Excellent points. Thanks for the reply :). Im now getting more into environment work and it is hard to sometimes take it one step at the time, like you did you know. Often when you want to start something you see stepp 99 or problem 99 instead of step 1 first and then step 2. If you catch my drift ;)
I've only been mapping for the Source engine right now. I havne't tried creating meshes for the engine yet. Source *should* support up to 99 UV channels. We're using the Gamebryo engine to develop our current title (PC,console), and it supports up to 99 UV channels. Source of course, is far more advanced.