I'll see about changes tomorrow, what are the limitations on the changes?
I.e. I guess changing the ID of an icon is proberbly a bad idea?
It is
Can we add icons to one of the icon_map*.dds (is one from daybreak one an eq2map custom one)?
icon_eq2map2.dds is the one you should add the icon to.
lon_card_game.dds Found a nice door in here.
Have no good paint program installed so i can't add the door 
Length of field sizes (means character limit)?
`longdesc` varchar(85)
`shortdesc` varchar(30)
For now going to make a little list to make things a bit easier to discuss:
Deprecated icons: monster (18), quest (21)
IDs without an icon: 1-16, 19 (Can these be reused?)
It ok to reuse them.
Format:
-typename
iconname (id), iconname (id)
--------------------------------------------------
- :
linkdown (58), linkup (59)
- BELL:
harbor (26)
- BOOK;
bookpage (68)
- HOUSE:
guild housing (29), player housing (35), prestige housing (71)
- LOCATION:
location (17), inn (33), bank (34), site (38), respawn (40), outpost (42), building (43), town (45), mailbox (51), tradeskill (56), cave (66), lurk (73), siteorange (74), siteblue (75), markable (76)
- MOBHEROIC:
mobheroic (64)
- MOBNAMED
mobnamed (65)
- MOBSOLO:
mobsolo (63)
- NPC:
npc (20)
- QUESTSHINY:
questshiny (41)
- QUESTSTART:
queststart (60), questnpc (61)
- QUESTUPDATE:
questupdate (62), questupdatenpc (67)
- SHOP:
jeweler (22), tailor (23), furniture (24), shop (25), ammunition (27), tavern (28), scribe (30), armor (31), artisan (32), potions (36), weapons (37), stables (39), provisioner (57), mercenaries (69), reforger (70)
- TRANSPORT:
transport (46), teleporter (47), boat (48), grifftower (49), sokokarpost (50), carpet (54), horse (55)
- ZONE:
zone (44), door (52), overland (53), agonstic dungeon (72)
--------------------------------------------------
First proposals, don't implement yet, lets discuss it first:
Afterwards we'll discuss finer details like changing descriptions.
The suggested icon files can be found in the attachments here and of post #18.
Icons in Yellow can't be renamed, used by DBG, can link them.
Lookingglass links:
linkdown (58)
linkup (59)
no category (9) - New icon if you none of the provided categories fit the purpose of the poi, for easy review by moderators (Either the red circle from icon_eq2map.dds or ? or ! from images/specialelements.dds)
HOUSE:
guild housing (29)
player housing (35)
prestige housing (71)
LOCATION:
plunderable (11) -
New icon for plunderable house items in instances (maybe an altered furniture icon with a grabby hand /images/icons/icons_is16.dds + /images/icons/icons_as1.dds).
door (12) -
New icon for unlockable doors in instances, (use the new door icon from the images/lon_card_game.dds we added), make sure to rename (52) first from door to dungeon
barrier (14) -
New icon for barriers that need to be cleared in instances (maybe an icon of a lock like images/specialelements.dds or jailbars like /images/icons/icons_as11.dds)
object location (17) -
Renamed location to object location
inn (33) -
Change to bartender (28), then hide it from users and mark it as depreciated
site (38) -
Renamed site to discovery location
respawn (40) -
Long Desc should include evac point
outpost (42)
building (43) -
Rarely used and not sure if it should be used at all
town (45) -
Could maybe be removed and replaced by outpost, not much difference anyways
mailbox (51)
cave (66)
lurk (73) - Keep hidden until we know its purpose
siteorange (74) - Keep hidden until we know its purpose
siteblue (75) - Keep hidden until we know its purpose
markable (76)
MOBS: -
New category to get rid of NPC, MOBHEROIC, MOBSOLO and MOBNAMED.
monster (18) -
After freeing it up, I'd like to reuse this for mobs you can't attack but can/need to interact with as an alternative to npc.
npc (20) -
Replaced typename (effectively removing type npc)
mobsolo (63) -
Replaced typename (effectively removing type mobsolo)
mobnamed (65) -
Replaced typename (effectively removing type mobnamed)
mobheroic (64) -
Replaced typename (effectively removing type mobheroic)
mobepic (78) -
New icon for non-named epic mobs (use the newly created yellow crossed swords).
QUESTSTART:
queststart (60)
queststartnpc (61) -
Renamed questnpc to queststartnpc to keep it in line with the other names and more clarity.
QUESTUPDATE:
questshiny (41) -
Replaced typename (effectively removing type questshiny)
questupdate (62)
questupdatenpc (67)
questpage (68) -
Renamed bookpage to questpage and replaced typename (effectively removing type book) (fresh icon under /images/icons/icons_is6.dds)
SERVICES: -
New Category to split out other services from shops and out of the old npc
broker (13) -
New icon for brokers (to keep it similar to banker maybe a platinum coin like /images/icons/icons_is61.dds)
bank (34) -
Renamed bank to banker and replaced typename
mercenaries (69) -
Replaced typename
reforger (70) -
Renamed reforger to reforger mender, replaced typename. Should get a new picture for this icon, as its the same as mercenaries (Suggestion would be an anvil like /images/icons/icons_is64.dds)
SHOP:
jeweler (22) -
An icon that can be beeter recognized as jewelry would be nice (better ones in /images/icons/icons_is11.dds, /images/icons/icons_is16.dds and /images/icons/icons_is17.dds)
tailor (23) -
A nicer icon would be good (i.e. the dress in /images/icons/icons_is8.dds)
furniture (24) -
Maybe rename to carpenter? (fresh chair icon under /images/icons/icons_is16.dds)
shop (25)
ammunition (27) -
A nicer icon with a slimmer arrow tip of tail would be good (i.e. /images/icons/icons_is29.dds or /images/icons/icons_is31.dds)
tavern (28) -
Renamed tavern to bartender as thats their in-game title
scribe (30)
armor (31) -
Renamed armor to armorer
potions (36) -
Renamed potions to alchemist
weapons (37) -
Renamed weapons to weaponsmith
stables (39)
provisioner (57)
TRADESKILL: -
Maybe rename to ARTISAN
artisan (32) -
Replaced typename to this new typename
tradeskill (56) -
Replaced typename to this new typename
TRANSPORT:
vertical climb (10) -
New icon for climbable walls, lifts, ladders etc (maybe a ladder icon would be good, but I can't find one.)
