Back to tech-tree balance
I do feel like the first launch progress too quickly through the initial science, but then stalls out a bit toward the end of T1 into T2 for new players. I've got an absurd amount of experience so I burn through the trees very quickly, but even I slow down a fair bit as soon as I hit that first Duna Landing mission. I think that some of that initial speed of progression would be mitigated by new players needing to run tutorials to get the mechanics for orbital flight, so I guess that is something to consider. Potential suggestions:
Maybe tying the first three missions/launches into a tutorial (opt-out in game start), or breaking the Starting Parts into a simplified initial node and a node you unlock with 1-5 science after your first launch
Giving another Mun mission to a Polar biome, or something very specifically different than the Arch would (imo) show players how to do other-biome science to get through any progression barriers they find. Unlocking this as a side mission at the same time as the Duna Arch mission, and having it reward 100-400 science would be both a nice boost to research around that point in progression, and also be a natural way to prompt players to do their own biome-specific missions.
This may actually be a down-side of combining all the different science experiment parts into just "Science Jr." - I really like the ease of running experiments, but it feels like one launch with one part can accomplish all science to be done in your tier for any specific biome. Until you get to the next tier, you've got 1 maybe 2 different parts, which means that there's very little point to re-running a mission for different science until hundreds or thousands of science points later when you have radiation science, a lab, etc.
More incremental science part progression scattered through the tech trees might help this feel better, while still allowing easy science collection with a single button push for all experiments
I still get a little frustrated at how separate the Medium Payloads (fairings especially) are from the medium fuel/engines.
I would actually like to see the Fairings and Cargo Bays in different nodes, as the cargo bays feel like something to progress to later for re-usable rockets, etc. while fairings are early expendable protection for payload stages early in the game.
That said, it's more a personal preference of progression and if there are other reasons to delay these payloads as they currently are, I'll continue to work around it!
