[KenWittlief]

opening the kit first seriously corrupts your thinking.

The first step of the engineering design cycle is to determine WHAT it is you need to do to win the game - this has NOTHING to do with what is in the kit of parts

keep the box closed - think outside the box of parts - when you know WHAT your team must do to score the most points, THEN you can start thinking about HOW you are going to do that.

for example - in last years game the big WHAT turned out to be getting to the wall as fast as possible, pushing boxes around, and dominating the top of the ramp at the end

if you are thinking about motors and actuators and cylinders at the WHAT stage, you are corrupting your design goals with implementation details.

If you decide that getting to the wall first is the most important thing your bot needs to do, then it doesnt matter whats in the box of parts, someHOW you will come up with a way to make it happen.