Richard,
It was a thrill to meet you and your family at NURC.
Next year's game will be announced in October and most of us begin design and some building then. As you noticed, a lot of teams are still building in June, so the build season is quite long (compared to FIRST). We really do not do much NURC stuff during FIRST 6 week build season and around competition dates.
You are correct about the costs this year.
The ROV-in-a-Box is a good basic starter, especially the rookie year, to "get your feet wet". When you watch how many ROVs self destruct or perform poorly, a simple, ROV has advantages. Of course, everyone usually adds a feature or two.
Lots of building help in the technical manuals at
www.H2Orobots.org and everyone loves to help, share, and chat so feel free to contact us.
Hope to see your family team next June.
Allan