In this industry the barriers to entry aren't what they used to be 2 decades ago, so not surprising. Having said that, $75k is a more than respectable salary to me.
Nah, with a complex and detailed decal on the front, and given that (in an FPS anyway) it'd be something the player could run right up to, it's definitely worth spending a 1024x1024 on!
it's a buzzword it emerged from a specific authoring approach (generally for hard surface assets) made popular by the star citizen environment team that favours speed over basically any other consideration. roughly this: instead of baking a unique normal map etc for your object, you model most of the information and apply…
Looks awesome, Agree with @teodar23 and @JamesBrisnehan , also Decals for dirt and grim on the bottom of the buildings would help. They are very clean,