Tired of cookie cutter mmo's, I'm contemplating buying this game.

First a few question....

1. I'm thinking of buying it thru steam, any special offer items?(horse or buggy?) Do these items make much of a difference starting off? Can I easily obtain a horse on my own?

2.  My system spec are

 a. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.5 ghz(E6600)

 b. EVGA Geforce 9800 GT OC(512 MB)

 c.  4 GB  RAM.

d. Sound Blaster Xtreme Gamer

e. 2.5 Mbps connection(AT&T DSL)

    What kind of performance, graphics should I expect with those results?

3. No respecs? But can I have multiple characters on one account? And if so how many?

4.  Do you grind dungeons for gearing up or do you make end game items? I believe I read somewhere 95% of items are crafted?

5. Lastly and most importantly, community.  Is there alot of asshattery and douchebaggery or is it a pretty mature community?

   Thanks for your time!

1. Yeah, buying through steam is probably the best bet in regards to the bonus items. You can obtain a horse on your own within the first hour of playing. The ATV isn't economical enough to be a newbie vehicle, due to fuel consumption and expense. The shirt however will do you good throughout the 45 levels currently available in FE. 

2. I think you'll be ok with those specs. You should be able to play at reasonably high graphics settings out in the open. Though if towns I would recommend turning off shadows and AA. 

3. You can have a total of four characters per account.

4. FE isn't a loot based game, the best gear is craftable or bought from you chosen faction vendor, assuming you have enough faction with them.  

5. The community is overall mature and helpful. 

While you are waiting for your download, check out www.globaltechatlas.info  there are some good guides there, including one called, "Your first horsie," that will walk you through obtaining your first mount. 

I will try and answer what I can to the best of my knowledge.

1 - Steam last I checked offered a Tshirt in game, that has bonuses to harvesting which if you make a crafter can be VERY beneficial (I know currently the ATV and horse can only be attached to one character, not sure if this will change or if the same applies to the t-shirt)

2- I run a slightly faster CPU (3.2Ghz), same Vid card and half the RAM. I dont think you shoudl have too many issues with your setup. The recent patch aswell has helped alot with Dual core CPU usage (mines used to always be at 100%, now I sit around 52-60%)

3- yeah you can have multiple characters, I am unaware as to how many total. If I were to guess I would say atleast 4 if not more.

4-  almost everything is crafted, but you do get some unique items as rewards for quests. I did read that they were adding some loot to bosses.

5-  just like any game you can expect some "asshats" but they have alot of people who are very willing to help and assist. Aswell I find it nice and refreshing to see new player chat almost always has a GM actively helping people and talking to the people of the community, rather then in most games you only see a GM or ever hear from one when something is wrong and you need help specifically

Wow guys thanks for the recent replies. My fav mmo of all time was Asheron's Call 1, which had a skill based system. In my opinion talent trees took some of the luster out of figuring your build out.  I currently play LOTRO, and WoW, and neither seem to really hook me for long.    LOTRO is not delievering on their content as promised, and WoW while a good game, has a horrid player base.  I'm 38 yo and looking for something more "mature".  Any other tips you guys may have for me?

Oh my laptop has almost identical specs to my desktop, except windows vista 64 bit, can I expect similar performance?

Is there such a thing as item deterioration, and are repair cost heinous?

Repair cost aren't that bad, but do require repair kits that can be made or purchased.

Just to reply to your last question in regards to item deterioration.

Yes it is in game. You repair gear with repair kits, no store to go to for repairs. though the specific stores may sell the kits (ie. ballistics merchant may sell ballistics repair kit) I have yet to use one on any of my gear/weapons so I am unsure if there is maybe permanent damage done to it like if next time I can only repair it to 95%.

So eventually items deteriorate to the point of being unuseable?

As I stated I am unsure if they do take any permanent damage. But after taking a moment to check FE forums it seems they do not.

Good to know, now whether to go ranged, or melee? LOL

You will want to go ranged at higher levels, and melee at low levels due to ammo consumption. What I have done is mainly spend my points if I spend them at all in attributes and armour use, saving as much ap as I can for higher levesl when I go ranged.

lol. the choices to be made...

 Just to give you an idea of what I did...

I have 2 characters

1 - crafter character- I keep his 2 stats for crafting maxed to ensure maxed cap for crafting and additional points go into melee and armor use right now. I personally find melee useful since most times when you are harvesting and a mob happens to jump you melee is best way to go since with a rifle you get a big minus to melee defense. Now on the flip side once you get into sector 2 you will tend to see more mobs using ranged attacks, so it may make for  "fun" time as they try and keep their distance from me. You do get skills that can help with that from mutagenic boosters that increase your movement speed, to melee skills that can stun, slow the target.

2 - PVP/PVE character - I chose to go rifles with this character. Partially since my friend that I duo with is going pistols. It makes for a nice combo, I pull them in and if they suvive the run in, he finishes them off.

 On a side note. no matter the character you make, even if you dont plan on crafting, work up your nature skill (harvest plants) since the higher level the horse you want to use the more nature skill is required to ride it.

 additionally a great source of info for everything from character builder tool, to guides on making horses and vehicles check out http://www.globaltechatlas.info/

Items do not deteriorate permanently last i knew. Not sure if they have changed that. There definitely players that want it.

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I did melee from the beginning to the end and had no issues. At the beginning its more expensive to be ranged. Later on you'll have plenty of money and/or resources to get/make ammo.

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Don't expect dungeons. There is one area in the whole game where a full group would be useful (Kingman's). There are a few caves/mineshafts whatnot but they can be solo'd/duo'd. There IS high level loot though, but it is just trinkets (like the shirt +To Skill/Stat)