I think people have pretty well pushed the limits of what a mindstorms can do. The software doesn't let you get into the details of how it does anything. There is a little hope in that people have made lower level software for it, but your ports are still pretty limited. What mindstorms do you have?
I do agree with Sceadwian, even a very simple dev kit, like an arduino, could do far more with far less adaptation. They may be a little more advanced, but since you don't need complicated and iffy workarounds to get it to do stuff it probably works out to being easier. The mindstorms kits are only going to be easier if you want to make very simple bots, like ones that drive till they hit a wall, back up, turn around and drive some more.