Edit - Great idea. The pressure you feel in the game gives a new perspective to the challenge. Happened to me that at certain point the avatar project reached four blips and none were from alien facilities. I was umprepared for the gate mission but managed to win and got the necessary relief. Won the game and the countdown reached about 5 hours to doom.
The relative easyness of the endgame still present ant it didnt work too well with "A better campaign" mod due to the excessive challenge since you have to rush the initial missions, but after all it seems to be a must have mod.