well i know this issue fro ma lo0ng time ago. seeing as i can achieve 0 MS with the right rates, its obviously not working as it seems.
this is just a speculation, but when i discovered that bug months ago i figured the HL engine is just calculating the average time between the current time and the last update.
so if you normally have 50 MS, and then you change updaterate to 10 (100MS delay) on average you would be 0 MS from the server time (your client can "see into the future" - the other marines wont be moving for 100 ms now).
that is however fake ping and im not sure how it works ingame.
This not true. cl_updaterate means how much information from other players is transferred to the player. cl_cmdrate means how much information other players get.
So cl_updaterate affects how you see the entities moving around the map. (ex.: players, aliens, doors, buildings, etc...)
Please dont make a minimum limitation on this one. That would be just as like capping the minimal sensitivity. Its everybodys own responsibility to set to any value what he/she can play with best. If you set sens too low, you wont be able to turn around in close combat, but you can aim more accurately at long distances. If you set the updaterate too low, you wont be able to see the opponent movement continuously, but you get lower ping. (On 56k modem connections. :D)
Set the maximum updaterate because it affects server performance.
I remember many seasons ago where Dw used to play with updaterate 10, his lerk was the most terrible reg ever until he was forced to play with 30, his reg seemed to improve.
It may have also been a placebo affect, but there's definitely something for reg in them there updaterates.
Since the info you send to the server is based on the data you got from the server before, it makes sense that updaterate affects the players reg.
But it's interesting to know that a low updaterate also improves that terrible double-collision between fast players (first client prediction blocks you, then the delayed, actual block calculated by the server comes in) which happens more often and is more annoying with increasing ping.
This is the hitbox collision lag, you can turn it off with cl_lc, but turning off will give you movement latency on the client side.
The client is implemented in the shit way again! Not in NS only but in most of the HL1 mods.