Brand new Redpill

All I can say is that I LOVE THIS GAME. Been playing it since Friday and I'm having a blast. I do have a few questions though.
1) Is there any kind of bank in this game or do you not get enough keepable stuff to worry about it. 
2) Once i figure out what I want to be in the end game (going for Scattershot on my first guy) is it smart to buy the abilities from the start or wait until you actually need them?
3) How often do you need to be in a party to run a mission? (am used to playing DDO which is all party based so i'm not really used to running stuff solo.)
4) Lastly how do you join a faction in the game?

I'm currently running on Syntax with my character Rycus so if anyone wants to give me a yell sometime go for it.

See ya in game

1) When within a few feet of a hardline, right click an item in your inventory. There's an option where you can email it to yourself, works like an item bank.

2) I'd say it's better to code or ask/pay someone to code you your abilites end-game. It's much easier to get the red frags needed to have them crafted for you (As high level abilites require red fragments of certain types to create)

3) You can solo all the way to 50 just fine, but it helps to team with other people. Try and get in a faction, and they'll probably have people running missions plenty, and you can tag along/help run them.

4) To join a faction, a good way to start is to check out this sub-forum for activley recruiting factions of whatever organization you want to join (These are the Syntax crews and factions). Post in that thread (or wherever they ask you to apply to join their faction) and wait for a response back from them. They'll meet up with you ingame, and recruit you in-game to their faction or crew.