I'm a little confused, my TWR is crazy high for a typical low-tech rocket with SMURFF, to the point where my lower stage of a tall skinny rocket still had 3TWR. Is this typical? the DV and wet/dry seem totally right, in-line with mid-tech-tree RP1, but especially these early rockets have a whacky TWR.

Is it typical just to throttle down? (or in my case, asparagus staging without lighting engines early)? Does this weird imbalance go away later in the tech tree?

I know it's not much but i managed to complete the 30km stratospheric research contract. Went through many redesigns to shave off weight and and even kept small landing gear lol.

I'm thinking about starting a save with an eventual goal of building a space station like the ISS. I know that KSP is really weird with multiple docking ports or berthing ports and so I was wondering if it would be possible to essentially do a robot arm assembly of an ISS like station in KSP with the RP-1 parts. I know it would be possible if the shuttle carrying the parts wasn't docked to the station but what if it is docked. Experts please assist!