    • Min Damage reduced to 37, down from 39.
  • KVD Enforcer (MWIII)
    • Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.8, down from 2.2.
  • MTZ Interceptor (MWIII)
    • Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.5, down from 2.
  • TYR (MWIII)
    • Akimbo
      • Max Damage reduced to 70, down from 120.

Shotguns 

  • Haymaker (MWIII)
    • Max Damage reduced to 36, down from 52.

Submachine Guns 

  • Fennec 45 (MWII)
    • Max Damage reduced to 22, down from 25.
    • Headshot Multiplier reduced to 1.25, down from 1.35.
    • Lower Torso Multiplier reduced to 1, down from 1.1.

AUDIO

All Modes

  • Rebalanced first person and enemy footstep audio.

Since the launch of Season 1 last week, we’ve been actively listening to player feedback regarding audio concerns in Warzone, especially related to footsteps. This initial update is aimed at addressing part of these concerns and enhancing the overall experience before we head into the holidays.

When making changes such as this, there’s a complex mix of variables we need to meticulously look at and consider. One of the primary factors to consider is the fidelity of the experience across our titles to avoid too large a gap between Warzone, Multiplayer, and Zombies. Beyond that, changes to things like occlusion, falloff distance, first-person vs third-party balance, or specific Perk mechanics, can have ripple effects due to the sheer number of interacting/overlapping sounds in a Battle Royale match.

Please know that we're committed to ongoing improvements and to ensuring that players can fully immerse themselves in the game while maintaining a competitive edge. Your continued constructive feedback is appreciated, and we'll continue to work towards making Warzone the best it can be on every front.

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed collision issues with various elements across Urzikstan allowing Players to exploit/peek/shoot through them.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed Players to get stuck inside locked buildings that should otherwise be inaccessible.
  • Fixed additional issues with incorrect text appearing on Challenges.