I'm going to be trying SWtOR again in a few months. I like when games go FTP.. I like being able to buy exp potions and such! I blew tons of cash when i went back to EQ1, but i enjoyed it a lot! I wish WoW would just sell that type of stuff..FTP or not.
I've been back into SWTOR since a few weeks before the F2P launch and I really have been having a good time. My experiences are that /follow works quite well but lag created by visual impediments like the "grass" rendering on Belsavis and Alderaan. I recommend setting the grass setting to 0 and disable AA if your suffering visual stuttering/lag. It totally changed my experience.
With F2P I've been considering adding 2 F2P accounts with my P2P accounts and just purchase a few skill bars for them. Problem is that my PC is too dated to pull this off currently so I will just focus on my main accounts. If you will be doing the normal questing for exp I highly recommend buying all the class mission exp bonus perks for +30%, it really helps and I've managed to skip a lot of side quests especially on Nar Shaddaa.
In a developer Q&A, Bioware said preferred accounts will have 4 quickbars and 6 char slots patched in. I assume this will be when 1.6 hits, so buying quickbars now wouldn't be worth it. Just sub for a month to level faster and when that's over you get these extras.
I managed to get artifact equipment and section x account unlocks off GTN the other day for one account, so they are slowly coming up at better prices for extra accounts you don't want to permanently sub on.