helllllooo wasteland !
as it goes

my question as an older gamer with less time and more patience is in the above poll. what gets me to buy it now instead of a year later when I'll get the full pack: dlcs & fan mods?

so you get to end with legion, ncr or king of the hill !

BUT what else is there ?

Do you get to be:
a pimp,
casino owner ,
porm star ,
luckiest player ( say with a luck of 10 would we always win?),
do we get to drive or at least to quick move with a vertibird ( dudes I still remember having carts , horses and boats in ES2),
do you we get to randomly enslave/buy/hire npcs - yes I realy do want to rule the world ...
do we get to run a business , hiring / equipping guards , hoes and what not
DO our actions and choices finaly change the face of the wasteland? say megaton like changes but with more bling , npcs with better equipment, attracting settlers etc

The game will have a "fast travel" option that lets you move instantaneously from one landmark to the next, just like oblivion and fallout 3. there will be no vehicles to drive.

Your other questions cant be answered because no one knows and no one will until the game comes out.

I would suggest writing until your questions are able to be answered. Then make the judgment call for yourself.

If they told you all of this it wouldnt be fun to find out yourself...

play time ?
size ?
compared to f3?
demo ... I'll take f3 goty as demo.

hmm yeah, personally I don't WANT to know what's in it. It's fun to speculate while we wait, but... like when the game comes out, I'm going to be avoiding forums like this one and the nexus and wiki and blogs because I want to find all this stuff out for myself - that's what I'm buying it for!

Once I've completed the first runthrough in a month or so then I'll come back and discuss it, compare notes etc.