Then I'm gonna get a rude shock as I always aim to get 2000+m/s as my lower atmosphere escape velocity.
I am not joking; if I'm not pulling 2km/s at 10000 feet, nucleating atmosphere I built it wrong.

So long as the rockets don't hit upper atmosphere and suddenly start rolling around like a ball for NO APPARENT REASON.
This has been a long standing issue.

Try building a working rover, then come back to me about alignment problems.
I've made several types from a lander can (looked like a mars rover) to a trike (didn't work too badly as it was hard NOT to recover from a tip) all the way up to a mega beast of a solar array.
The attachement system needs a click a to attached here click b to attach there for things like I bars, paneling and certainly something better for the adapter splitters to allow them to be re-combiners.
Actually if you want some really usefull tips and I know it's apain in the arse, but find a good key configuration list and memorize a few nice ones (like the ones allowing you to tilt parts at weird angles like engines to increase centrifical force arguably sometimes the best way of stabilizing a ship at the mercy of the system when it's physics goes haywire)
Unless they've got decent tech balancing yet i suggest not, you end up realizing pretty early the only line you should invest in is the line that opens research options like 'the research bay' as you end up getting such squat returns that it seems nigh impossible to get to orbital docking to make your fuel station to really allow space conquest.
Lets also face facts landing and return of craft is where the big money sci points are and you can't do that without adequate fuel, and adequate fuel with their continual nerfing is about having a fuel station in orbit.
I had FAR more fun in sandbox than in either campaign or science mode; a new person should ALWAYS start in sandbox.

All the toys none of the bullshit they're still trying to balance right; the only thing it's missing are goals really and if you go to the forums.... bam.

Hell here's one for you make a rocket that survives going at 2km/s at between 10k-25k feet with the apparent new heat buildup problems.
Want anouther? Go to the North Pole of Kerbin using rocket propulsion to land; that should get your skills up with how to read what you need to correctly adjust.

note that the linux version actually comes with a 32bit and a 64bit binary. The "32bit only" information from the game page is wrong as far as linux is concerned.

the first thing you will learn with the new atmosphere physics is that all the crazy stuff won't fly anymore ;)
don't go too fast, especially in the lower atmosphere
too much thrust can very quickly kill your rocket
no sudden, big turns - instead do it slowly, gradually - keep your nose near the prograde marker

and if you get frustrated by your pod+heatshield constantly flipping over and exploding, that is a bug
go the official forums, add-on releases, first thread (called stock bug fixes or so)

from my first impression the tech tree has still some problems and weird choices. On the other hand, by now you have so many options available if you go right to the sandbox, it can be a bit overwhelming.

I disagree on this one. For the newbie, Science mode allows a more progressive discovery, rather than dropping you in hundred of parts all at once.
You can then go to Sandbox once you've built some rockets and got a general "feel" of the most basic parts, sure, but I heavily recommend Science for the first steps (Well, after the "build" and "pilot" tutorials, obviously)
My own rockets often do that in 1.0. But I think it's mostly a problem of having center of mass at the rear (especially as my fueltanks are drained), and friction at the top. It's like throwing a dart feather-first : Not very stable.
Rockets with an heavy second stage (and thus an heavier "tip") have proven more stable for me, thus far. Adding winglets at the bottom, trying to limit my speed and not doing violent manoeuvers at low altitude helped, too.

But getting to orbit is harder than in 0.9, that's for sure...

April 1st
There is actually 339 days till April 1st not 4.

I got the demo working okay last night which is more than I expected. Strange because there are games here with lesser specs that run a lot worse.

I may have to reconsider this.

I actually just found out about the demo and came here to ask two questions...

Is it DRM free or does it require a Steam account?

Does it have the "new" physics / atmosphere modelling the guy in the GoG Twitch mentioned? Is it a "release build" demo?

Thanks in advance everyone!

So I went to their website - is there any way to get a demo from them without inputting an email address?

Check post 78 from evilnancyreagan, has a direct link to the download section of the demo.

Awesome thanks! I missed this the first go around!

And thank YOU very much for doing this! MUCH appreciated!

I'm happy to see this here. wishlisted for now

The green guys remind me of the Despicable Me minions ;)

I'm sitting on the idea of getting this before it's discount ends. I love space games and the concept is neat.

So I've been having a blast(off) with the demo! But I had a few questions and thought I'd ask here for pointers.

I burn a lot of fuel - I can get a nice orbit around Kerbin (Yay! The first time was very exciting!) but not much more than that. I think it's because I'm "brute forcing" launch. I use four engines, four engines and then a series of single engines. I have a couple questions about my approach. 1) I fire them one after the other - I don't wait I just keep pouring on more power C'ptn! 2) I tend to shoot "straight up" (usually following prograde) - I know in a tutorial it mentions levelling off toward the horizon. When I've tried this in practice I usually end up very low in the atmosphere (as opposed to when I full burn the heck out of it to get to ~600K - 800K meters "up"). Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Oh also - will I not get new contracts until I clear the "Reach 2500 m/s" one? I'm assuming this means on launch as I've reached it in orbit. If I won't, any suggestions on how to reach that?

600K is not necessary. Kerbin atmosphere ends at 70km (when the music starts), so you need your periapsis above that mark to be in orbit. Once there, you can adjust it at your leasure, to explore Kerbin or to reach other bodies.
So for example, you can burn vertically until your AP is around 100, then wait until you are near that point and burn horizontaly until the PE reaches 75. Easiest way to get to orbit, but it burns quite a lot of fuel.

Slowly levelling toward the horizon during your ascent, rather that all at once when you are up, allows you to have a round trajectory when you reach space, and save much fuel during the horizontal burn part. It's especially true when you level toward the east (toward the sea near the space center), since you will benefit from Kerbin's spin speed. (It will add up to your burn, so you will reach the orbit horizontal speed with less fuel)

2 things, though
- Do it very gently, otherwise the athmospheric drag will grab your rocket with catastrophic results
- Don't do it too early, since the lower layers of atmosphere (esp. the 10 first km) are far more dense and difficult to navigate.