Also I noticed I will probably try another tech tree mod for my next career save.
Maybe ETT or the SETI tech tree. But the community tech tree was also good IIRC. I like to have planes first, so Chuck Kerman can discover the sound barrier for example. 
EDIT: Oh, and this mod contains cool airbags to do landings on Duna for example.
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/76169-11-usi-survivability-pack-formerly-derp-v040/
Used to land there with parachutes, airbrakes and retrorockets 
I’m gonna hold off on the part mods for a little longer. The tech tree sounds cool though. I’ve been contemplating an airplane or unmanned start tech tree for some time.
Yea, I also landed on Duna the regular way. But the airbags are cool when using remotetech (because that prevents you from steering your probes properly that far away) and you can do it the “Mars Pathfinder” way. 
Aaaand a few more mods to check out:
EDIT: I will start checking their 1.1 compatibility status today, and post a new list of compatible mods that I will try to maintain. The things are going they will be compatible with 1.1 the day that 1.2 is released…
I’m a little late to the party on this thread but have really embraced the contracts on my latest playthrough. I’m putting the time into doing the test missions that I usually ignored in the past and have had a lot of fun doing it. My last mission had me designing a launcher that would hover at around 50,000m for a decoupler test, turn horizontal for a Flea SRB staging test, and time it just well enough to hit the airspeed/altitude on the descent for a chute test. You can blow through a lot of funding trying to get 3 or 4 objectives to work in sequence but when it does, man is it a lot of fun.
I’m actually embarrassed to say that for as much time I have put into the game, I have never gone beyond the orbit of Duna. It never fails that I either install way too many mods and break my save or take so long to get there that a major update is released and I want to re-start. I’m really, really trying to restrain myself this time and only have these installed:
Kerbal Engineer Redux
Kerbal Alarm Clock
DMagic Orbital Science
Docking Port Alignment Indicator
Universal Storage
Here is my current mod list. Not quite where I want to be, but almost.
Major ones missing are contract configurator, contract packs, Strategia, and Infernal Robotics
The list was created by KSP mod admin.
More to come soon!
As far as I can tell those are all working in 1.1.2
Name URL
[+] Chatterer http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/92324-0-24-2-Chatterer-v-0-6-1-Aug-31-2014
[+] Community_NavBall_Docking_Alignment_Indicator-1.0.1
[+] Ferram Aerospace Research GitHub - ferram4/Ferram-Aerospace-Research: Aerodynamics model for Kerbal Space Program
[+] Final Frontier
[+] Firespitter_20160425
[+] HabTech-0.1.6
[+] HyperEdit https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ezriilc/HyperEdit/master/HyperEdit.version
[+] Kerbal Joint Reinforcement GitHub - ferram4/Kerbal-Joint-Reinforcement: Physics stabilizer plugin for Kerbal Space Program
[+] Kerbal Alarm Clock Releases · TriggerAu/KerbalAlarmClock · GitHub
[+] Kerbal Engineer Redux http://kerbal.curseforge.com/projects/kerbal-engineer-redux
[+] kOS GitHub - KSP-KOS/KOS: Fully programmable autopilot mod for KSP. Originally By Nivekk
[+] Landertron-v0.13
[+] LandingHeight15
[+] Part Angle Display http://kerbal.curseforge.com/projects/part-angle-display
[+] PreciseNode-1.2.2
[+] ProcFairings_3.16
[+] RemoteTech GitHub - RemoteTechnologiesGroup/RemoteTech: Community developed continuation of Kerbal Space Program's RemoteTech mod.
[+] Science_Revisited_Revisited-1.4.0
[+] Ship Manifest ShipManifest on SpaceDock
[+] SmartParts https://github.com/henrybauer/KerbalSmartParts/releases
[+] Surface_Experiment_Pack-1.4
[+] Orbital-Science GitHub - DMagic1/Orbital-Science: DMagic Orbital Science: KSP science parts and modules.
[+] Achievements GitHub - malkuth1974/Achievements: Achievements Plugin for KSP
[+] RealChute GitHub - ChrisViral/RealChute: Realistic parachutes for KSP
[+] WaypointManager GitHub - jrossignol/WaypointManager
[+] BetterBurnTime-1.4.2
[+] DistantObject_1.7.1
[+] x_Science-4.16
[+] UmbraSpaceIndustries GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
[+] USI Tools GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
[+] USI Alcubierre Drive GitHub - BobPalmer/WarpDrive: A stand alone Alcubierre drive for KSP!
[+] USI Tools GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
[+] Impact GitHub - tomforwood/kerbal-impact
[+] ActionGroupsExtended20
[ ] Orbital_Decay-1.2.1
[+] Deadly Reentry GitHub - Starwaster/DeadlyReentry: Heat and force damage for KSP
[+] Trajectories-v1.6.1
[+] FreeEVA-0.6.0
[+] Thermal Monitor Releases · Crzyrndm/Thermal-Monitor · GitHub
[+] ETT
[+] SCANsat GitHub - S-C-A-N/SCANsat: Real Scanning, Real Science, at Warp Speed!
[+] KIS GitHub - ihsoft/KIS: Kerbal Inventory System
[+] KAS GitHub - ihsoft/KAS: Kerbal Attachment System
[+] USI Tools GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
That is a lot of mods.
