Tier 2 ICT to Tier 2 points based visa

[sampath09]

Hi All, hope everyone is safe ..

Currently am in UK on Tier 2 ICT and it's been almost 4 years now. Based on the new points based visa my employer is ready to provide me the sponsorship for me to shift from ICT to points based, based on this I have following questions

1. When will the application process for points based visa starting.
2. Will my 4 years of stay will be considered at the time of issuing the points based visa.
3. Do I need to complete 5 years on the points based visa to apply for ILR.
4. There is a rule that under Tier 2 general visa you can stay max of 6 years, is this rule applicable across all Tier 2 Visa's or specific to Tier 2 general only.
5. If the above rule is applicable across the Visa's then in my cases will I be able to get only 2 yrs of points based visa and I never be eligible for applying ILR.

Please help to answer my above queries.