ANSWER:
YES you can get back the old spell icons. Just copy "gemicons01" through "03", and "spells01" through "07" from the default_old folder into your custom UI folder.
If you do not know what I am talking about read on...
Assuming you are OK with the rest of the current default UI, drill down into your EQ "uifiles" folder. Unless you have a really old install of EQ or deliberately put it in a different place, this should be located at:
C:\Program Files\Sony\EverQuest\uifiles
Inside "uifiles" you will see a "default" folder. Make a COPY of this folder in the same location and name it "custom" (or something unique that you can remember). To clarify, the "default" and "custom" folders should have IDENTICAL contents.
Now, open the "default_old" folder. Select and COPY the following files:
gemicons01.tga
gemicons02.tga
gemicons03.tga
spells01.tga
spells02.tga
spells03.tga
spells04.tga
spells05.tga
spells06.tga
spells07.tga
Now, go back to the "uifiles" folder and PASTE into your new "custom" folder. You should get overwrite confirmations as you are REPLACING the existing files. To clarify, you are COPYING:
...EverQuest\uifiles\default_old\gemicons01-03.tga and spells01-07.tga
then PASTING into:
...EverQuest\uifiles\custom\
The next time you launch EQ and are in world with a character, type:
/loadskin custom
This may take a few moments or even a couple minutes depending on your computer. When finished loading, you will be using the 2nd Gen. spell icons. You can also load skins from the OPTIONS window. Once you set a skin, that character will always load the same skin in the future until you change the setting.
The only catch to this, is you will need to repeat the process from scratch whenever SOE pushes new UI files. Usually you can just look at the file list when you patch and scan for any files BEGINNING with "EQLS_", "EQLSUI_" or "EQUI_". They rarely change the graphics files.
As I said, if you are uncertain, you can do what I do each time I see a patch with more than a few files pushed out. DELETE the "custom" folder and make another duplicate of the "default" folder (renaming it "custom"). Then copy over the gemicons and spells files from "default_old" and I'm done. Any characters using the "custom" UI will automatically attempt to load it as usual when you login.
One final note: EQ will sometimes give you a yellow or red message upon entering the world about some files not being compatible and how to load the default skin. Usually this comes from customizing other windows. Unless you experience crashing or other radically different behavior, just ignore the messages. They are just alerting you that the client detected non-standard files. You can always type "/loadskin default" and get the current UI with the new (awful) spell icons if needed.
Hope this helps! :)
Edited, Oct 27th 2006 at 7:14pm PDT by Kuponya
Edited, Oct 27th 2006 at 7:16pm PDT by Kuponya