druid ring (15) -
New icon for Druid Rings (icon should resemble the call symbol for druids like /images/icons/icons_ss21.dds)
spire (16) -
New icon for spires, they currently use the teleporter symbol, but would be nice to distinguish inner zone travel from external (icon should resemble the call symbol for sorcerers like /images/icons/icons_ss21.dds)
stairs (19) -
New icon for ramps, stairs etc. (A stairs icon would make sense, but I can't find one.)
harbor (26) -
Renamed harbor to bell and replaced typename (effectively removing type bell)
transport (46) -
Renamed transport to air transport
teleporter (47)
boat (48)
grifftower (49) -
Change to air transport (46), then hide it from users and mark it as depreciated
sokokarpost (50) -
Change to air transport (46), then hide it from users and mark it as depreciated
carpet (54) -
Change to air transport (46), then hide it from users and mark it as depreciated
horse (55) -
Renamed horse to ground transport
ZONE:
zone (44) -
Replace with either instanced dungeon (52), overland (53) or public dungeon (77), then hide it from users and mark it as depreciated.
door (52) -
Renamed door to instanced dungeon
overland (53)
agonstic dungeon (72)
public dungeon(77) -
New icon for public dungeons to distinguish them from instances and overlands (best would be the same arrow icon but with a different color like blue).
Looks good, but a few thinks to consider:
Renaming the "iconname" of icons is not a good idea, as that is the link in the poi files xml.
But to change the descriptions is ok.
If we DO change the name I need to PUSH all the icon xml files for every zone to every user, which means 1000+ files for every user. Else the poi looses its icon link.
Removing icons is not a good idea (like the ones you suggested) as most of them in this case are icon types from Daybreak, the POI importer will not like that as the icon name will be missing.
Ahh thats why the description and the iconname are different for some files, ok while that is seriously messing with my OCD I can see that its a bad idea, because if (see below) its transparent to the user and too much trouble to push all those files again. But which one is the one you see in-game then when choosing a POI category? (See imaged attached) They are all lower case so look like the iconname to me, if thats the case we either have to change the iconname or preferably use the shortdesc on the contribution window in-game too.
You are right, didn't think of that. We can change the names then, think that's the best way to.
------------------------------
As for removing POIs, ok then, can we change the icon ID of the ones to be removed, hide them from the user submission options (both in-game and website) and mark them as depreciated in the xml like monster (18), quest (21)?
Why change the ID?
I don't really see the point in removing icons, the more types the better. Then you see what type of transport there is on map.
There is never more than 1 type of air transport in a zone (i.e. no zone has carpets and griffawns), the icon is the same (wing symbol) which is fine, there is just no need to distinguish between the types ... you name them differently sure but consolidating the types will make it easier for people to choose the correct type and also future proof us, also there are flying discs in Sentinels Fate, you want to add another type for every form of ground or air in-zone transport? I just don't see a reason for it and consolidating them to the 2 actual icons we have makes the maps easy to read (i.e. people know what the horse and wing icons do) and make submitting easier as every type has its own icon. And by change ID I don't mean in the xml file but I mean the currently submitted pois should have their type changed. I.e. move all POIs with the sokokar post type/id to the air transport type/id, then depreciate sokokar post.
Ok,make sense.
------------------------------
As for changing the iconname, again its not a must have (especially given the reasons you gave above), I'd much rather have a change to the in-game submision window showing the shortdesc instead of iconname. It just becomes necessary imho if changing the way the window works is not possible.
It's not possible to use short description in game. But we should not rename the icon. We create a new one and start moving them over in stages. This way the end user won't notice anything. We could move a 100 POIs a day. I can change the importer to set all imported POIs to new, then they wouldn't end up in game until a moderator has reviewed them.
Alright that sounds like a good workaround solution. So, since we create new IDs that means we can also group their IDs a bit together as well, will IDs about 100 break something? If not we should start from 100 up. This also gives me a good opportunity to review and clean up some submissions (in that case 100 a day might even be a but much lol). But before we take this rather drastic step we should make sure we have gotten everything worked out to the last detail of how and what we want the new type_table to be.
The number is not important, their position is determined by the weight. A new icon is assigned a new number automatically, unless I force it. The movement I do in SQL and nothing you have to deal with, unless you want to, like I did with markable.
Well not important no, but good for keeping things organized internally. And while I might not be involved in the move it self (proberbly better, my SQL course in university was more than 5 years ago lol) you said you'd flag them for moderators to approve, this again is what I meant to be a good opportunity to double check the POIs and 100 every day might be tough (but even then takes us a year with all pois lol). Proberbly should make a document for submission structure first (so far I only collected some example cases how to phrase things for consistency). So overall a solid plan, but not something we should rush into.