I don’t have enough knowledge to answer all the questions, so I’ll stick to what I can tell you for sure:
1 - Yes! I found things in UE to be far easier to prototype than in Unity. Also, this engine desperately needs a clean, well-made demo for the open-world genre.
3 - Don’t get discouraged by ARK, Conan Exiles or PlayerUnknown. All 3 have issues which only a complete UE4 beginner would cause. One particular example is the improper handling of replication (out of sync objects and/or server overloads; see drops in PUBG and trilobytes in ARK; those are easily avoidable if you watch the 1h replication stream or follow the numerous tutorials available). Another example is that PUBG handles hit detection client-side which leads to many people saying the game is a cheaters’ paradise (and it is; except that’s not caused by UE, it’s caused by someone’s stupid implementation; unplug the internet cable, shoot someone who appears to be lagging or standing still, reconnect, get credit; they never know what hit them). ARK’s team is mostly focused on art (which is, indeed, awesome) and promoting the game. PUBG claims they worked with 30-40 people for 1 year (seriously…?). So, again, ignore those horrible examples, don’t compromise and you’ll be fine.
4 - If that programmer’s job is only going to be proper networking, provided they work full-time, I’d say definitely yes.
6 - Yes. There’s only 1 simple, but major thing that tutorials almost never point out and will save you a lot of trouble if you know it early on: the word “plugin” defines a structure/entity which may contain .uasset’s and modules, but it’s incorrect to say they directly contain code (modules contain code only, plugins contain modules and/or .uasset’s). A plugin is basically a list which tells the engine to load one or more modules and (optionally) some .uasset’s. The actual code is contained inside each module and each module has an interface which contains hooks for when the module is loaded/unloaded. The .uasset files are located in a “Content” folder located directly inside your plugin and thus it is technically correct to say a plugin contains .uasset’s.
