Thanks for the feedback. Here are a few answers to your comments.
I love the map it is very intricate. Im not sure I like that this occurs with a high probability in month 2.
When the mod is finished the probability of this mission type occurring will be the same as the other random missions (Research, Harvest, etc.). It currently has a high probability merely for testing.
Chances are it will occur in an area of the world that you don't have coverage over and.. Iv played this mission and It would be very very tedious and a tinsy bit frustrating without flying suites. (I lost many soldiers, they all had mass accelerator sniper rifles and I had two enforcers. They also all had flying suites. I would suggest moving this back from month two. I would say move it way back to when battle ships start appearing. And for failing the mission 500 points is very oppressive. Its like saying I started my base in africa, the mission appeared in S. America so i missed it by default, and I am penalized 500 points. Or I got to the mission and was horribly murdered by aliens that are a way higher CR than me and I am penalized again. I would say leave this for end game missions when we have full flying suites and are getting bored cleaning out supply ships and alien bases.
One of the reasons of the high penalty is precisely to force the player to expand its radar cover to other continents. Also, once you get the Firestorm researched and deployed you'll get a chance of shooting down the UFO, although the reaction window will be very short. If you shoot the UFO then you can simply ignore the ground assault afterwards.
500 points for not responding or failing to detect the mission may seem too much but by comparison you lose 1000 points by failing to respond to a terror site.
Ideally, my first idea would be to always get a warning when this mission is taking place, like a Terror Site, but it is currently impossible to mod this. And I agree with pushing this mission to appear to a later date but it is impossible at the moment to change/mod the month/frequency of the different mission types.