Are the defaults in the initial config optimized for those player numbers?  Should we leave them as that rather than mess with them or are those tickrates  what a fresh server is already set to? 

Now they are, I did some investigation about that just now, dl latest update.

what settings you would recommend for a dedicated server i7 5.0ghz 64gbs of ram and dedicated 1gbe connection ? for a 100k battle server

I don't know, try defaults. If they don't fit - try to find optimized values.