Computer Gaming Review (newly spun off from Warzone) has posted a short Q&A with id's Graeme Devine about Q3A. So short in fact, that Apache fired the whole thing off in his mail, so with thanks to CGR, here's the poop:

CGR: How will Quake3 Arena's bots raise the bar in terms of AI and performance over exisiting bots?

Graeme Devine: Our bots don't follow set paths or "waypoints", they have the luxury of being able to work with the level designer's map data directly to preprocess their data, something existing bots cannot, and that gives us a database which has superior information.

CGR: How are the physics going to be different in Quake3 Arena compared to Quake and Quake 2?

Graeme Devine: Obviously being the same brand name as Quake and Quake 2 we've not messed with the physics too much. We've added jump pads and acceleration pads to speed up navigation around the levels and that makes the biggest difference to gameplay physics. A jump pad replaces all ladders in the game by blasting you off the ground and into the air, while an acceleration pad accelerates you in the direction it faces.