what do you have to do at the start?

You have to go through the temple of trials.

Create your character.

Punch a bunch of ants in the face and run back and forth.

You must push the power button on your PC. Wait a few minutes whilst the computer loads.You may be prompted for your username and password, enter these if its the case in the boxes indicated on screen. If you've either completed that step, or not prompted for these, click on start, programs and locate the Fallout 2 shortcut and click it. After the please stand by screen disipears, Click to bypass the intro movies if you've already seen these (or watch them if you've not seen them yet) and then click on New Game.

(Was there something a bit more specific you needed?)

:laugh:

You'll have to be a bit more specific than that. What do you mean? The options menu, char creation, the Temple of Trails, Arroyo village, ... ? :shrug:

BTW it is entirely possible to slip through the temple (up to the last gate) using sneak, and avoiding all combat; in fact, if attacked, and you step more than six hex from an ant (while still successfully sneaking), you can choose to end the combat and the ant will usually ignore you.

You have to hope you didn't create a character with no combat skills and no sneak skill. Otherwise, you'll get often your butt beat up by the ants and scorpions in there.

Playing a Science/Medical/Doctor guy was pretty difficult in there. Constantly waiting for the ants to go out of my way then rush in the room hoping I don't trigger an encounter.

But yeah you must pass the Temple of Trials. Figure out to leave it while still being alive. If you're really stuck, simply check the Vault Wiki.