one question

what file contain on map items like how they appear on the ground

i was just wondering see if i can do some editing on stuff like mets and what not

your talking about dds files, look in the linklist for the "how to' on editing dds files

Yes gratus is right, they are .DDS files.
Which some can be found in your *\Conquer 2.0\data\MapItemIcon folder and the rest would be found in the extracted data.wdf file. After extracting look in the *\data\mapitemicon folder.

As gratus stated goto linklist stickied above (link in my siggy) and look for a how to on editing .DDS files. Also if you don't want to extract the files yourself look in the [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] section you'll find extracted .wdf file thread stickied there.