Kabloosh

No, you save fuel in the long run when you do a proper burn. When you are taking off from the mun or any other body without an atmosphere it is best to start turning immediately save to avoid hitting mountains due to this. For atmospheres you might just want to burn straight up but after a certain point a gravity turn is a must.

The RVing has to be the hardest part. If you're like me and don't care to do it a zillion times get mechjeb. I do the actual docking part manually though and it really isn't that hard. All you need to do is get your bearings so you can control the vehicle properly. It's alright to go slow too. Once the ports begin to pull together I suggest turning off SAS. Reminds me of the time I almost collided my space shuttle with my space station. Mechjeb got me so close the shuttle literally flew INCHES underneath one section of the station. I'm not kidding, there was literally no light between the two crafts. If I had not turned the shuttle on its belly the wing would have cut the station in half. Get your RV under 1km preferably around .3 km. Once they are that close match velocities with the craft you are docking with. Use the speed related to the target as your measurement and do the burn at the closest approach. Once they are essentially orbiting together use RCS only to move the craft to finish off the docking. I eyeball it mostly because I'll have docking ports in weird places on my stuff.

The mun and minmus are easy for me. I'm at the point where I want to build a vessel to go to Duna. I've landed on Duna before but never came back since I just stopped playing for awhile, and then .22 and .23 came out.

I think you have become an expert if you can do all of the following... 1. Get into orbit. 2. Go to Kerbin moon and land on it and comeback. 3. Dock ships together and essentially maneuver a craft as you see fit. 4. Get to and land onto another planet regardless which one it is and comeback. Essentially once you have mastered the fundamentals of being able to reach any body and comeback you have essentially become an expert of the game. There are still somethings you figure out to become a master like being able to comeback and land where you want to land your craft after a mission, visiting all planets with one spacecraft, building bases, etc. are entering the realm of master status. There is a huge gap in being an expert and being a master.

This is such a great mod. Love the new concepts it brings to the game. However, I have no idea how to "upgrade" parts. It seems it'a rather difficult to find a tutorial on how to do this as well. It's either hidden, broken, or I'm just too oblivious on how to do this. :/

Since I use remotetech they end up becoming satellites around their respective planet I sent them to so future missions have access to communication.

I've always found thrust vectoring kind of pointless. I tend to throw on SAS or those torque modules if a craft has difficulty turning. Otherwise I think the T30 is quite possibly the most useful engine there is when it comes to smaller rocket designs. I have never used the T45. I don't think the thrust vectoring is really that useful. I use the LV909s until I unlock nuclear engines.

I did a lot today. First I went back to the mun to get more science. My second mission of the day was creating a vessel which Jeb flew up to drop 4 communication satellites on an equatorial orbit at the 1000 km mark to provide complete omni comm coverage for low Kerban orbit, and for the surface. I'm running with remote tech so this is actually pretty important. My third mission was to set up a long distance comm satellite with the intention of launching a probe/comm sat in Duna's orbit. I decided to put this nifty satellite around Minmus at about 750 km on an polar orbit. The fourth mission was finally sending the probe out to Duna. Had a little hiccups and miscalculations since I decided to do most of the maneuver nodes manually instead of using mechjeb resulting in my burning the mass majority of my fuel just so I could get into Duna's orbit. Fortunately it was enough, and now Kerban and Duna are connected via satellite. My next planned missions are to set up more coverage Duna in hopes of sending down some rovers to explore and collect science. More planned Mun missions with a rover for Kerbals to drive so I can visit other places and collect more science. I also want to start setting up a space station around Kerban, and the Mun, as well as building a Mun base that will drill for Kethane so I can eventually send Kerbals to Duna.

The developers were spot on adding the campaign mode with a tech tree. It actually gives much purpose to the game and really has breathed it life. I can't wait until they put in the cost of parts and earning money as well as tweaking the tech tree and adding stuff. Right now the tech tree feels a bit short and even with me being the terrible player that I am is still blasting through unlocking stuff. I do have to admit since this update I've finally been able to land things on Eve and Duna which I never even attempted even with MechJeb. Now I can do all that without MechJeb.

I find it silly that a modder remotely consider suing someone over something they have no financial stake and already provide free to the public especially if the person who decides to take their software, and merely update it, give credit to the original author, and don't seek monetary gain in the process.

What are those "scene load times" you are talking about?

Or check out space engine. That simulator allows you to explore the known universe. Can't build rockets and launch them into space though. But if you want the next best thing than going to a high end planetarium or going into space yourself space engine is absolutely epic.

I use them for rescue craft, cluttering the orbit around Kerbin, and exploring where I don't want to send Kerbals yet.

I have a satellite floating into deep space because I forgot to open up the solar panels.

I like to leave failed stuff where it lies. If I got Kerbals stuck somewhere I always build something for a rescue mission. I'm pretty terrible at landing though.