I encountered a similar issue and found that the cause was me enabling/disabling plugins. Even if they aren’t custom plugins. I disabled some default plugins that come enabled and that made it require VS for those that didn’t have it (Client).
Did you tweak anything with plugins?
I’ve started using 4.18. My scene was all ready to package the project as Development but when I clicked Windows 64 it told me I need Visual Studio.
I can’t use VS. I only use blueprints.
I opened a blank template and it’s still telling me the same thing. 4.17 works fine.
I’ve searched online but can’t find anyone experiencing the same problem. Does anyone have any suggestions please?
That worked!
I had one plugin installed that I didn’t have in 4.17. Disabling it allowed me to package the project. Thank you 
No worries Glad I could help!