There’s two sides to every coin. CS2 being limited to 64 tick-rate isn’t favorable, the demands for higher (256) tick rate aren’t feasible either.
CS2 is set to release in Summer 2023 and has a large section of the Counter-Strike community eagerly waiting. The game, which is set for an update to the existing game will be free-to-play and feature improved graphics, responsive smokes, and more. It will also have a sub-tick system that should help players with different systems play the game to its full potential. Pro player for FaZe Clan, Robin "ropz" Kool believes one crucial CS2 feature needs to be improved.
Ropz blasts CS2 tick rate
Counter-Strike 2 is still in its beta phase and the developers have only let in a handful of players. They are also collecting feedback from the community to improve the game and its experience. While most of the features have received positive feedback, there are a few that have not been as welcome. CS:GO pro player Ropz believes the Tick rate system could be improved in CS2.
Movement in CS2 has been a hot topic of contention, especially since the movement mechanics do not feel as smooth as CS:GO. The community was justifiably enraged when they realized Valve had hard-coded CS2 tick rate to 64.
This means every third-party server would be playable only on 64 tick-rate servers, including the likes of FaceIt. Several pros and high-skill players use third-party services like Faceit to compete and practice without having to worry about cheats and hackers.
The enforcement of 64 tick-rate servers might not be a permanent thing. However, for the time being 64 tick rate servers are hard-encoded to the game.
Ropz has been extremely critical of Valve’s decision in a lengthy post on social media.
It's easy to notice you are playing 64 tick when you are strafing, shooting, bhopping, throwing nades, getting bad hitreg. Stuff like that simply doesn't happen as much as in 128t, it's more consistent and fits the gameplay better.
While his rant is mostly targeted towards the tick-rate problem affecting CS2 right now, he also plays the devil’s advocate. There’s a section of the community that would like a higher tick rate (256!).
Related articles
128 tick is optimal
According to Wikipedia, “a single update of a game simulation is known as a tick. The rate at which the simulation is run on a server is referred often to as the server's tickrate; this is essentially the server equivalent of a client's frame rate, absent any rendering system”
Players interested in learning more about the tick rate in CS:GO can do so by visiting the Valve developer forums here.
Ropz believes there is an optimal tick rate and that is 128. While having a 256 tick rate can provide some advantages, it will also remove some of the other benefits providing an overall suboptimal experience.
The argument, oh well why stop at 128t, lets go for 256t is just a bad take. Of course, it would be an improvement, but an unnecessary one. I believe 128t is already at such low latency, that it's extremely rare to have an impact on gameplay events. The advantage of also having a tick rate is consistency. That's what makes 128t as good as it is, because the delay is small enough and so consistent, that getting bad hitreg would be very rare, the game doesn't feel off, strafing and shooting feels better - because that delay is small enough for a person, even a skilled one, to have no effect.
Players with expensive machines and more computing power would potentially demand higher tick rates. Their systems will be able to handle higher tick rates. However, having a higher tick rate would mean additional costs and quite often, an unnecessary burden on the player base as well as the developers.
If you push the tick-rate high enough it might be possible to notice a difference, but the impact is minimal. My point is that 128t is already high enough to not have issues in your gameplay.
With Counter-Strike 2 set to release in Summer 2023, there’s no fixed date yet, we can expect Valve to provide an optimal solution. Whether that would include continuing to suppress the tick rate or allowing third-party servers to serve higher tick rates is still unclear.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest CS2 news and updates.