Yeah. I am glad I have 16Gb of RAM and 64bit KSP is running on Windows now.
And still some missing.
Can’t start my career save without the updated contract mods and Firespitter. Hope they come soon.
Here’s my new mod list, some more added because they finally got released for 1.1.2
Name URL
[+] [x] Science!
[+] 112GearFixer
[+] Achievements GitHub - malkuth1974/Achievements: Achievements Plugin for KSP
[+] ActionGroupsExtended20
[+] BetterBurnTime-1.4.2
[+] Chatterer http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/92324-0-24-2-Chatterer-v-0-6-1-Aug-31-2014
[+] Community Resource Pack GitHub - BobPalmer/CommunityResourcePack: The KSP Community Resource Pack
[+] Community_NavBall_Docking_Alignment_Indicator-1.0.1
[ ] CommunityResourcePack GitHub - BobPalmer/CommunityResourcePack: The KSP Community Resource Pack
[+] Contract Pack: Bases and Stations GitHub - severedsolo/KerbinSpaceStation: A contract pack for KSP, designed to replace the current Space Station Missions
[+] Contract Pack: Field Research GitHub - jrossignol/ContractPack-FieldResearch
[+] Contract Pack: RemoteTech GitHub - jrossignol/ContractPack-RemoteTech: KSP Contract Pack for the RemoteTech mod
[+] Contract Parser GitHub - DMagic1/KSP_Contract_Parser: A Kerbal Space Program addon for parsing the contract system and caching data
[+] ContractConfigurator GitHub - jrossignol/ContractConfigurator: A config file based solution for creating new contracts for Kerbal Space Program.
[+] CustomBarnKit
[+] DeadlyReentry GitHub - Starwaster/DeadlyReentry: Heat and force damage for KSP
[+] DistantObject_1.7.1
[+] ETT
[+] Ferram Aerospace Research GitHub - ferram4/Ferram-Aerospace-Research: Aerodynamics model for Kerbal Space Program
[+] Final Frontier http://spacedock.info/mod/580/Final%20Frontier
[+] Firespitter_20160425
[+] FreeEVA-0.6.0
[+] HabTech-0.1.6
[+] HyperEdit https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Ezriilc/HyperEdit/master/HyperEdit.version
[+] Impact GitHub - tomforwood/kerbal-impact
[+] InfernalRobotics https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MagicSmokeIndustries/InfernalRobotics/master/InfernalRobotics.version
[+] K2_Command_Pod-1.4
[+] KAS GitHub - ihsoft/KAS: Kerbal Attachment System
[+] Kerbal Engineer Redux http://kerbal.curseforge.com/projects/kerbal-engineer-redux
[+] Kerbal Joint Reinforcement GitHub - ferram4/Kerbal-Joint-Reinforcement: Physics stabilizer plugin for Kerbal Space Program
[+] KerbalAlarmClock GitHub - TriggerAu/KerbalAlarmClock: A time management and utility plugin for Kerbal Space Program
[+] KIS GitHub - ihsoft/KIS: Kerbal Inventory System
[+] kOS GitHub - KSP-KOS/KOS: Fully programmable autopilot mod for KSP. Originally By Nivekk
[+] Landertron-v0.13
[+] LandingHeight15
[+] Launch_Numbering-0.2.0
[+] ModularFlightIntegrator http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118088
[+] NavBallAdjustor-1.0
[ ] Orbital_Decay-1.2.1
[+] Orbital-Science GitHub - DMagic1/Orbital-Science: DMagic Orbital Science: KSP science parts and modules.
[+] ORIGAMI Antennas http://spacedock.info/mod/314/ORIGAMI%20Foldable%20antennas%20for%20RemoteTech%202
[+] Part Angle Display http://kerbal.curseforge.com/projects/part-angle-display
[+] PreciseNode-1.2.2
[+] Procedural Wings Releases · Crzyrndm/ProceduralWings · GitHub
[+] ProcFairings_3.16
[+] RealChute GitHub - ChrisViral/RealChute: Realistic parachutes for KSP
[+] RemoteTech GitHub - RemoteTechnologiesGroup/RemoteTech: Community developed continuation of Kerbal Space Program's RemoteTech mod.
[+] SCANsat GitHub - S-C-A-N/SCANsat: Real Scanning, Real Science, at Warp Speed!
[+] Science_Revisited_Revisited-1.4.0
[+] ScienceCrate
[+] Ship Manifest ShipManifest on SpaceDock
[+] SmartParts https://github.com/henrybauer/KerbalSmartParts/releases
[+] StockBugFixPlus.v1.1.2b.1
[+] Strategia GitHub - jrossignol/Strategia
[+] Surface_Experiment_Pack-v1.4.1
[+] TakeCommand http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/120740
[+] Thermal-Monitor GitHub - Crzyrndm/Thermal-Monitor
[+] Trajectories-v1.6.1
[+] TransferWindowPlanner Releases · TriggerAu/TransferWindowPlanner · GitHub
[+] USI Tools GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
[+] USI Tools GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
[+] USI Tools GitHub - BobPalmer/UmbraSpaceIndustries: The entire USI Constellation in one place!
[+] WarpDrive GitHub - BobPalmer/WarpDrive: A stand alone Alcubierre drive for KSP!
[+] WaypointManager GitHub - jrossignol/WaypointManager