It doesn't matter what file its in at all - you should (note should) be able to combine entries from all three files into just one of them, and rectify the issues of what is for sale where (ie, add ships, weapons and commodities for manhattan all under manhatten), and it should work.
Furthermore, i think.....note think, that you could put the weapon_equip and good together, and get a weapons lot.....even if its all in the goods.ini file....
Infact, i think you can put all of them into the goods.ini file, and it will still work - but of course, i have not tested or tried this. I only think cause you can put the engines in the misc_equip and misc_good.ini, and remove them from the engine_equip.ini and etc, and it works with engines fine. Same with other stuff, like armor too - so i am going on a limb here, and saying if the Freelancer.ini file ONLY had the goods.ini file from the equipment folder referenced in it, then you could plonk EVERYTHING in there, and it would all still work perfectly............methinks
Of course, i don't know, at all.
This is cause i am POSITIVE that its this line that dictates where stuff is sold...
category =
Where you can get:
Ship
Commodity
Equipment
Goes with:
Shipdealer
Commodity dealer
Equipment dealer
Anyone following me here? Basicalyl - the files are in such a way ONLY to make it easier to build the game. They put stuff in files NAMED for it, so that they knew what was where etc. There is NOTHING to do with the files names as far as i know - although i have yet to test it......purely cause there is no point.