The lore really is great to read, I've been skipping them, because I don't have time, but you're right, that's very important ><!!
The activity on the Geoscape was a suggestion I gave them a long time ago. Probably wasn't my original idea, and out of all the crazy Geoscape ideas I had mixed in on that thread, they really liked that one. Easy to implement and lots of immersion.
Anyways, I lost my first campaign since I didn't even think about building a second base on the other side of the world to spot the hundreds of UFOs I was missing damn damn damn >< I also last everything on the last terror mission. really didn't expect so many aliens.