You know, one thing I've noticed in .18 is that it seems a lot more viable to build somewhat normally then .17 In .17 I had issues doing any missions beyond Kerbin orbit. In .18 it seems like you can build a lot more... normal?
I haven't done one asparagus design in .18 simply because you don't need to.
I have many launcher designs because of this experimentation and so far this has probably been my best one:
Its actually almost powerful enough to do Single-Stage-To-Orbit but runs out of fuel slightly before entering orbit which is actually a plus since I definitely don't want to be dragging that around in orbital maneuvers.