This is partly an excuse for me to say HAI GAIS, I'M ALIVE but actually, I don't know most of you anymore. Does anyone remember me? Anyone? Anyone...? ANYONE...? *echo*

On topic: I haven't played Mothership yet because I'm a procrastinator. I was just wondering, is there anything it adds to the game other than the quest? As in, Broken Steel adds new enemies, Point Lookout adds punga fruit everywhere, that kind of thing.
I haven't noticed anything different. I did pick up some alien power cells from the Outcast outpost... are they there anyway?

Second one: How does the firelance event work? Does it always happen within the area you're in at some point, or could it occur anywhere on the map at any time?

if you are into energy weapons, you get the Novasurge in the Mothership. The Best Weapon of the game.

It's about time you showed back up. We were ready to send a search and rescue party for you

1st question: No, Zeta doesn't add anything to the wasteland. All of the events and loot occur on the ship.
2nd question: Firelance is a random encounter so it can only happen at certain points on the map. You could very easily go through several games without ever triggering the event.

I'm not included in that 'we' Ghouls. :laugh:

You do get new weapons from MZ, as well as some new clothes, but the DLC over all is rather......unfun, or so I feel.

Bittercup, there you are!

Firelance has been a rumor to me, in all the time I've played this game, I've never seen that encounter. I know one of the locations it's supposed to happen in is the Super Duper Mart. Random Encounters are divided into two groups, A and B. A encounters will only happen in A locations, and B encounters will only happen in B locations. The lists are in the wiki I linked (if you want to be spoiled).

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_3_random_encounters

The fire-lance encounter tends to occur at extremes on the map, near the edges (extreme north, south, east, west).

I believe I read that in the guide, and have noticed it by personal experience. Its just a boom in the sky. You should mark the location on your map and then bring dogmeat with you to find it.

Does that boom sound any different than the ones that are made by grenades/mines/missiles going off in the distance?

Most of the booms going off in the distance are exploding eyebots.

Yeah, its louder and you may see a contrail in the sky. A falling meteor followed by a loud boom.

What you say about the booms being eyebots makes sense. Those things are everywhere it seems(even before the Enclave start popping up everywhere!).

Thanks for the hints on what the encounter is like. Hopefully I'll be able to get it, but I am not confident on that happening during this play-through.