I can help a little.

The client files for commodities/ships etc must be the same price and the same location as the what the server files have. Therefore, if you change the files server side, the players will be kicked from the server (assuming you run the 1.1 patch, which most/all servers run) if they try and buy a commodity that either is a different price or is not located at that base. This normally happens at launch, not at the point of purchase. This goes for selling, also. In essence both the server and client files must match exactly.

The ini files for these are loaded at start up only and they are loaded only once in the game. Unlike sytem ini's these are not reloaded when docking or launching. Therefore to enable this to work effectively, you need a server restart, at the point of closing the server both the client and server files (commodities/ships etc) must be changed or the client musty have the updated files before they launch and join the server.

Hope this helps

That could work, but the the server op will have to run the randomizer programs, then pass out the files to the clients in order for them to play on the server, which shouldn't be a big deal because it's only three or four text files.

Yes it's easy enough to do, however, any players that want to just log onto the server and play will be kicked before long.

If you use an autoupdater, then this has to run before freelancer.exe runs.

This is old ground that we have been on quite a few times in the past. Unfortunately, the game engine has the critical issue of only loading the .ini's that are applicable once at startup and a fix to this hasn't been worked out...yet.

Your talking about a frontloader, what IONCROSS:Total War uses.

Other online games use this feature too. When you get on a Dawn of War multiplayer server, and start a game with someone, one of the first things you do is exchange banners and badges.
I believe this is called synchronizing the clients.