What will Eternal Crusade be like?

I thought I'd just look around and see what kind of actual information I could find on Eternal Crusade. It seemed from the Reddit AMA that a lot of people already know plenty about the game and what it will be like. So what will it be like?

Here is an article on it from mmorpg.com. In it there are some interesting bits of information, but the key points as I see them:

• Free-to play. Ork Boyz represent the free element of their faction and other armies and their progression paths appear to unlock through payment. 5 free Ork Boyz are equal to about one paid Space Marine in terms of power.
• 3 month wars with clear winners. When they end, a war for a new planet begins.
• Destructible environments must be rebuilt using resources gained from winning battle and taking resources.
• Procedurally generated dungeons for PvE. Focus on PvP, however.
• Large-scale battles
• 3rd-person action blending shooting and close-combat

I'll be honest, I'm likely to try this game almost no matter what. 3rd-person, 1st-person, RPG or FPS, I'd still want to see what it's like. The problem here for me and probably for many other is the F2P aspect. I hate F2P games. They are invariably pay-to-win games. I'm going to want to play my beloved Eldar and it will be irritating if it costs a lot to play the way I want. I'd honestly rather buy the game or even pay a subscription fee than be charged individually for options and character classes. I always feel like I'm being swindled when making those transactions. I suppose that setup works for some people, but I resent it and always quit playing before I fork my money over.

On the other hand, my brother made a great point about how Ultima Online could have kept its player base up without turning its back on the in-game thieves and murderers who loved the game. His idea was to only charge the hard-core crowd and make the game free-to-play for people who aren't allow to initiate fights with other players. This would give a huge herd of noob sheep for the hardcore wolves to prey on. The game was already playing out that way in the first place, with noobs hiding and retreating from player-killers anyway, so this would just ensure that they were more likely to put up with getting shanked and robbed from time to time.

I really don't know if it will work in Eternal Crusade. Assuming the game turns out to be fun in the first place, I really hope the F2P elements work out because MMOs are only as fun as the population they boast. There's nothing sadder in one of those games than ghost towns and empty dungeons.