@ Thank you for these references!! I had initially thought these were more variable containers vs logic containers. Seems likely that this is the blind spot I needed some light shed on so MANY thanks :]
@jwatte love the insight you gave on how to approach logic assignment. An actor could likely be the best approach for me for some of the systems I have in mind to implement - considering I do want to keep network replication in mind for some of my upcoming systems! It felt counter intuitive to having these actors present in-game, but now I’m beginning to understand “in-world” is just a representation of what would otherwise be included “in scope” of a regular CPP program :] So thank you!
@Bino Ooooooo! Okay, this is exactly why I decided to post here! All three of you have given me some GREAT tools/leads to explore and solve what approach will be best suited for what I want to accomplish. Subsytems ALSO seem like extremely relevant to what I’m looking to do. Lots more to learn - but I greatly appreciate your advice 
THANK YOU UNREAL COMMUNITY - So happy to finally be pushing my programming education to the forefront of my efforts atm!
Best,
-Chase