[Aignam]

Be only as complex as necessary. Don't get me wrong, certain features of your robot might be very complex, but the robot as a whole should be simple. Design it to do what it is meant to do. That being said, from my perspective, there are two types of robots. Robots meant to achieve high scores during the qualifying rounds, and robots meant to be moderately successful in the qualifying rounds but shine through in the elimination rounds. FIRST Robotics, whether purposely or inadvertently, was designed in such a manner that the two robots often complement each other. Sure, the robot that is designed to win during elimination rounds is an obvious pick, but it is being picked by the robots that played well during the qualifying rounds. From this perspective, any robot, whether defensive or offensive, whether designed to achieve high scores or be useful during the elimination rounds, can be successful, as long as it does whatever task it intends to do, and does it well. The task to do is relative to the robot you want to build. If you wanted to score high scores and be a top pick, this year one would want to build a stacking robot. If you wanted to be useful during the elimination rounds, a robot that can clear boxes and play defensively, then take the hill at the end of the match would be a great robot for the task. In conclusion, the task that you choose to accomplish is relative to the robot that you want to build. Be warned, though, it is quite often disadvantageous to build a do-everything robot.

::sigh:: Not quite sure if I nailed that question dead-on or said something completely tangential.