ive googled it, used yahoo, forum surfed... but i havent found anything about how to use or how to make custom icons (for those who dont know its the ones like the vets or consties have when you press showscores)... ive attempted but failed on making a custom icon work (all i had to work with was the little passage in the changelog...) any help would be appreciated.

There are some plugins, such as Server Ops (metamod) and Admin Icons (AMX) which will allow you to specify which of the existing icons certain players get. However, at least to my knowledge, mp_customicon icons were not working as intended as of NS 3.0 beta 3.