Hey, currently I think it's fine as it is. I'm a full f2p player, and I do like the difficulty. I managed to reach lvl 33. Most of the major maps that we always ended up playing has a human-oriented advantages where emp's couldnt reach the lasers you've put. You don't even need to buy anything other than HEV and laser. The 1500 provides alot of usage on that, already. Just get p90 and HEV. Each time, you see a Prison map, you should always vote for it. And you shouldnt bother buying anything until you've reached lvl 8-10. Generally, in a hideout, the most annoying to have are newbies who refuses to buy armor but only infinite ammo and recoil.

And it only took me 3 days of playing with the average of 2 hours a day of playtime to reach lvl 10.