was to have the weapon sound happen when the projectile was actually fired. remember q2? if you had a high ping, the weapon sound would be delayed just like the actual projectile. but now with q3 the sound comes as soon as you hit the attack button, out of sync with the projectile
it may not be a big difference, but when i first started playing q3 i was still a modemer, and it REALLY pissed me off that the sound was that way. it screwed me up when i was trying to lead my target
thats one of the reasons i think people didn't mind being HPB's during the q2 days, cause the lag was a lot less noticeable