I've played for awhile now and I always seem to do by some thing or another :( . I guess i just wanna know some tips b4 starting out again (i HATE that prologue crap). I've played through BG2 many times so i know how the Infinity Engine works so i can handle some of the advanced stuff...

Given that you've played BG2 a number of times you should have all the basics down. Just follow the cues in game and you should do fine plotwise, although figuring out exactly what to do in chapter 3 might conceivably require a tip.

BG1 differs from BG2 in that there is a lot of wilderness area to explore, and therefore much more of your time is spent traveling and clearing maps ('lawnmowing') than in BG2. You can spend many, many weeks of game time outside of the plotline quests just roaming the countryside.

Most of the discussion you see on BG1 boards tends to be around what sort of class to choose for your main character, what party to assemble, i.e., the quest for the ideal adventuring party. Fact is the game can be won, and an interesting time can be had, with virtually any combination.

One piece of pracitcal advice I can offer is to get your rep up to 20 as soon as possible. Whenever someone asks you for help, help them. The best possible prices you get at shops from high repuatation makes a great difference. Of course you can only get a 20 rep with a good aligned party. But if it is mixed alignment party, try to get rep up to around 17 or 18, i.e., whatever it is that is highest but the evil ones still won't leave.

You might want to play a good party the first time through, since the game heavily rewards good aligned play. But as I said, if the party is mixed you can still keep rep pretty high, and there are some very effective and entertaining evil characters: Edwin, Viconia, Kagain, Xzar and Montaron (some funny lines for the last two). A mixture of evil and good characters can lead to some fun NPC interaction.