Abstract. q-deformed oscillators and the q-Bose gas model enable effective description of the observed non-Bose type behavior of the intercept ("strength") λ (2) ≡ C (2) (K, K) − 1 of two-particle correlation function C (2) (p 1 , p 2 ) of identical pions produced in heavy-ion collisions. Three-and n-particle correlation functions of pions (or kaons) encode more information on the nature of the emitting sources in such experiments. And so, the q-Bose gas model was further developed: the intercepts of n-th order correlators of q-bosons and the n-particle correlation intercepts within the q,p-Bose gas model have been obtained, the result useful for quantum optics, too. Here we present the combined analysis of two-and three-pion correlation intercepts for the q-Bose gas model and its q,p-extension, and confront with empirical data (from CERN SPS and STAR/RHIC) on pion correlations. Similar to explicit dependence of λ (2) on mean momenta of particles (pions, kaons) found earlier, here we explore the peculiar behavior, versus mean momentum, of the 3-particle correlation intercept λ (3) (K). The whole approach implies complete chaoticity of sources, unlike other joint descriptions of two-and three-pion correlations using two phenomenological parameters (e.g., core-halo fraction plus partial coherence of sources).