Near as I can figure, selling a ufo to a 'content' country can up thier happiness, temporarily. Everyone seems to want one. What bothers me is who are they selling them to after they leave my possession. Are they studying them for research, or just selling them back to the Aliens for advanced technology, like antimatter - matter power sources?
What truly disturbes me is that there is just no way of policing the world without building bases everywhere. I finally had a country go 'neutral' on me, and it was a wake up call that I needed to be more proactive with hunting down and killing UFOs. I knew it was commiing, because I was 'letting my clock run.'
This drama plays out in much the same way as it did in X-COM : UFO Defense. The planet stops funding me, I can't build enough bases, even if I wanted to, and I will eventually lose the game. My only choice would be to go to Mars and destroy thier home base before I lost all political support at home (according to my buddy, who's a veteren player ).
Perhaps a sort of periodical could be instituted in the game to replace the standard Terror site alert mechanism. You know, something like Star Magazine, or Variety. That way, one would have to determine the true from the false, and in the process, get more bases going earlier on in the campaign.
Just a thought.