"what does 100 tick do"

im glad you asked.
100 tick makes the game 3x more accurate and responsive.
it is the cream of the cream - the BEST.

now, what the tick increase does is speed up how many "updates" you get, and how fast you get them.

if someone clicks their mouse, you will get sent that update 3x faster than a normal server...

this means, your computer must listen to it, understand it, and "do something" 3x faster aswel.

not only does working faster increase the server load (cpu), it will also increase the load on YOUR computer AND your connection as data is being sent to you faster.

ofcorse, this is great as it means super low pings, and super low latency, giving the game the pin-point accuracy it needs...

if you are having problems since we went 100 tick i suggest you do this:

1) check your rates

our server needs to send more data to you, and faster, which means for a quality game-play you MUST have higher than default rates.

i recomend these:
cl_updaterate 100
cl_cmdrate 100
rate 20000

2) help your CPU

because our server needs your computer to "process" things faster to give you the "responce", your computer will need your CPU to be ready to process "spikes" of information created by the game

some rules of thumb:

- close windows before you run cs

basicaly, anything you see on your taskbar (the bar at the bottem) should be closed.. pictures of your dog, windows with your documents in, firefox, visual studio.net, hammer, even the damn steam window can be closed once you launch...

- close any un-needed programs before you run cs

classic programs that are left open are, messenger, y! messenger, AIM, talk, torrents.. look next to your clock for stuff you can shut down

- set css to high priority

after you start cs, to go your task manager (control + shift + escape), right click on the "hl3.exe" process, set its priority to "high" (NOT REALTIME!)
this will give your game a "boost", and your computer will do stuff for the game before other programs

3) help your game

lower your game settings. because the game is running faster, it has to do the same work as before, but more times. if you had the game setup so it was "ok" at a lower tick, it will be worse at a higher tick.

lower your graphics options
lower your res
even lowering your sound quality COULD help

each system is diferent and you will need to try these out for yourself - but - lower is better

4) check for nastys

scan for viruses
scan for adaware

there are many free scanning tools..

for adware i recomend:
"ad-aware"
"spybot search and destroy"

there are free virus scanners, if you need one, or links to software, post here and ask

5) check your harddrive

"what? my hard drive wont lag me" - wrong.. if your disk is fragmented, not only will your load times be hit, but if your game needs to load data when your game is in "action" it may cause stutters, sound problems and other weird effects.

the LEAST you can do is use windows defragmenter to defragment your drives, but this is shit and should only be used if you have no other choice.

i recermend using O&O Defrag products (there is still a free version floating around), they have diferent defrag modes, and will do a FULL defrag, not just skim the surface.

doing a "full" defrag will help load speeds and solve many lag/weird problems.

this is also something you need to keep up with. each time you move/download/edit a file (esp big ones) it is broken up on your disk. what defragging does is fix the file back together...

6) drivers
pretty much all hardware needs a driver. what the driver does is let the software "talk" to the hardware are tell it what to do.

"why are there new versions if the hardware is the same?"

good question. drivers may "work" ok, but performance and quality orientated hardware such as graphics cards have their drivers "optimised" by their manafacturers (nvidia/ati), what they can do in some cases is make the hardware work "faster" with the software, and even at a higher "quality"

this is why it is essential to update as many, if not all of your drivers to the latest version.

a warning tho:
make sure any updates you install are for the hardware you have. if you install the wrong versions of drivers it COULD cause big problems, and ive even known it to kill a windows install - so double check!

dont over look drivers for things like, your sound card, even stuff like USB ports have their drivers..

the least you can do is make sure your graphics card drivers are the latest - AND - keep them up to date, they normaly come out every month

7) windows update
this is a long shot, but check your windows install is up to date using windows update.
tbh you should do this anyway because it patches holes viruses use....

warning: this will check if you have a real copy of windows... if your a naught bastard and have stolen it, your up shit creak.

8) directX
tho this should be caught by windows update, its big enough to warrent you checking its the latest version.

if you dont know how, click start, run, dxdiag then press ok/enter

the version is there in the window

i beleive the current version is 9.0c
if youve got an older version, get the update a microsoft.com