Thought id post my 2 cents.
So the F2P is definitely the right way as i think is the general concensus, this not only gives you a bigger playerbase, and removes barries from people wanting to play, but also it has a much more positive impact with the players and their opinions of the game/game developers. For instance, brink didnt go down great, you will probably recieve a lot more unsure/less interested players as a result. This isnt a problem when a game is free, also the fact that it is free almost garantees that the developer will continue to improve and work on the game, because they make profit from its longevity as opposed to its initial popularity. Regardless of if you are going to stick with it and keep improving it…the customer doesnt know that, and it just reassures them.
As far as charging people for in game things, as with most f2p model games. I think it is wise not to offer items that promote a pay 2 win mentality. I think the reasons are fairly obvious, in that, your removing the barriers to let people play without paying, but then putting up new barriers saying “you need to pay however to be able to play this game on an even footing”, which no one likes.
Instead the cosmetic/other items are a much better choice.
What i would say, is have a nice full store on launch. Most games build it up, but have hardly anything for sale at the start. If you have a full shop of cosmetic items etc on day 1, your profits are going to be exponentially higher. The reason being that even players who wont stick with the game, will probably have the initial 2 weeks honeymoon period where everything is new and exciting, even if after those 2 weeks they decide they dont like it afterall. That 2 weeks is your window of opportunity, make sure you have things for sale when people run at you with money. Otherwise, 2 patches later, you add items and only the vets buy them.
I would also have a range of prices on items. You dont want to shut the door on anyone who only has £3 or £4, yet they want to buy something for their character. Just purchases in general will make people stick with a game for longer anyway as they have the mentality of “well iv spent money on it so im going to play through this bad patch to get my moneys worth!”
Something to note, collections and collectable things, things that go in sets, things that can be shown off and are hard to collect all of, are all great items to have for sale. People like collecting things, one off items make for one off buyers. TF2 made their hats which were a novelty, into a collection that people spent money on to try and finish.
Suggestions that would most likely work well as buyable things:
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Themes for equipment. Instead of selling skins for pistols etc. Sell a steampunk theme for a loadout, with clockwork defibs and medpacks made of cogs etc. There are so many themes, you could use, it would just be simple reskining of weapons etc. Possible themes - Countries (flags on items), safari, neon, futuristic, prehistoric, etc etc etc.
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Name changes, and the ability to colour your name. But, make these very cheap. I would advise 50p. Games get greedy, and say “lets make a name change £12”…why? no one will do it! Put it at 50p and clans/groups will have nights where they all change their names to pornstars and trol servers. It doesnt hurt anyone, also, people think nothing of spending 50p on a namechange. They may do it every week, or day even. People do not have a problem paying £20 a month for a phone contract for 24 months, but they would have a problem with paying £480 for a phone in one go. Same amount of money, just one is gradual and low amounts and the other is a shock to the system.
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The pay to enter tourney system was a great idea, i would again have low entry fees of say £5 a team, or less, depending on how many teams, etc. With you taking say 20% of the income, and the rest being split between winners.
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Voice packs
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Themed huds
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I would say a great thing to do would be to have a random free gift with every purchase over £5. It would give you a random item from a pool of weapon parts. These parts have no use in game, it would be like say “the golden magazine” “the golden silencer” “the golden trigger” etc, and when you had all the parts for a weapon, in this case “the golden gun”, then you would unlock the unbuyable skin. This makes people want to buy things more, it makes it collectable, and it adds a reward for completing the collection, a reward that can only be attained through that route and a reward that others can see in game (a golden weapon model is always cool). I think this would work really nicely, and you could have say 5 collection only skins, with some being rarer than others.
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Boosters are always a half decent bet.
Thats all i can think of atm. I wont go into any gameplay ideas, ill do that in a different thread, just giving my 2 cents from a financial point of view, since im currently writing my business and management dissertation paper on the F2P model 
