well finally fixed all my issues and got to play the game. i am up to the first town east of my home town.
i have:
so far refueled the tank in the area with the gecko's
killed bugs attacking 2 headed cows
accepted quest to find smiley.
i may have missed something out. my main problem is surviving. currently i use a sharpened spear but miss so much i barley get a hit in. golden gecko's take ages for me to kill and i dont know how i will survive for a minute in the toxic cave,
thanks
EDIT: oh and i am level 3

There are 2 guys in Arroyo that will boost your hand-to-hand and melee skills. There's also one in Klamath. Leather armor helps.. Aside from that the best advice I have is: steal everything that isn't nailed down, go through people's bookshelves, whatever, for eventual caps. Do all the little quests for xp in one area before moving on. Sulik will also help in your ability to survive early on by being an adequate fighter and a decent meatshield for you.
edit: typos

ok thanks. one guy i found at the golden gecko. the other one i dont know about.

If you don't know what to do there is only one answer:
[url=http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html]http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/fallout2.html[/url]

thanks. im going to try to avoid the guide as much as possible. i seem to be doing ok now. i have a gun and managed to kill the golden geckos by luring them to me one at a time. though i wish i haven't killed them all on the trapper grounds because now theirs no gecho's for to to skin :'(
why would i pay to sleep at an inn when i can just rest until im healed? also what does it mean when it says you feel nauseous?

You don't need to pay to rest.
You heal over time, this includes during travelling.
Feeling nauseous is normally a hint you're wounded, radiated or poisoned.
You should be able to get a gun in the 1st town you visit after Arroyo.
As suggested loot all bookshelves, boxes, etc.
Personally I only steal when it's really necessary to move on.
As also suggested do all the quests for the xp.
It will help you to get better which means more hits and less being hit.
Sulik is indeed a great help, especially when he's using his hammer.
As for weapons, try to get your hands on a .223 pistol.
It's by far the most useful handgun and is useful till far in the game.
Personally I find it more useful than the various types of shotguns.

thanks for the advice man.
how do i get dogmeat? is it just random? or do i go to a certain location?

Although I did encounter a few dogs, I never found Dogmeat.
The guide posted earlier in this tread says he can be found in a special encounter.
I'll have to look back at it as in my current FO2 game I had that encounter but didn't see Dogmeat.

oh right, i guess i will just have to hope.
damn i made the mistake of using jet to help me kill the slavers but now he is addicted. i can cure this right?

Yes, you can but it involves a slightly long-ish quest and you can only do so ONCE, IIRC.

Or you can simply ignore your addiction. After some time with reduced stats you should be cured.

damn for bad luck in the form of a dog. it is reducing my luck. how do i get rid of it? killing it appears to be impossible.
i cant kill the damn thing, i will lose alll my ammo if i use my guns and meele weapons are at -23% on the think. critical miss every time! reloading isn't an options because i have done far to much since then. :'(

You pretty much have to kill it somehow. There is a place you can kill it without shooting/beating it to pulp but it in mid/late game depening the route you take at start.
Spoiler warning!
A lone surviving dog (6): (Pariahs) You find an area strewn with corpses. Guess they got unlucky somehow. Hanging around is a strange dog... who'll start following you if you fail a LK check (there's a new one every 10 seconds). This is the pariah dog, who will give you a Jinxed special perk (I can only assume that it does the same thing as the trait; whether they are cumulative is anyone's guess), and lower your Luck to 1. What's more, the dog takes up one of your NPC slots. Yipes! To get rid of the dog you must kill it, and it has 750 HP. If you can't afford to waste the ammo, but have access to the Sierra Army Depot, go to the second level there and put the dog on the electric floor. Die, mongrel, die! If you're evil you can take the dog to the organ extraction chamber and use it twice on the dog to kill it (which will net you 2 Human Brains (!) and -200 karma). If you kill the dog your LK returns to normal, you lose the Jinxed perk, and the dog will show up again on the Pariahs map (this is probably a bug).

damn so basically my game is ruined because im at early game. damn at least i have learned a lesson, for the new guy i will be starting. keep multiple saves.

I'd just shoot this dog. You find so much ammo on random encounters that it's not worth bothering. You can do some extra travel until you get an extra encounter if you absolutely have to even this out.