Matt took some time over at Reddit to clarify how the cash shop will function.

I've addressed this a few times in interviews in the past, but here's the basic gist. Planetside 2 has three fundamental types of items:

Power adding items - items such as grandes, med kits, certain types of implants (like a run speed booster), these items fundamentally alter player power and are acquired exclusively with resources earned in game

Playstyle items - these are sidegrades for vehicles and weapons, these switch up playstyle, and as much as possible are balanced against one-another to not add absolute power. These are available for Resources earned in game or Station Cash.

Non-gameplay affecting items - things like cosmetic skins, resource or xp boosts, etc. These don't have any impact on moment-to-moment gameplay and therefore player power and are available for Station Cash

So, as you can see, anything that gives any gameplay impact of any kind is always going to be available through gameplay. You wont be able to unlock a gameplay affecting item exclusively for Station Cash, there will be an in-game acquisition path as well, you're just bypassing (or shortcutting) it by using Station Cash.

Additionally, none of our item sidegrades really give a discrete power advantage, and those items which do (such as grenades, etc) are available exclusively for in-game resources. So, while you can unlock different playstyle choices with Station Cash, you're not really buying an advantage overall, you're just unlocking different situational breadth.

Head on over to the comments to discuss.