Important functions of a first robot?

[Ianworld]

This season might have just come to a close but i'm already planning for next year. I've already started drawing up plans for my teams drive train next year and we plan to build it during the summer. We went all out this year and tried to build a vector drive in the 6 weeks but it got scrapped competition day. It came down to the fact that we had no practice with any of the parts of our robot. So after looking at the past games i came up with this drive train. It is slightly different from anything i've seen before.

Number one... i've scrapped the idea of turning. Its a waste of time i think

Number two... It had to be faster and stronger than any other robot.

Number three... Use under 4 motors.

Impossible... i think not

Basically i saw i team that used a planetary gear box with two inputs and one output. The RPM's from the two inputs are additve so it allows two motors to put out 300 + 250 rpm for 550 rpm with all the power of both motors or the opposite 300 - 250 rpm for 50 rpm. Using that and some nice programming you can be just strong enough to push anyone around or use all your power for speed.

I have the output from that going to all four wheels. no turning because all wheels have the same input. All the wheels though are mounted on a turning bracket powered by another motor. I can't wait to construct it. I then plan to put a turret on the robot(how thats going to work i'm not up to yet.) Two sets of chains are going to be traveling around the side of the robot in otherwords. It uses just 2 motors for powering all 4 wheels and uses just one motor for steering the wheels. I suppose one will be used for the turret.

What i wantd was input from anyone who has tried to do a system similar to this? How did it work? Pitfalls? Problems? Does that gearbox system work well, or is it terribly inefficient?

Also for the people who have seen competitions for many years? would this work generally in most years? Have teams usually needed a lot of power? Has it been usefull to be able to drive in any direction? Is it a good idea to build a working complex drivetrain like this before you know what the game is going to be?

Better ideas on what do with my time?

Any and all input would be appreciated.